Three rugged sailors, me, and a mountain

Current location: Las Palmas, Gran Canaria

So many great decisions are happening right now, and they’re paying off big time. I landed in Gran Canaria surrounded with tourists ready to hit the beach but decided to head in the other direction, to the north where it’s rainier, colder and where Spanish is still the official language. On the way the bus drove passed a marina, and I made a mental note to pass by there later – Gran Canaria is one of the biggest sailor hubs for ocean crossers heading over the Atlantic to the Caribbean. I checked into this half-sketchy hostel, that conveniently enough had a fiesta planned for the night and also cost me the moderate price of 10 euros a night. My first day I had two things on my agenda: 1) Find a surf shop, and 2) Check out the marina. Finding a surf shop wasn’t very hard, and the waves that greeted me on the beach told me that I’d have a good time surfing tomorrow. When I arrived at the marina most shops were closed and there were not too many people around. At that point I wasn’t sure what I was trying to accomplish. I wanted information, but I didn’t even know where to start or what exactly I wanted to know. I stopped and asked a fisherman if people were living on their boats here. He that there were. I then asked, are people looking for crew? It just slipped out. I hadn’t even really thought about it. He said he had no idea - he was just a fisherman. Feeling a little silly, I started to head back. What did I expect, to just run into people navigating the world just because I was at the Marina? I saw three people coming off a dock and headed their way. I asked them the same questions. They said that in fact yes they lived on a bat, and yes, people sometimes look for crew for ocean crossings. I had hit the jackpot. One of them had just circumnavigated the world on a 5m boat, the other as it would later turn out is a professional sailor with more than a dozen Atlantic crossings under his belt. I explained that I would sail around the world but didn’t really know where to start. One of them said build your own boat. The other said come and have a road trip with us tomorrow in the mountains, we’re renting a car, and the third just smiled. So I guess I’m going mountain climbing with three sailors tomorrow.