Following a number of incidents when cruising boats have been unable to successfully gain entry to harbors in the Canaries, Oliver Solanas Heinrichs – founder of 8islas.com and representative for a number of cruising associations in the Canaries – has sent some useful guidelines.

Published 3 years ago

Fuerteventura:

We do not recommend sailors try to book berths through “reservation/booking platforms”.

These booking platforms – a lot of the time – are not updated, in this case, all vessels are being diverted to Gran Canaria directly.

Yesterday friends were advised that a booking was not possible in Fuerteventura stating that the marina was fully booked. I knew that there was a lot of space available and contacted the marina authorities directly, who confirmed that there was space and our friends were given a berth.

In Puerto Rosario, the capital of Fuerteventura, you can now find new pontoons with electricity, water, security and a fuel station. It can take any draft or size of boat and the approximate price of the marina is 13€ ( yes 13 euros ) for a 38ft boat. Call them on approach on Channel 09.

This marina belongs to Puertos del Estado, the Spanish government, the same as in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. It’s a perfect place to stop as the marina is in the middle of town just a 5 minute walk from a supermarket and shopping mall and 10 minutes from the airport. 

If you stay only 1 day, the marina police will deal with the paperwork. If you stay longer, you are advised to go to the harbor office, on the other side of the marina ( north ).

As said, for bookings send an email to [email protected]

Corralejo in the north, and Morro Jable in the south are most of the time full, and Gran Tarajal would be your next stop sailing south. There is almost always space there and the friendly security staff will guide you in.

Other Canarian Harbors belonging to the Canarian Government:

Following an incident in La Graciosa (north of Lanzarote) – belonging to Puertos Canarios – where a Polish Catamaran was refused entry and ended up on the rocks with its 2 senior crew members, many sailors are sceptic about entering these harbors.

Anavre [https://anavre.org/], the Spanish Cruising association, has been advised and they are dealing with this.

Many sailors have reported to us that booking a berth at these harbors is senseless, as most of the time they don’t get a reply or finally get an answer when they have already left. The new app for booking a berth, also seems of no use. But there is a reason behind this.

Harbor officials only work from Monday to Friday, 0800 to 1500, and the rest of the time the marina is managed by the security staff. Most security staff don’t have access to the app, so it’s like a lottery. Most of the time you will come across friendly staff that welcome you, others will ask you for a booking, and others will just refuse entry with no apparent reason.

But, maybe you are the lucky one that entered on Friday afternoon and left on Sunday and just got a friendly smile from the security staff.

Their website is www.puertoscanarios.es, where you can also download the app.

You can also send an email to [email protected]

Make sure that no one other than the owner fills in the request because otherwise they reject the entire form and will not contact you to tell you.

Oliver Solanas Heinrichs
[email protected]
www.8islas.com
8islas Group was founded in 2013 as an aid to Bluewater sailors that arrive in the Canary Islands. 

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The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of Noonsite.com or World Cruising Club.