Taniwani 2014 Madeira - Graciosa - Lanzarote

On April 30, Taniwani moved from its winter residence beneath the Madeira airport runway to its element and on to the marina Quinta do Lorde to do the remaining rigging work.

Once ready we made a trip along the shore of Madeira to anchor over night under the magnificent cliff of Cabo Girao. We had by then given up on the idea to have a short dash to Porto Santo, where we love to anchor at the wonderful bright sand beach. But the wind was very strong and exactly from Porto Santo, and so we dein't feel young enough any more to beat into wind and waves for a day, especially as the first trip in the year. In the lee of the island it was calm an comfortable anchoring facing the huge rock wall of Cabo Giroa. The new glass bottom vistor platform was right above us.

Next we went further west to the marina at Calheta where we spent three nights and used the opportunity to top up our provisions in the conveniently near Supermarket. 

We finally left Madeira in the morning of May 5 and had a quick run down to Graciosa in in strong north-north-easterly winds, where we arrived mid afternoon of the next day.

Graciosa is one of our favourite anchorages and one of the very few safe anchorages in the Canaries and so we stayed put for a whole week, touring the grandiose volcanic little island or driving the dinghy into town for some shopping or eating out.

Eventually, Taniwani moved on to Arrecife, the capital of Lanzarote, where a new marina is currently being built. While this is a nice place in the middle of a real town, strong winds in the harbour made our stay less pleasant and so we on moved the next day to the south of Lanzarote, to the marina Rubicon. From there we have been touring Lanzarote's many fascinating attractions. 

I keep having problems loading up pictures to this blog, so if you want to see some look at:

https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A15Uzl7VG5qyPA

We keep loading pictures to the above cloud stream, independently of the blog and more frequently.

Tomorrow, Thursday, we plan to move on to the island of La Palma and plan to stay at the main town of Santa Cruz for a few days. Then we think of heading down to the west side of Gomera where we also love to anchor at Valle Gran Rey. From there back to the western side of La Palma to check out the highly recommended marina in Tazacorte before heading off to the Azores from there.

More of this in a few weeks.