Island Swift Travels: Arrecife and Christmas by Lochlann

Arrecife, Lanzarote Christmas 2014

The evening we arrived in Arrecife, the main town of Lanzarote, we had to anchor on top of a rocky and stony seabed. This meant our anchor might drag, so Fin and I had to swim the anchor into place manually. The visibility was fabulous and the job was easy. We also put the fisherman's anchor out, just to make sure. Then we found a concret block in the right position for us, so we attached to that too! We were not going anywhere and now Mum would sleep well!

Growing on Lanzarote.

Lanzarote camels.

While in Funchal we had made mince meat. We always do this not he 5th Sunday before Christmas, then we make mince pies every Sunday until Christmas. Mum had forgotten the mincer, so we had to cut up the sultanas and then smash them in the pestle and mortar. The first mince pies were made in Graciosa and we shared them with the other English boats. The second mince pies were here in Arrecife and they were delicious! While eating mince pies and listening to Tolkien's 'Letters from Father Christmas', we made advent candles to burn over Christmas.

Making mincemeat on Stir Up Sunday in Madeira.

Some boats we had met in Graciosa came to Arrecife as well. Ben and Nicki came on Midnight, and Ben, Phillipa, Olive (3 yrs) and Alfie (1yr) on Danhu. We helped them to attach to concrete blocks, by diving down and attaching their lines.

Making friends with Olive and Alfe.

Mum had made us some advent strings at the beginning of December and each day we opened a new one and had to say where the object had come from. Each object was collected on our trip. It was amazing how often we got it right.

Advent string around the skylight

Advent string present

We went snorkeling every day and I put the sailing rig on the dinghy. I had a great time because there was a very strong wind and we found the dinghy was a better sailing dinghy than Mum had thought. I had a lesson from Mum, then I was on my own. I had to stay close to the boat and not gybe. This meant that I had really to know where the wind was coming from. One time Finbar nearly capsized the dingy by gybing accidentally.

Our very small christmas tree.

The night before christmas.

The countdown to Christmas day was more stressful than usual because we made a rule that we each had to make something for every other person, so everybody got at least three presents each. I made a canvas roll up pouch for Fin to keep his OU notes in. I made Mum a painted bamboo pen and pencil holder, and for Dad I made a rowing cushion so he doesn’t get a sore bum when rowing.

On Christmas Day I bounced out of bed at seven o'clock to find that Father Christmas had been (even though we were not at home). Then I went to wake up my lazy family. It took five minutes of jumping on them to wake them up. I collected my presents in my stocking while Fin got his and we both crawled into Mum and Dad's bunk. This was quite funny because there is not much space and hardly any headroom. But this is a tradition on Christmas morning and we insisted, so we all opened our presents together on Mum and Dad’s bed.

I received new drawing pens, a small Lego model, a new head torch, some new rubbers - all very useful, but the best present was from Mum and Dad, a Go Pro!!!!!!!!!

Leaping out of the crashing waves, Arrecife.

We went scuba diving on Christmas Day, and I tested my new Go Pro. When we had swam to just under the harbour wall, Fin started fiddling with his Go Pro. At the same moment I saw a rather large shark-shaped thing lying on the seabed right behind and underneath him. I was just wondering if I had the courage to go over and warn Fin when suddenly he turned around and executed a very comical, real-life 'double take' with an accompanying jerk.

Christmas morning swim

Christmas morning swim.

Christmas day

Christmas day.

There was an Angel Shark lying camouflaged on the bottom of the sea. On Fin’s fish chart it was in the “Dangerous” section so we kept our distance as we filmed it. I managed to get a moderately clear picture of the shark but I wasn’t close enough to really get a good one. We saw it again the next day but this time it was moving about and we tried to follow but it was too fast. After we chased it Fin saw a Stingray swimming along the harbour wall but he soon lost it. The days after Christmas were lazy ones that included swimming, swimming and more swimming. On New Year’s Eve we played games in the evening, and later we did fire-stick, fire-poi and fire juggling on the harbour wall then stayed up until midnight. Mum was surprised that her phone said Happy New Year!!!!!!!