9. Las Palmas Marina 2013  

The marina in Las Palmas is one of the cheapest on the Canary Islands. It is well protected behind several layers of piers and has a modern shipyard with 70 ton travel lift. Many boats come here and stay for a long time. If you need new equipment for your boat or need something repaired, this is the place to go.

The marina has 1200 berths according to the staff. Service is good and prices low, especially if you stay for a longer time. We decided to stay at least a month ! (As it turned out we would stay much longer.)

Floating pontoons with electricity, WI-FI and water everywhere. Each pontoon has a door that opens if you have an electronic key card. If you don't have a card you can always pass the door some other way, check the girl on the right picture.

Our wind instrument needed a new cable. This was a good opportunity to fix that. Up the mast, pull the old cable out and in with the new one. Thanks for your help Bjorn. The view from 20 meters is astonishing !

Another job was the fitting of a new 100 watt solar panel. We now have 6 panels with a total rating of 360 Watts. A new larger regulator was fitted to cope with the increased power.

Las Palmas marina is closed during october/november for visiting boats not participating in the ARC race. From mid september though, it is allowed to anchor just outside the pier. You can even tie up your stern to the pier with long lines. Tide is only around two meters.

In mid october there were more than 50 boats anchoring. Dinghies are used to get ashore of course, but also to visit each other. Dinghy trafic can be heavy.

One day I found this beautiful sailing ship anchored outside the marina. It was the Swedish marine schoolship Gladan on its way to the Carribean.

Everything on Gladan is so beautiful. Thanks to the crew for letting us aboard.

Many interesting boats visit the marina in Las Palmas. To the left is Shtandart, a Russian replica of a warship from 1703 and to the right a maxi catamaran.

Here is single hull maxi yacht.

Felicita West was so big she had to stay in the commercial harbour outside the marina. She is said to be the biggest and fastest aluminium yacht in the world.

Here is one of the smallest. Martin in our dinghy and his 15 horsepower John Deere outboard (or is it a Johnsson/Evinrude).

If you look carefully on this picture you see a yacht without keel to the left. The keel rests on the ground behind a grey metal part in the middle of the picture. Check the bulb on the keel. A big part is missing ! This French boat was meant to participate in the ARC Race but ran aground close to Las Palmas and was damaged.

German Veronica arranged a Dutch treat (knytkalas) for Christmas. Many interesting dishes from all around the world. On new years eve Tove and I invited people to come to Bird of Passsage for a glass of champagne at 24.00.

Fridays at 20.00 is the time to meet Swedish sailors at Sailors bar. Here you can leave your cap as a souvenir. Final picture is a Christmas greeting from Johan, Tove, Martin and Gustav.