From the land of locusts to the island of fire and honey. At least our Navtex (which gives us electronic weather information and navigation warnings) told us a swarm of locusts was heading for the Canaries from Morocco, and if we spotted it would we please inform the authorities (call sign, fax no, etc). Fortunately we didn't spot it. We wondered whether our new sails would have survived a hundred thousand hungry locusts!

We made first land fall at Arrecife in Lanzarote. Margaret and Will had heard about the Canary islands because Stephen and Susan had visited them with various friends. The islands had been thought of as holiday camps but this turned out not to be the case at all, although of course there is an element of this here, since 75% of the G.D.P is from tourism.

All the Canary islands, so named because of the dogs (canine) found here by the spanish invaders in the 15th century when they conquered the islands, are volcanoes or remains of them. On Lanzarote, where we went on a tourist bus and had a ride on a camel, the latest part of the island was formed in 1730 - 1736 when more volcanoes gave the island an extra 100 square kilometers of land. Not necessarily the best way of gaining extra land!

The majority of the built environment in Lanzarote was influenced by just one man, the architect and artist Cesar Manriquee, who from the seventies to the nineties, during the boom in tourism, acted as a one man planner. As well as the architect of some very unusual and attractive buildings, one was built on top of the volcano with a barbecue naturally heated by the fires of the devil. Our architect friends would be envious of his position, since he insisted that all buildings outside Arrecife were to be a maximum of two stories high and painted white, with wood work of either blue, green or brown. This makes a very attractive countryside of little white villages set amongst the reddy brown peaks of the volcanoes, with here and there vineyards planted in the black ash. Each vine is set in a small depression in the ground and surrounded by a low wall constructed in pumice to prevent the winds blowing the vine out of the ground. Will thought the wine was not really top quality, but drank it anyway! especially the Rosada which we all seem to have taken to, nicely chilled in the boats fridge!

In Arrecife the buildings are no more than seven stories and once again white. The exception is the grand five star hotel, which is particularly opulent. We had dinner on the seventeenth (top) floor there, with our good friends Mike and Jill from Altair, who had been hostages to fortune like ourselves in Casablanca.

The dinner was exellent and not over expensive in comparison to Edinburgh. We were also treated to a fashion show by the young ladies who had been brought by their boyfriends from Mainland Spain for a holiday. The girls don't seem to wear much in Lanzarote in the evenings (or day time). Susan nearly looked out of fashion, but was still adjusting from the long sleeves and trousers of Morocco. Slits in skirts, or trousers laced at the side seem very popular here!

We landed at Fuerteventura, which is a bit barren on the coast, but the cliffs on the South Eastern part are spectacular with folded different coloured strata, plain for all to see. The only port we saw was a small marina of Puerto del Castillo, but they were very friendly. The harbour master reminded us of Mr McSporran on Gigha, since one moment he was taking our money for the marina berth, resplendant in white shirt and epaulet, and the next minute in a yellow shirt with captain birdseye hat taking a yellow submarine and tourists for a trip around and under the bay! I don't know how many other jobs he had, probably not as many as Mr McSporran. In all our travels so far we have not found positive comparison to Gigha (God's own island). If you haven't been there yet, you must, preferably in your own, or a friends boat, or on foot by the ferry from the Mull (don't take a car).

Gran Canaria was our next port of call to see our good friend Chris Fox at Puerto de Mogan on the South West coast. Chris had helped Will sail Atlantia back from Mallorca to Helensburgh in 2000 and at the same time via his mobile phone had purchased Hispaniola, his comfortable 45' ketch. He is considering selling it, if you are interested, after many miles of ocean sailing, he can be contacted through the R.F.Y.C handbook. We can definately recommend it as a good solid cruising yacht, (a bit like Atlantia, without so much wood)! Puerto de Mogan marina is very small but is run by a very friendly girl, Marie Therese, who is as helpful as possible in the crowded marina, given that November is the time the ARC leaves from Las Palmas to St Lucia and all the marinas in Gran Canaria are crowded out. Especially Las Palmas, which has to cater for 250 extra boats. All the NARCs (us, as a non ARC participant) have to scramble for places elsewhere. We were found a place after Will smiled sweetly and Chris had told Marie Therese what nice quiet gentle people the Scots are! We haven't dissillusioned her yet.

After a few days in Puerto de Mogan, we set sail for Las Galletas in Tenerife to pick up Stephen from the Southern airport there. He was to stay with us a for a week. We had a fabulous broad reach over to the island with the wind touching 30 knots. We were very comfortable under mizzen, reafed main and staysail. Regrettably as the sun sank, with a beautiful red sky in the west, so did our only good memories of Morocco. The gearbox had developed an oil leak and still wouldn't work, even with a further three pints of transmission oil down its thirsty throat! We sailed to the entrance of the harbour and anchored not twenty yards from the rocks. The trusted dinghy with four horse power outboard and a bit of anchor and rope work took us to the only pontoon in the very crowded harbour, where we moored stern to, alongside a very large tripper Catamaran. We were immediately told we couldn't moor there by some fishermen, and later by the night watchman on the Catamaran. We explained our difficulty and ignored them. Las Galletas has had a lot of money poured into the safety of the harbour by the EEC for the safe refuge of fishermen. The fishermen are allowed to use one side of the pontoon, while the areas Mr Big (who owns the Catamaran and hotels) uses the otherside to berth his own and friends' vessels. We never met the man despite asking to see him, I am sure he was charming! The captain of the Catamaran certainly was charming and saw our problem immediatley the next day. We promised to move when the wind abated from the force seven blowing across the harbour. Stephen was collected from the airport by taxi by Margaret and Susan, and was very welcome. He came bearing Earl Grey teabags as a present from Anne in his office and Christmas and birthday presents for Susan from Margaret's Parents. Thank you!

Our swiss friends from Sterenne, Chantel and Reto, were in Santa Cruz in Tenerife and came to visit the next day in a hire car. We had an excellent dinner in a local restaurant. The staff there could muster six languages including Russian! On the Sunday Chantal and Reto took Margaret, Stephen and Susan on a tour up the mountain. Besides the little Calderas, there is only one major peak on Tenerife (Pico de Tiede). The top is sometimes covered in snow despite its latitude. They all thought it was a bit cold, especially when they saw the school children wearing woolen hats!!

We were helped out of Las Galletas by some nice Dutch people. Our sail back to Puerto de Mogan was uneventful except it took us an extra 12 hours due to having no motor. The major dissapointment of the voyage was that we saw no dolphins, pilot whales, or sperm whales breaching, which we had seen in the last three weeks since Arrecife. There were no birds even, until the next morning when we saw some shearwaters gliding over the wave tops. Having told Stephen so much about the sealife we had almost taken for granted it was a shock when none appeared to prove our stories!

We have been in Puerto de Mogan since about the 16th November waiting for a new gearbox, which has eventually arrived from England and is an inch too long! It is not fitted yet but we are hoping of setting sail this friday, following almost exactly the same route that Christopher Colombus took to the Indies in 1492. In his three voyages his quickest time was 21 days. We hope our trip will be as quick! The weather has been mixed with a bit of rain (!) but moslty sunny at 29 degrees!

The honey. O yes. During Stephens stay with us we hired a car and following a game of crazy golf at Tauro we drove into the mountains for a spectacular trip on a single track and dirt roads around the crater rim.

We saw houses hollowed out of the rock but with normal facades, and were assured that the trogladites were alive and well.

We saw pine forests that reminded us of Scotland, and looked down on clouds in the valleys.

A stall was set out on a high corner manned by an old peasant lady. She was selling over ripe bananas and almond cake. She was also selling homemade honey. She made us taste to honey and showed us the beehives behind her. I suppose we did our bit for the local economy by buying it but 8 euros (£5.50) is a bit steep for a jar of honey, even if it is local. We haven't tasted it yet, only Susan really likes honey! If you are coming out to see us, we hope you like honey!

We have included a few of Susan's snaps. We hope you like them.

Love Atlantia

P.s. We can report a dinner of the Mogan branch of the Royal Forth Yacht Club onboard Atlantia. Past Commodore Rudd hosted (and cooked) the dinner attended by Mike, Mayla, Chris, Margaret and Susan, all members of one description or another. The baked Chiperones were washed down by a bottle of 1990 Chateau Lamouth Bordeaux. Those who attended declared the dinner a success!

P.p.s New crew member Kevin Ballantyne will help us across the Atlantic. We are pleased to welcome him aboard.