Lanzagrotty revisited and a chance encounter of the Nordhavn Europe kind

Since every attempt to have a break this autumn / winter had been an unmitigated mess, we were not optimistic that a trip we had booked to Lanzarote many weeks ago would really happen.We stayed in Toddlerville then at a stupid time in the morning, headed off in torrential rain to Bournemouth airport. It was the kind of weather that just makes you want to escape from the little island we live on to one way nicer. Sure enough, Lanzarote was, despite being a bit cloudy when we arrived 24C made up for it.. The view from the room balcony across to Fuerteventura looked good:

We stayed at our favourite hotel in Playa Blanca - well, it is actually a reasonable walk out of the town centre which is good as we then get some exercise, especially when walking further to Rubicon marina. Yes, we need our regular boat fix. We hadn't been to the hotel since covid times and the fish seemed to have grown a lot:

as did the turtles:

We had a thoroughly horrid little Kia Rio hire car with a most asthmatic 83 Bhp engine. It might have been advertised with 83 BHp but the torque was non-existent. Not at all competitive in the small car class. It also had a misfire when load was applied and that didn't help. Typical Canary Islands hire car really..... However, it was cheap (two weeks for the cost of three days in the UK!) and got us around the island OK. One must do thing is a visit to Arrecife, the capital, and a walk around the marina and seafront there. No nice trawler yachts, just this rather ugly (to our eyes) thing:

As Xmas was fast approaching, there was a huge tent on the seafront promenade containing a wonderfully detailed tableau of the island but in times long gone by:

The piglets and mum were pretty content:

and the camels were way less smelly than the real ones on the island:

There was even a working boatyard to enjoy:

All for free, all very enjoyable. We forced ourselves to go up to the 17th floor bistro area in the one tower block hotel on the island for cake, coffee and the views. Then we wandered around the town and admired how the critical services had been maintained after a neighbouring building had been demolished:

The cables were casually draped across the void to the next building standing. Impressive. 

Friends John and Irene had arrived at the hotel before us and were settled in. You can see how seriously the ladies took completion of the restaurant questionnaire: 

The rather empty red wine glasses in shot were for purely medicinal purposes of course.

On the second occasion we did the walk to Marina Rubicon, we witnessed the return of the international sailing teams who were based there for a training session. The windsurfers with foils that allowed them to pop up and ride above the water were scarily fast, although more "normal" as they got into the shelter of the harbour wall.

Fate took a hand. We stopped for the compulsory coffee and cake (we had walked for an hour and three quarters), then went to admire a Nordhavn 52 berthed there. We'd seen it all shut up on an earlier visit but this time there were signs of habitation. Doing the gawping thing, a dodgy looking Northern Irish guy walked up and said hello. Yes, Neil and Phil from Nordhavn Europe were there, handling a sea trial for a couple of prospective owners. We were all invited on board and got to meet the lovely Henk and Els, a Dutch couple who were there with their surveyor. 

Preparing for the sea trial took some time as the boat was "well secured" with a real cats cradle of lines:

Phil Roach was the deckhand, issuing instructions to the surveyor who  had drawn the short straw of being pontoon man to release all the lines:

Meanwhile Neil was suitably relaxed on the flybridge with the prospective new owners:

You can judge the relative stress levels involved.

The departure went well and the boat looked really good:

For the non Nordhavn geeks, the 52 is a stretched version of our N47 with a larger aft cockpit and a new flybridge and stack moulding. This one was a very tidy example. A few days later we had the pleasure of meeting Henk and Els for dinner and a chat, sharing the information we know about the boats and chatting about their cruising plans. Strange things that fate does, good things sometimes too. This was one of the good things.