Sailing the Canaries with Sail the Canaries
McGloughlin Family - Sailing Mac Mac - L/R Robin, Dee, Zacc and Finley
In March 2020, my wife Dee and I had just boarded a plane, bound for Fuerteventura when I received a text from Alex Moreham. “Don’t board the plane, the Spanish ports are all closing on Monday” she said! So - we made are excuses, luggage was off-loaded along with us, the flight was then delayed, but we were on our way home. This was he start of the Covid19 pandemic.
I had first contacted Alex in September 2019 as we fancied a bit of professional sail raining (in the heat) alongside our normal sailing partners Ian and Judith.
Sail the Canaries is a small, family business, owned by Clive & Alex Moreham and together they run an RYA approved Training School out of Corralejo in Fuerteventura. Covid19 as we know stopped all in its tracks, so it was exactly two years later that we finally made it Corralejo, although this time with our two sons, Zacc (22) and Finley (20).
Our own sailing experience was very mixed. I am 59 years old and did my Yachtmaster in 1983 (unfortunately there is no official record of this as not only was it before the internet and GPS, it was also before the RYA kept records). Dee has been sailing with me since 1996, whilst Zacc and Finley were on board from toddler stage. However, none of them ever had any formal training, with the vast majority of their combined experience being onboard bareboat charter yachts in Turkey annually over the past 20+ years.
None of them actually knew “how” to sail a yacht!!!
Anyway - arriving at last in Fueterventura, we were met by the charismatic Jules, the owner of The Blue Rock Bar in Corralejo, who doubles jobs, doing transfer runs to the sail school and back. We met the ever helpful Alex upon arrival, who led us to our home for the week, a Bavaria 37 called “Veronica Gomera”. We dumped the bags and headed up to a bar at the head of the Marina and got to meet Clive, who gave us a rough idea of the itinerary for the week and what to expect.
Saturday night we were left to our own devices and took the time to explore Corralejo.
Sunday morning 1000hrs was when we first met Mark Scrancher - our instructor for the week. He spent the first hour drilling down into our hopes and aspirations for the week. Our plan was very simple after that - he knew we had sailed together for many many years but he was now going to teach us how to sail together!!
We spent until mid afternoon, going through everything down below from the light switches to the heads and engine checks to grb bags! Leaving Corralejo behind we set sail on the short hop across La Bocayna to Lanzarote for the night.
The next morning was all about boat handling within the confines of a Marina were full participation was required, before setting sail once again. By Tuesday morning we were starting to feel like things were coming together and by midweek the ever engaging Mark had us pretty well drilled.
A little competivness was introduced as we raced around the cans, knot tying competitions and lassoing floating buoys - it all got very tasty! The crew were learning how to sail together and understanding what their roles entailed, it was a joy to be part of. Meanwhile Mark was teaching me how to handle the boat if short handed, which I fund incredibly fulfilling.
More boat handling, anchoring, reefing, night sail and navigation throughout the week and a wonderful triple reef sail in 30 knot winds back to Fuerteventura was my own particular highlight.
Most satisfying of all was the few hours of Man Overboard Drills that everyone got to do on that last morning - the smiles were beaming and sense of achievement all round was palpable.
A final circuit of Isla de Lobos with an anchorage stop for lunch and then back to base for a debrief and a scrub down of the boat!
Robin, Finley, Zacc, Mark and Dee
Alex and Clive met us and Mark presented a very proud Dee, Zacc and Finley with their Competent Crew Certificates and I got my Coastal Skippers (which means I now have something on record with the RYA at last). The Morehams run a wonderful sail school, poor Alex had to deal with our double postponements thanks to travel restrictions, nothing was ever too much bother for her and we had little to worry about at all.
Short video of our week onboard with our instructor Mark Scrancher
Massive kudos to Mark our instructor, who moulded our pretty head strong family into a working crew, but more importantly, taught us some awesome life skills and brought the joy of sailing home to Dee, Zacc and Finley - he will forever be in our hearts.
Friday night at our own family debrief over a meal, we all agreed that even though we had over 7000 plus miles each sailing together, this was without a shadow of doubt the best family experience we had ever simultaneously!
Book a course with www.sailthecanaries.com I promise you, you will not regret it
