Besides enjoying a morning coffee at our new venue, Barlovento 326 café, where we don’t have to deal with numerous smokers, Roy also took a walk to the HiperDino to purchase a few items, but didn’t stay long, given that it was packed with ARC+ cruisers doing their last minute provisioning.
Then, since Roy’s costume for the upcoming Costume Party was ready, Elaine only had hers to “make”, although neither quite fit the theme, something we discovered too late, but they’ll do. It was only when Roy started to bake again, however, that we felt the first sign of life returning to normal on Paw Paw.
After a great night’s sleep, Roy was up early yesterday morning to enjoy his walk and to finish his baking efforts; freshly made English muffins, which he served for breakfast and went down like a treat.
Afterwards we both took a walk to the HiperDino to stretch our legs and to pick up a few last minute provisions we keep thinking about or worrying that we don’t have enough of something, before enjoying a coffee on our return to the marina.
Given Elaine’s arts and crafts day on Friday, to pass the afternoon, she continued those efforts to create the stencil for our “rock painting” outing with the ARC this week.
A light dinner onboard followed by sundowners with Lost Abbey (Lu and Jeff) wrapped up our day. It was also time to say our goodbyes to Lu and Jeff, given that they were setting sail with ARC+, all hoping to see each other again in the Caribbean.
Today Roy went for his morning walk again, returning with freshly baked croissants which we enjoyed with bacon for breakfast. However, although our day started on a good note, it wasn’t long before we discovered an old gremlin had resurfaced; the leak in our one fresh water tank, something we could actually have done without, especially having extra people onboard for our Atlantic passage. So, heads (aka bathrooms) were cleaned, showers were taken, etc to use the last of the water in the tank, following which it was removed to be repaired again.
By then it was time to walk to the entrance of the Las Palmas harbour to watch the start of the ARC+ rally and to give the crew off Lost Abbey a sendoff.
Something that has become increasingly obvious, though, since being on Gran Canaria Island, and today was no exception, is the number of large groups of young migrant men we’ve seen all around Las Palmas.
In the short time we’ve been here, news outlets have reported on numerous migrant boats being rescued in the Atlantic Ocean off the Canary Islands, arriving with anything from 500 to 1000 men, women and children onboard a single boat.
The Spanish coastguard said yesterday that the number of people arriving on the archipelago so far this year neared an all-time record posted in 2006. Sadly, the coastguard also said they had found two dead bodies among those rescued from four boats in the waters off El Hierro Island, the smallest and most westerly of the Canary Islands, while two others died later in hospital.
Apparently the number of arrivals has jumped recently as milder weather and calmer seas have made it more feasible to attempt the still perilous crossing from Africa.
Spain's Interior Ministry said on Thursday that a total of 30,705 undocumented migrants had reached the Canary Islands in the first 10 months of this year, representing a 111% increase from the same period in 2022. This figure compares with the full-year record of 31,678 migrants arriving on the Canary Islands in 2006 when other routes to Europe were blocked off. The Canary Islands accounted for the bulk of the 43,290 undocumented migrants arriving in Spain by sea last year.
Back onboard, a number of other yachts had filled the berths where ARC+ yachts had previously been, providing a whole new set of floating neighbours. To while away the rest of the day, Elaine enjoyed a chat to her sister in Ireland, before we walked to Allende Muella Deportivo to enjoy a sundowner, wrapping up our day. We did, however, check the Fleet Viewer to see how the ARC+ yachts were fairing as the forecast stronger winds and higher seas kicked in, noticing three yachts had turned back and returned to Las Palmas after experiencing problems. Not the best start to their adventure, but hopefully they will be underway again soon. To the rest of the fleet, we wish them fair winds and following seas, but not too boisterous.
