Jungle Jim: Canary Islands to Caribbean

We made it to the Canary Islands just in time for a storm to blow through. That means we have more time to kill! So, we'll take a step back and show some more pictures of our sail from The Med to the Canaries. Jungle is cutting a path through the water. You can see some smudge marks on the side from the black rubber dock fenders at the Algierian port. They are basically old truck tires. A little hand buffing and the marks come right off.

The winds were very strong for parts of the sail south. Here we are, heavily reefed (sails rolled in) in gusty winds. We saw up to 40 kt winds. The winds had died during this photo. These two pictures are compliments of John Webb on S/V Freedonia. Fair winds Johnny boy.

And as winds do, they keep fading away ...

... Until you are motoring. This is another bloke we met on the high seas - Alex and his boat Who Nose.

Alex and I spent the evening getting introduced over the VHF radio and in the morning he motored up for a proper introduction. Alex is a great guy and we ended up chatting regularly (telling sea stories) during the sail to the Canaries.

Who Nose is a 55' custom built, one-of, Dutch made sloop. A beautiful sea going boat.

That is Alex with his First Mate Scotty preparing a fishing lure. Alex is from the UK and has lived on his boat for a long time in the Canary Islands, so lots of local knowledge. Scotty is from Australia and is touring around Europe. They met up in Gibraltar, so Scotty is assisting Alex with getting Who Nose back to the Canary Islands.

A big thumbs-up from Scotty.

Later on, it's Scotty at the helm.

Chilling out on the cruise.

Night is coming on, so it's time to end our face-to-face chat and separate our boats.

Aex has a great deal of knowledge on sailing around the Canaries, so we'll follow his lead down.

Sunset over Who Nose.

How's this for a blog transition? We made it to the Canaries. We landed on the island of Lanzarote and Marina Rubicon. Nice pool. Too bad it isn't pool weather.

A very nice harbor.

All the facilities we need.

And lots of boats.

First things first. It's time for dinner. Scotty joins me, Jenée and my brother Mike (just flown in) for a safe landing celebration dinner. Scotty spent a few days hanging with us and was great company.

Here is another abrupt transition for you - to the moon! The Canaries, and Lanzarote in particular are volcanic in origin. This is mostly volcano.

And of course, they have Volcano Chicken. I haven't had this, in let's see, ever!

The heat comes from down there.

This guy walks around dumping water down the flues and up comes steam - it's show time!

A closer look at the steam making dude.

This is most of the planet Earth's origin. A tad stark.

Of course, they have camel rides. What is a volcano without camels? I have no idea.

Unfortunately, our new friend Scotty leaves us today. Scotty is on his way to Capetown, South Africa to assist with delivery of a boat to Saint Marten, Caribbean. We hope to catch up with Scotty on the other side.