Stormy weather in Las Palmas

As forecasted, the wind is now strongly blowing in Las Palmas.

Heavy cloud above the anchorage area yesterday night

Since several days already, people in the anchorage area were talking about this depression that was on its way towards the Canary islands. Everybody had its opinion on what was the right way to anchor or on which length the anchor chain should be. Several boats moved closer to the harbor wall in order to install the anchor in the bow and a rope to shore in the stern.  A little scepticle, we were looking at all this agitation without really understanding it. We already had quite a bit of wind in Viveiro in Spain, and except me beeing a little stressed, everything went well!

We had nevetheless decided to cancel our day of visits to stay in the boat. The wind was forecasted to increase between 12:00 and 18:00 and we wanted to be in the boat at this time. That was a wise decision. The wind picked up from nothing to 30 knots in less than half an hour, with impressive wind gusts. In all the boats around us, it was someone outside checking that the ship was still well anchored.

No problem for us, with 30 meters of chain and its "spade" anchor, l'Olonnois stayed well in place all night long. However, in this crowded anchorage area, knowing that our boat is well anchored doesn't make it safe. Nobody is protected from the neighbouring boat breaking its anchorage. In the first hours of the storm, we saw indeed several boats resetting the anchor or making way towards the harbor.

So here we are now, after a not so quiet night, having a lazy morning waiting for the wind to decrease so we could leave the boat alone. The plan is to drive south to visit the small village of Mogan and the south-west coast of the island. Let's see if we manage to do that today :-)