A Canary Island Resume

By Lucas Criens

After being a year in the Canary Islands, most of the time in Las Palmas, there are a few remarks left.

1) Sending Mail home goes perfect but receiving is a big problem, even registered mail gets lost. We received a note to collect our AIS Dongle by registered mail at the post office, but the mail was missing.

Out of the 14 parcels sent, we received only 6, 4 appeared to have been returned, the others were lost, even several ordered through the chandleries got lost. Were we the only ones? No, it’s quite commonly known that mail gets lost confirmed by people living here.

It is easier when you are home on holiday to buy and take all as excess baggage with you, then you are sure you have it on board and it’s not much more expensive because you can get your VAT back which pays for the excess baggage.

2) As we stayed in Marina La Luz near Las Palmas, a big city with all the pro’s and cons, every week there was a break in a boat – even a skipper was stabbed because the thief didn’t get what he wanted.

Part of the reason is that yachties block the gate lock because they are lazy or don’t want to request extra keys for €2 at the marina office.

3) Mainly the end of the year when there is heavy rainfall, chances are the bunker oil pits from the oil company Cepsa flow over in the harbor, with the wind northeast the oil slick blows to the yacht anchorage. Although Port Authorities are responsible for the harbor they have still not managed to control Cepsa’s oil spills and subsequent cleanups, and payment of the oil damage is hard to get. We must pay for the marina and about half for the anchorage, we must be insured so they are, but no return.