Not so gran canaria

Buenos noches! Last night we decided not to go to the posh dinner (although it was only a smart causal night anyway) and went to the Indian themed buffet in the Belvedere. Battle LA was the in-cabin movie so we watched that. Very poor.

Whilst in the Belvedere, we noticed that we could still see land - in fact we could see both Tenerife AND Gran Canaria. According to the chart posted in the Neptune bar (which we refer to regularly) we should have left Tenerife, turned left, sailed north and then turned right, right again and then a third right into Las Palmas, Gran Canaria (not to be confused with La Palma, the other island). The Passenger Information Channel on our TV showed that we were, as we suspected, actually travelling south between the two islands. Perplexed.

This means we travelled into Las Palmas by circumnavigating round the south of Gran Canaria not the north, doubling the distance we need to travel. Even so, we appeared to arrive pretty early! This is what happens when the deputy captain and second officer take charge. All night we could see the lights of Gran Canaria very clearly from our balcony (we are on port side). For part of the journey, if we could see > 100 miles from the starboard side of the ship, the next land would have been El Hierro!

Today we were on the 'Essence of Gran Canaria' tour so that we could go to the Bandama crater. That part of the tour lasted 15 mins and otherwise we spent the morning in a coach driving around the north of the island. They took us to a small village caller Teror, which was pretty but there was nothing there but a shop trying to flog perfume that the tour guide seemed to have a hand in. Then they took us to Aracas, where there was a pretty church similar in style to the cathedral in Vienna and, unusually, made of black stone. Very gothic. The tour ended with a drink and snack at a hotel - why - which cemented Victorias opinion that there's nowt else in Gran Canaria.

We were back to the ship by 1.15, and, since the only other recommendation we were given was a big shopping centre just off the dock, we headed back to the cabin for some sunbathing on the balcony. Victoria has slept all afternoon but Andrew, of course, made it for afternoon tea.

At 5.30 the captain made an announcement via the in-cabin system. This is not normal practice so we knew there it something important. He gave it as a good news bad news thing. Good news was the medical emergency delaying our departure was over. Bad news involved the UK weather.

We have been aware of the high winds and were mentally preparing for the journey home to be very choppy, however because we will be hitting it probably from tomorrow night onwards to Portugal, the ship has been told it would be impossible to dock in Oporto because it is a very open harbour and awkward approach, and if we did we would probably be delayed leaving and late back to Southampton.

However, they have arranged instead for us to stop in Vigo, Spain, but only for half a day - we need to try and get ahead of the weather coming UK-wards this weekend (just to warn you - the weather on Sky News has snow we see!!!). This is a huge bonus for us as it was Vigo or Lisbon that originally made us look at the Canary cruises. We haven't scoped out Vigo, but the Captain says we will receive a flyer about it later today and we can look it up on the web.

Whilst this means we still have not been to Portugal (unless you count Madeira), Thursday is a Portuguese public holiday and most places would be closed. Spain, however, is open for business! (we think).

Tonight we're going to see Rise of the Planet of the Apes in the cinema, so are just having the buffet dinner again.