Canary Islands – Gran Canaria

After about a week at Lanzarote it was time to move on to our next island, Gran Canaria. Here, we had organised a date with my brother Frans and his partner Lisetta from 3^rd to 11^th of November. Given that the marina in Las Palmas was full with ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) 2025 boats, we had booked a berth at Pasito Blanco in the south of the island. Frans and Lisetta had booked a bungalow nearby in Maspalomas.

What wind?

The weather forecast predicted good winds for three days of nice sailing. One day from Lanzarote to Fuerteventura, then one day along the east coast of Fuerteventura, followed by a 12h crossing from Fuerteventura to Gran Canaria.

Forecasts being forecasts, this turned into one day of nice sailing, one day of motor sailing, and one day of motoring, sigh… Even in in the Canary Islands’ infamous acceleration zones we got little if any wind!

Ocean Cruising Club BBQ

In a happy coïncidence we had been invited to a BBQ in Pasito Blanco on the 1^st of November, just two days before Frans and Lisetta arrived. This was organised by Agustin Martin, the Port Officer of the Ocean Cruising Club (OCC, an international club for long-distance sailors) in Pasito Blanco. We had become OCC members earlier in 2025 but had not yet met many other OCC boats, let alone joined an OCC event, so, we were keen to get to Pasito Blanco in time to join in.

Having arrived at the Pasito Blanco marina, we immediately set to preparing food to take along to the BBQ before walking over to Agustin’s place. Here, we met the crews of 10 or so sailing boats all of whom were also preparing to cross the Atlantic Ocean, either to the Caribbean or to Brazil, directly from the Canaries, via Cabo Verde, and some via Senegal and Gambia.

It was great to meet like-minded folk and compare notes on yachts and sailing long distances. Importantly too, there was loads of good food and drinks – it was a great afternoon!

Visitors

Party over, it was time to prepare for the main reason we had come to Gran Canaria, namely holidaying with Frans and Lisetta. We cleaned the boat, baked a bread, bought some groceries, and explored a walking path from our marina to Maspalomas.

This path left the public beach and went up, between flagged lines, through a golf-course to a tarmac road and down to Maspalomas. We had got about halfway through when we were stopped by a well dressed man who came whipping up to us in a golf cart and politely, but very firmly, told that this was not a public walkway. So, we returned to the marina, and without any safe walkways or bike paths between the two places, decided to rent a car.

Holidaying

The next week was spent exploring the island with Frans and Lisetta (see their ‘Guest blog’ that will come up next), and spending some relaxed time together.

We did a few nice excursions together, including a visit to a banana plantation. For FNQ residents a visit to a banana plantation wasn’t particularly new, but for Dutch folk it was an opportunity to see how this commonest of fruits is grown.

That said, the two FNQers learnt new tricks for looking after their own banana plants back home, we all got to see a huge, living collection of dozens of varieties of banana (very cool), and, to sample a range of banana products.

We also got our first taste of those Canary Island staples, red and green mojo sauces. We have been served mojo with pretty much every meal we’ve eaten in the Canaries since then. Delicious enough that we bought a mojo recipe book.

With expert driver Frans at the wheel, we also managed to circumnavigate the whole island by car and in doing so got to taking in some of the island’s most spectacular coastline in that golden late afternoon light. Photos? Nope, not one, we just enjoyed the scenery.

For the two of us, other highlights of these few days were a morning spent in the Museo Canario and a hike, or perhaps more accurately a leisurely wander, to a summit next to Pico de los Nieves.

By far the nicest parts of the island were the west coast and the high areas in the middle of the island. There the smothering feel of the mass tourism that drives the local economy felt distant, if not entirely absent, and one could enjoy the magnificent landscapes that characterize this island.

Sailing in warm weather

Frans and Lisetta also joined us for a day out on Yuma. This wasn’t their first time on Yuma. The previous time we had taken them out was on the Reitdiep canal in the Netherlands, on a cold and overcast April day. They hopped on board and, no sooner had we left the dock than the wind began to howl and the rain began to bucket down and did so pretty much up until they got off the boat. They shivered along bravely through it all but it was pretty obvious that it wasn’t the most fun they’d ever had.

So, I was particularly keen to take Frans and Lisetta out sailing on Yuma in warmer climes and, with any luck, spot some dolphins. I had kept an eye on the Marine Traffic app to see where the local dolphin boats went (they pretty much all went to the same location), and decided that, on a calm day, this was where we should go as well.

Dolphin watching

As luck would have it, on the day we went out, a tourist boat came out soon after us and once nearby, somehow magically attracted (maybe, just perhaps, fed) a large group of dolphins. A few Cory’s shearwaters also swooped down into the boat’s wake to investigate what was on offer.

We did not have any dolphin-food on board, but could still see the dolphins speeding along to get to the tourist boat and then milling around the boat for a short while before racing off to investigate…who knows what. It was brief but it was pretty spectacular, with dolphins leaping clear of the water in tandem just off our bow and as they zeroed in on the tourist boat – beautiful stuff!

Returning to the marina, Lisetta decided to show us how a real helmswoman steered a boat and she took the wheel for the entire trip back to the harbour. On the way our passage was graced with schools of flying fish that came bursting out of the water and glided smoothly and close above the waves in long slow arcs that spread away from us in different directions.

On the hard

Unfortunately, holidays come to an end. Frans and Lisetta packed up their bags, returned their rental car and flew back home to a wintery Netherlands. To snow! For us, it was time to put Yuma on the hard to deal with various maintenance issues and checks that have to be done on boats at regular intervals. This time around it included the rudder, the VHF and AIS antennae, the antifoul, the anodes, the, the, the… In the end, we stayed on the hard and in the water at Pasito Blanco for another week trying, with mixed success, to get the various jobs done.

With mixed success? Yes, there were a just a few trials and tribulations – David had to redo the work of the electronics guys who either didn’t finish bits of their job or did it incorrectly, the gas guy came and told us he’d be back before finally telling us that he wasn’t interested, another bloke never bothered to turn up, and to make it a memorable visit, the yard drove their heavy lift crane into the side of Yuma. They were as horrified as we were and did their best to make it up to us.

We did get some of our jobs done though and the yard did put a coat of antifoul on for us, so it wasn’t a complete waste of time.

Then it was time to push on to our next destination, El Hierro, and our next Dutch visitor, Emiel.