Date: Monday 18 October 2021
Position: 29° 13.035 N 13° 31.802’ W
Location: Isla Graciosa, Lanzarote, Spain
Distance Sailed during the week: 276 NM
Distance Sailed total: 3086 NM
Weather: 
, 25° (and 23° in the water)
Most popular on the menu: Banana Smoothie 
Animals spotted: Lizards, turtles, dolphins 
Comment of the week: “We don’t want to do more excursions with the car, we want to sail!”
Madeira, such a beautiful island! During the week we have tried to explore it as much as possible. We have driven all possible roads, stopped at one breathtaking view after another, done as many hikes that our legs could manage and swam in so many cool places.
We have never seen such a variety of nature that we have seen here. At one stop it looked like the limestone terrace Alvaret, just above sea level on the Swedish island Öland, but just some minutes later you realise that you are really high up and are actually looking down at the clouds below. One of many hikes we did was the hike from Areeiro to Ruivo. It was the most enjoyable with the steep cliffs and beautiful views, even though Atle struggled a little bit with all the high steps up and down.
Of course we also visited Funchal – Madeira’s capital and the sixth biggest city in Portugal. And even here you are surprised by the nature and the structure of the whole society. Every spot of land that could be utilized is utilized; houses, banana plants, roads, airport and wine plants in total symbiosis and harmony. In Funchal you also find tropical gardens; surprisingly the Monte Palace Tropical Garden was what the kids appreciated most in Funchal 
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We also had to say goodbye to a lot of friends during the week. Some we will meet in just a few weeks in Las Palmas. Other we will have to wait a bit longer to see again, and meet up with in the Caribbean.
After over a week in Madeira we are ready to set sail again. And yes, the damage to the mainsail has been repaired, and we added some extra reinforcements. The leg from Madeira to Lanzarote is almost 300 NM. This time we could not go downwind or reach and would have to go upwind the whole way. Luckily we could go close hauled and didn’t have to tack which would increase the distance we would have to sail by a lot. Our routing and expected passage time is getting more and more accurate and we decided to leave Madeira in the late afternoon so that we should arrive in the daytime two days later.
The anchor place we had chosen was supposed to be wonderful, but a little bit tricky. We had to find a place to drop our anchor in the sand and not on the patches of rocks. And for that manoeuvre, daylight is required. The leg was very easy, small waves, no other boats, all food prepared and no orcas or fishing nets to worry about. We have also found more routines for these longer passages – Feels promising for the future 
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After 43 hours we arrived at La Graciosa, Lanzarote and quickly found a nice spot to anchor at an absolutely stunning anchorage. Now we have some time to explore La Graciosa and Lanzarote, two more islands that we haven’t seen before.
Written by Susanna Edholm, edited by Hanna Ericksson
Liv Sailing 