Puerto Mogan and onwards

Scruffbag and I enjoyed our fortnight in Puerto Mogan. It was fantastic to see our old friends Bernie and Gerda for a few days. We meet a lot of people sailing around as we do - most of them great company, but now and again you bump into people you really "click" with and for us Bernie and Gerda definitely fall into that  category so it was great to spend a couple of days with them and hopefully we will meet again before too long.

We did manage to get out of Puerto Mogan and do a couple of walks despite the tourist information office having no information on anything other than expensive organised trips.The scenery was stunning and made us want to return to the island later in the year en route for El Hierro and the Cape Verde Islands.

 We also met lots of  very sociable people here and St Patrick's night was celebrated with the Irish contingent with lots of singing of Irish songs (even by me)

Another place of note in the north of Gran Cansaia was the dunes of Maspalomas. The town itself is just another in a string of tourist resorts without a trace of Canarian culture (or prices) but the dunes are a Unesco heritage site and are certainly worth a visit. Maspalomas is a gay holiday destination and, to reach the dues involves a walk along a long stretch of nudist beach. I have never seen so many todges in such a short space of time and yes they do get suntanned.

And now it's time to move on. On Saturday 31st March we set sail for Fuertaventura. We hoped to stay in Gran Tarajal but since we had had no luck in contacting them and were aware that 2 ships had sunk in the harbour during storm Emma, spilling diesel and causing environmental problems, we had contingency pans for a nearby anchorage.