After another windless day we motored into Mogane on Gran Canaria. On discovering there was insufficient space in the harbour we raced STS Stavros S Niarchos to the best anchorage and we won! Harbour/Anchor watches were hastily rearranged; Doti boats were lowered and many people were soon heading ashore SAS style which impressed James (Dragon Lady's son) and provided Alan with 'yet another experience of a lifetime'.
Mogane is a pretty little village, obviously popular with the yachting fraternity, the harbour was crammed with expensive yachts from many parts of the world and a yellow submarine! this was a glass bottomed submersible that does trips around the bay. After swims, meals,drinks and icecreams ashore all were safely back on board by 21:30 (ish) with some lucky people on anchor watch through the night to ensure we didn't get tangled up with STS Stavros Niarchos.
Next day yet another blue sky morning we attempted to sail off the anchor but as a shoal of fish overtook us the captain admitted defeat and reluctantly switched the engines on. Three 'lucky' volunteers were press ganged to hand scrub the focsle decks it was very greasy (thank you Bill, Mick and Colin and BMs)!
Suddenly we felt a wisp of a breeze then almost a gust and swiftly set soomes sails enthusiastically and for four hours managed approximately 2 knots per hour.
During this time we were the main tourist attraction for southern Gran Canaria and were constantly buzzed by noisy speed boats, these must be the mopeds of the sea.
After a spot of afternoon tea we were educated and entertained by Steve B-T and James who were given the task of explaining and demonstrating a log (an old fashioned way of working out a vessle's speed) a with working model.With some audience participation the speed calculated was near on exact, this is bound to bode well for the leadership at sea lads.
After about four hours sailing we eventually dropped sail to motor on to the evenings anchorage at Penauga after another super day.