This is the journey of a husband and wife with nearly grown up children who have been boating for only four years.  We own an Elling E4 semi-displacement boat, built by Neptune Marine in Holland, which we bought in 2004. 

Our planned journey takes us around all of the islands in the Canaries.  Starting on the south coast of Lanzarote, we sail directly to Las Palmas in Gran Canaria (a distance 96 miles).  From there we progress round to the south west side of Gran Canaria to a place called Puerto Mogan.  This is our jump-off point for our voyage to Los Gigantes in Tenerife (70 miles).  We've chosen this port, because it is perfectly placed for the short journey across to San Sebastian on the island of La Gomera, which is in turn well placed for the trip to Puerto de la Estaca on the island of Hierro (a total of 65 miles).

From Hierro, we sail pretty much due north to Santa Cruz in La Palma (53 miles) and then 100 miles due east across, back to Tenerife and the port of Santa Cruz (not a typo - it's the same name as the port in La Palma - which equally should not be confused with Las Palmas in Gran Canaria!!). 

From here we return to Gran Canaria (54 miles), before moving on to the marina on the east coast of Fuertaventura at Puerto del Castillo (93 miles).  On the last leg, we journey to Puerto Calero on the east coast of Lanzarote before heading north to the island of Graciosa (70 miles) and from here we effectively circumnavigate Lanzarote by sailing 40 miles down the west coast of the island, to return finally to our journey's start point at our 'plank in the sun' at Marina Rubicon in Playa Blanca.

The whole journey is approximately 800 miles, nowhere near as far as our voyage last year, but far enough!  It'll be a challenge for us, our boat Jamyla and for the numerous staff at various ports and marinas helping us to land with hopefully some degree of dignity. 

There are difficulties, many of the marinas are small and tight for our size of boat, we're going to have to anchor for the night in some places (which we haven't done before), there are the infamous 'wind acceleration zones' around the Canaries which can apparently turn an otherwise balmy day into a force 7 'gale' in the time it takes to flick a light switch and there's limited weather information for some parts of the Canaries.  All in all it shapes up to be some experience - we look forward to it (ish!).

My husband, whilst having been successful in business, has already suffered three heart attacks, can’t swim, can’t cook, can’t stand heights or confined spaces, is prone to sea sickness and has the mechanical engineering dexterity of a six year old. 

Me, on the other hand, never gets seasick, likes to cook, could have swum for England and am reasonably fluent in French and Spanish.  However, he’s the one who is creative, stays calm, views things positively and lives for each day; I'm the one who sometimes gets flustered, is prone to getting my left and right the wrong way round but is more sensible, cautious and pragmatic and has flashes of ingenuity to deal with problems that were only solutions in disguise.

Out of the blue and on a whim, we bought a berth at the Marina Rubicon, just outside of Playa Blanca in Lanzarote and, despite our lack of boating experience, last year we sailed our boat all the way from Aalst in Holland to Lanzarote.  The voyage included a non-stop crossing of the Bay of Biscay and a 600 mile Atlantic passage from Portugal to Lanzarote. 

In a series of articles written throughout 2006 by my other half, Keith, in Motor Boat & Yachting, the story unfolded as to how we carried out the planning of this adventure, how we prepared for the journey, what places we visited, as well as what happened along the journey’s way to both the boat and us en route to Lanzarote.

So now we're here, in another fine mess that my husbands' got us into, what happens next?  Apparently in 2007 we're going to visit every island in the Canaries. 

Doubtless it will not go smoothly, but whatever happens, more articles, scheduled for publication later this year, will tell the ongoing story of our adventures - a story that we hope will continue to provide added confidence and possibly inspiration to those seeking to widen their horizon of sailing experience. 

Bon Voyage!

Valerie.