Playa Franceso

A week ago, we anchored in the quiet bay of Playa Francesa on Isla Graciosa, thinking maybe 3 or 4 nights here.  6 nights later we do not want to leave as we have fallen in love with this quiet little corner of Canary Islands where time passes by without realising.  There is so much freedom in having a good anchorage.  We jump off the boat for a swim, can see straight to the sandy bottom 9 m below, swim to shore or back to the boat.  We are now well rested and ready for many things tomorrow, including moving on to the next marina and starting boat school.

We arrived here last Tuesday 3^rd October.  On Wednesday we slept late, called home and then head to shore.  Time to walk on Terra Firma once more.  There was also a volcano to climb, well an old volcano.  We climbed just over 300 m above sea level to the rim of the old volcano to look down over the bay, with some relief that the anchor was still holding 😉.  It was a steep climb on scree slope (Adam would have loved it!) and hot in the sun, but a gentle breeze off the ocean kept us cool.  As we made our way back down we noticed the dinghy had turned sideways.  Another learning.  Dave ran back to the beach ahead of us to rescue the dinghy and make sure we weren’t swimming back to the boat for the rest of this adventure.

Walking the rim of the volcano

 

On top of the geodetic pillar

Thursday was a day of work on the boat – washing, cleaning and swimming.  Around lunch time we had a visit from Sandra and Noah who are on the German boat Tavula, another catamaran but hand built by the skipper, Tobias (impressive!).  Sandra wondered if the girls would like to come to their boat to meet Nele who is 11 years old too!  Two excited girls went off with their dad to meet new friends.  Later that evening we invited the family over for a drink and had an entertaining few hours discussing catamarans, sailing and life.

Boats at anchor in Playa Francesa

On Friday it was time to meet some of the cruising community in the bay and for the kids to meet some more kids.  We were invited to the 9^th birthday party of Hampus from Swedish boat Indian Summer at 11am on the beach.  The kids timidly made their way to the beach.  It took a little time for them to find their feet, but soon enough they started to feel more comfortable and played some games with the other kids.  There were three families each with two kids 9 and 11 years old.  Amazing! 

New friends on the beach

Hayley with Carlota

In the afternoon we went over to the boat Parati for afternoon tea.  Hayley and Megan had made an impressive sponge cake to take with us.  Simon and Nicola are friends of Lynn and Chris.  We knew they were in the Med and sailing to Canary Islands, but couldn’t believe it when they dropped anchor behind us on Tuesday.  It is a small world!

Hanging out at the boat

Another sunset

Saturday was another boat day.  Dave and Hayley motored into Caleta del Seba to get more drinking water.  They dropped Megan and I on the beach so that Megan could do some gymnastics on the beach while the tide was out. While they were in town they ran into Oliver and Carlota who they ended up towing back when their outboard failed to start.  Oliver and Carlota wrote the Cruising Guide to the Canary Islands (just published!), so they are good people to know.  They know all the good places to go! 

Sunday was a beautiful day.  We packed a picnic and hiked over to the other side of the island.  We were expecting a surf beach… there was surf but no beach.  The coastline was rocky – cooled lava flow formed interesting rock pools and rock shelves to climb around.  I had a swim in one of the rock pools, but the girls got a little freaked by the fish swimming in the pools, so they stayed out. 

Rock pools on the northern side of the island

Violin practice at last!

In the late afternoon Sandra dropped by to say ‘drinks on the beach’, so we motored in and spent the last of the daylight chatting with cruisers from Norway, Holland, USA, Germany, Sweden and UK.  The light had gone from the sky and the stars were out as we made our way back to our boat.  A fitting end to an enjoyable week at our first anchorage in Canary Islands.

Cruisers on the beach