Lanzarote Relocation

We have made many friends since moving to Lanzarote – and they don’t come much friendlier than Paul, Sally and Megan Cook… who moved to the Island in 2008. The Cook family chose to get here via a slightly different method to the rest of us – they sailed their luxury yacht down to Lanzarote.

We found out that they kept a diary of their journey, and they have very kindly agreed to allow us to publish it in here. So look out for more articles coming, just like this one, with the tales of their voyage.  The writing is shared between all three of them… so see if you can spot who is who.

Week One. The journey begins.

15th June 2008
Les Sables- d’Olonne  the sands of Olonne a seaside town on the west coast of France, by the Atlantic Ocean, the start and finish of the four yearly Vendee Globe round the world yacht race. This is the place where are boat has been delivered to.

Having arrived at Les Sables-d’Olonne, after leaving the UK and all our family, friends and previous life. We are now embarking on our big adventure and our new lifestyle, who knows if we are doing the right thing, but better to say we tried than to regret that we never did.

The yacht has boxes everywhere that need unpacking before we can even sleep, so a late night for all.

The next few days we spend preparing the yacht, for her long journey. We took a quick look around Les Sables- d’Olonne to see the entrance of the river.

18th June 2008
At midday, we start our sail to La Rochelle about 44 nautical miles away, a nice afternoon sail with variable winds force 2-6.
Les Minimes marina, what a marina! 3,300 berths, we moored up near the fueling dock on an end pontoon near to the entrance, the other marina that tempted us was further into the town but had less berths.

19th June until 20th June
The weather is cloudy but warm; we have taken a walk on the beach not the same with out the dog though. We take a ferryboat down the river to La Rochelle a beautiful old town dating back to the 10th century, so lots of history and old buildings, Megan’s favourite!!!! We walk around the markets and arch covered streets, with horse drawn carts passing by much to Megan’s delight. Everywhere is busy with tourists but I can see why it is so wonderful I could stay here for days. Glad we did not come to the other marina though not many berths and not much space to manoeuvre, however fantastic location.

21st June
On the move today, heading for Santander approx 180 nautical miles. We have decided to go no further down the French coast as there is an area that has a shooting range with certain restrictions, and the places along the coast are less accessible if the weather should alter. Therefore, our plan is to cut across the corner of the Bay of Biscay.

Megan’s view of the day …We left La Rochelle at about 6 am, I was still fast asleep until about mid morning and then I was still half-asleep after that! I did not do much at all that day except sleep, sleep and even more sleeping! Then I woke up and read a book, and then I just watched the waves for a while.  Dad was just about to put the cruising chute (the fancy sail) up it was about 7pm, then we saw about three dolphins at the back of the boat coming towards the front so me and dad went up to the front and saw these dolphins they were there for about 10 minutes then all of a sudden about 10 more dolphins joined them!

It was fabulous Dad and I thought they were common dolphins they made lots of squeaking noises! They stayed with us for about an hour. They disappeared as suddenly as they appeared! Then about 30 minutes later, we saw two white things in the distance at first they looked like dolphins but they did not move like dolphins or even look like dolphins we then presumed they were pilot whales. After that, nothing much happened. Then it was about half past 10 and it was just getting dark when we saw a flash in the distance! We thought nothing of it! Earlier in the day mum had looked at the weather report and it was obviously in French it said l’orage, which turned out to mean lightning. This became very true we were sailing through a channel with storms all around us! Therefore, I went to bed away from the thunder and lightning going on all around us I watched a few DVD’s then fell asleep.

The storm is spectacular all around us, we do see one other yacht but it is going in the other direction, rather scary being out in the Biscay in such a storm but we follow the stars which fortunately are on our course, and manage to dodge the worse of the storm. Good exercise on using the radar though as the storms show up clearly.

22nd June
Sailing across the southeastern corner of the Bay of Biscay, Megan was still asleep downstairs;  Paul and I are very tired and take it in turns to grab 30 minutes sleep every so often. The weather is calm but very cloudy and stormy looking.

Paul was asleep when I spot two pilot whales, so I wake him but they soon disappear.

Woke Megan up a bit later when several dolphins came for a play but they soon go. Nothing much else except we had to dodge a trawler that had a long line of nets out.

We eventually make it into Santander Marina, which is down a very long river, into a rather isolated Marina, noted as being on an industrial area, miles from anywhere, very true. It is right next door to the airport with Ryan Air in and out,  another one of their cheap flight destinations.
Once we are moored up at about 4pm we clean the boat, have a shower, eat and then sleep.

We have covered 180 nautical miles in variable winds of force 1-4 but with a very exhilarating storm.

This is also the end of our first week sailing.

Week two | Week Three

To find out more about the Cook family, and their yacht, “Moonchild”, you can visit their website: Sail Lanzarote

Sail Lanzarote operates bareboat charters out of Puerto Calero, as well as day trips. We have been lucky enough to go out on “Moonchild”, and coast around from the Rubicon Marina… past the Papagayo beaches, and into Puerto Calero.

Highly recommended!

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