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Arrival in Lanzarote
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I arrived in Lanzarote, Canary Islands fresh from Cape Town. After emailing my 'cousin' Geoff, he arranged to give me 6 weeks day-work on a big sailing yacht in the Canary Islands. I had decided that i wanted to sail around the world and this seemed like a great place to start.
My plan was to do the 6 weeks there, then come back home sort out my life in CT and find the best place to get a full-time job on a boat. As my friends & family know pretty well, this didn't quite work out that way...
After landing in Aricife, Lanzarote, i realised i was the only person on the whole plane who wasn't part of some package holiday with buses waiting to whisk me off to the hotel. This was reinforced when the buses picked them all up and left me & my meagre possesions in the local airport. The local info centre looked shocked when i asked for backpackers hostels - there was nothing like that here. "Surely there's a mistake, you MUST have booked somewhere to stay, no?"
Indeed, most of the hotels & apartments were fully booked so i was S#&t out of luck. I dragged my backpack over to the next town for hours and wandered around trying to find somewhere to stay. The responses ranged from pitying looks & regrets to outright laughter & guffaws. I started eying the comfy spots to set up my squatter-camp near the garbage site, but luckily managed to find a studio apartment in town.
I ended up using just about all my precious Euros to book the spot (was R11 - €1 back then) - had to survive the weekend on a loaf of bread and chips - ahh, good times!!!
Jogged the 6-odd kms to meet up with Geoff & the yacht in the next town. I arrived at the yacht and was pretty blown away by her size - she was 45m (145ft) long with 2 masts and LOADS of varnish. I was bit intimidated when i stood outside - I thought i must have had the wrong boat.
So i met the crew Nix & Craig, Geoff, Kat, Jutta, James & Diann. Little did i know that i would be spending years together with some of them. I've got to know most of them really well & i guess they know me pretty well... but that's another story!
I was the 'day-worker' - basically this means i did all the crap jobs that nobody else wanted. I scrubbed, cleaned, sanded, hauled, pushed, climbed, and cleaned all sorts of things on the boat. I was staying in a studio apartment in Puerto del Carmen, about 5km from the boat. I borrowed their fold-up bicycle and did the perilous journey each day.
We did some trips around the island on weekends or drank too much in the local pub. I discovered tapas, sunburnt englishmen & the confusion of driving on the right-hand side of the road.
After about 6 weeks, i was planning to leave when my favourite sanding-buddy, Di, convinced me that i should be looking for a yacht to cross the Atlantic with and carry on working in the Caribbean. At that stage, i wasn't even sure where the Caribbean was. All i knew about it was they had coconuts, steel drums & reggae!
I started looking around and found a 39' Halberg-Rassey who needed a 3rd crew member to cross the Atlantic to Antigua.I managed to covince him i was indeed a competent, tee-totaler, in-bed-by-nine, trustworthy sailor; even if i was south african! A few days later we were ready to hit the ocean...
Latest Comments (1)
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Richies (reply)
Apr 9, 2007 09:12 EST by noway
I would have had some sympathy of your paupers tale had you not had 'friends with yachts' . :-o
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