On Sunday we left Madeira at about 11am to head to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. The trip took just under two days. There was a good sailing wind which meant we sailed quite fast but there were some quite big waves which meant it was quite rolly at times. On the second day, a wave washed a small squid on deck!
Soon after leaving Madeira we sailed pasted the Islas Desertas which are a national park in Madeira. They are very barren and rocky and look very dramatic.
We both helped out with some night watches. The sky was very black and full of stars.
We arrived into Marina Rubicon in Lanzarote at about 1.30 on Tuesday morning. Everyone went to bed, then we got up and helped to wash down the boat.
We found a tiny baby flying fish on deck. In the afternoon we had Tapas for lunch.
Then went to the swimming pool at the marina.
We met another family who are also doing the ARC+ in November on their boat "Revelation of London" and played with their daughters Amelia and Lorelei in the pool. After dinner on board, we went to Amelia and Lorelei's boat to play while the grown ups had some drinks. We stayed up until about 10pm.
Yesterday (Wednesday) was Pilar's last day. We drove up to the volcano national park. You have to get in a bus that takes you through the volcanic landscape along some very narrow roads, past lots of jagged rocks. We saw several big craters from old volcanoes, a volcanic plug, and lots of volcanic rocks and sand of different types.
After the bus trip we saw some demonstrations of how hot the rock vents are. The rock was hot enough to make dry plants catch on fire, and they put water on the rock which boiled instantly and made a huge spout.
We had lunch at a cafe with a panoramic view over the volcanic landscape. Mummy, Daddy and Pilar had food that had been cooked on a grill over the natural hot rocks.
After the volcanos we went to the beach for a swim, then we dropped Pilar off at the airport. We really enjoyed having Pilar with us and were sad that she had to leave. When we got back to the marina we had another swim in the pool with Amelia and Lorelei, then went back to the boat for dinner.
We are planning to be in Lanzarote until next Thursday so we're looking forward to exploring more of the island over the next few days.
