Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

ARC Guide · Ports & Preparation

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has been the Atlantic sailor's staging post for centuries — Columbus stopped here in 1492 — and in the modern cruising calendar it has become one of the most capable offshore preparation ports in the world. Every autumn, somewhere between three and five hundred boats converge on Las Palmas to prepare for the Atlantic crossing, whether ARC-affiliated or independent. The result is an ecosystem of marine services, chandleries, boatyards, and informal knowledge networks that is genuinely hard to match anywhere else on the Atlantic circuit.

The ARC Marina: Real Club Náutico

The Real Club Náutico de Gran Canaria (RCNGC) is where the ARC rally village is based, and for ARC-registered boats it is the default first call on arrival. World Cruising Club takes over a dedicated section of the marina in the weeks before the start and sets up the rally office, the seminar tent, the social area, and the safety inspection station there. The marina itself is a traditional Spanish yacht club facility: clean, functional, reasonably well-equipped, with floating pontoons, shore power, water at the dock, and a fuel berth accessible to most keelboats. Diesel is available at the dock without the need to move to a commercial fuel station.

Expect the RCNGC to be full in the two weeks before the ARC start. Boats arriving in late October or early November generally find space; late arrivals in the final week before the start may be directed to an outside berth or the overflow marina. Book in advance through World Cruising Club's registration process, which coordinates marina allocation for the fleet.

Muelle Deportivo: The Practical Alternative

The Muelle Deportivo is Las Palmas's municipal marina, located a short walk from the RCNGC, and it functions as the practical overflow for the ARC fleet and for independent passagemakers. It is less prestigious and less expensive than the RCNGC, the facilities are basic but serviceable, and it has the advantage of a good fuel dock. Many long-term cruisers who want to keep costs down use the Muelle Deportivo for the majority of their Las Palmas stay and move to the RCNGC only for the final week of rally events. The walk to town provisioning is roughly comparable from both marinas.

Marina Las Palmas: Modern but Expensive

Marina Las Palmas, situated in the commercial port area of Puerto de la Luz, is the newest and most modern marina in the city — good floating pontoons, excellent shore power, a modern facilities block, security. It is also the most expensive option and it is physically more distant from the RCNGC rally village than the Muelle Deportivo. For boats that need a very large berth, or that want the cleanest marina infrastructure at any cost, it's worth knowing about. For most ARC boats, the RCNGC or Muelle Deportivo is the sensible choice.

Boatyards and Haul-Out

Las Palmas has multiple haul-out facilities, and this is one of the critical advantages of staging here rather than further south. The main boatyard options are the yards associated with the commercial port at Puerto de la Luz — larger travel lifts capable of handling the full range of keelboat sizes, covered work areas, and sand-blasting facilities for serious bottom jobs. Advance booking is essential from September onward; the October and November slot for ARC boats fills early. Book your haul-out date before you arrive in Las Palmas if you know you need one.

In addition to the major yards, there are smaller independent workshops specialising in rigging, electrics, sail repair, and engine service. Las Palmas has good Volvo Penta, Yanmar, and Beta marine service agents. The density of marine services in the city is comparable to major UK or French yacht centres, which is remarkable for a small Spanish city and entirely attributable to the ARC effect.

Chandleries

Nautica Atlantic is the best-known chandlery serving the ARC fleet — large stock, broadly European inventory, and staff who are used to equipping boats for Atlantic passages. They stock SSB components, marine electronics, safety gear (EPIRB, flares, life raft service agents), rope, blocks, and most of what you might need for pre-departure rigging work. There are several smaller chandleries and specialist shops near the marina area; prices are generally fair by European standards. If you need something unusual or technical — a specific autopilot part, an obscure instrument component — allow time to order from mainland Spain or a UK supplier, which typically takes four to seven days.

Provisioning: The Las Palmas Circuit

Las Palmas is a city of 380,000 people and the provisioning options reflect that scale. The Mercadona supermarket chain dominates for most staple provisioning — good prices, wide product range, familiar European brands, and a location within a manageable walk or taxi ride from the marina area. Mercadona's tinned goods, dried pasta and rice, UHT dairy, and long-life provisions are the foundation of most ARC provisioning. Carry bags and plan for multiple trips.

La Cumbre is the other large supermarket that most ARC crews visit, offering some products that Mercadona doesn't stock and a slightly different range of Spanish specialties. Both are open seven days a week with long hours through November.

The central market — the Mercado Central de Las Palmas — is worth one provisioning visit for fresh produce, local cheeses, dried goods, and the general experience of a working Spanish market. Local Canarian tomatoes, peppers, and root vegetables are excellent and good value. The cheese selection includes items that travel well and offer variety from the tinned goods that dominate the later weeks of the passage. For the final round of fresh provisioning in the last two days before departure, the central market and the produce stalls near the marina are the best source of the items — citrus, onions, garlic, root vegetables — that will last into the second week at sea.

Diesel, Water, and Gas

Diesel at the RCNGC and Muelle Deportivo fuel docks is among the better-priced in Europe — the Canary Islands have a favourable tax regime on fuel that makes Las Palmas significantly cheaper for fuel than mainland Spain, France, or the UK. Fill all tanks and jerry cans before departure; the passage is largely under sail but the last few hundred miles into the Caribbean often see light conditions, and the engine backup for charging in calms and for the final approach to Rodney Bay should not be marginal.

Fresh water at the dock is good quality. Fill every tank. Cooking gas is available from chandleries and from suppliers near the marina; most European fittings are straightforward, US-spec tanks require adapters or exchange at one of the few suppliers that handle them. Sort gas at least a week before departure, not the day before.

The Rally Village: Seminars, Briefings, and Social Events

World Cruising Club's rally village programme in Las Palmas is one of the genuine added values of entering the ARC. The seminar programme runs through the two weeks before the start and covers offshore medical emergencies, communications and position reporting, weather routing and Atlantic climatology, provisioning strategy, and equipment topics. The seminars are given by practitioners — offshore medics, professional weather routers, experienced ocean sailors — and even experienced passagemakers tend to find value in the meteorology briefings, which are specifically tailored to the current Atlantic weather pattern rather than generic advice.

The daily weather briefings in the final week before the start are given by a professional forecaster and represent a serious assessment of the Atlantic setup for that year's fleet. Pay attention to where the ITCZ currently sits south of Cape Verde, whether the northeast trades are established at 20°N or only filling in at 15°N, and what the forecaster says about the start day conditions. This is the most practically useful meteorological input you will receive before the crossing.

The social events — dockside barbecues, prize-giving for the Las Palmas marina time-trials, the Rum and Rhum Party, the Crew Parade — are well attended and create the community that carries through the passage. Most ARC veterans cite the Las Palmas atmosphere as a highlight of the whole experience, distinct from the crossing itself. The marina in the week before the start has an energy that is hard to describe and impossible to miss.

The Canary Islands for Waiting Cruisers

Most ARC boats arrive in the Canaries with three to eight weeks before the start, and it would be a waste to spend all of it in the Las Palmas marina. The Canary Islands chain — Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, La Palma, La Gomera, and El Hierro — offers a range of cruising grounds for boats that want to explore before settling in to Las Palmas for the final preparations.

Lanzarote, the most northeasterly island, is many boats' first landfall after the passage from the Portuguese coast or Madeira. The marina at Puerto Calero is modern and comfortable; Puerto del Carmen marina is smaller but closer to the airport. The island itself is volcanic and dramatic — the Timanfaya lava fields are extraordinary. Fuerteventura, immediately south, is drier and windier — consistent swell and trade winds make it better for windsurfing than for sheltered anchorages, but there are quiet spots in the south. Tenerife offers Santa Cruz marina (large, commercial) and the attractive Los Gigantes cliffs on the west coast, plus the option of climbing Teide. La Palma, the most lush and green of the islands, has a good marina at Santa Cruz de La Palma and an atmosphere completely different from the tourist-developed eastern islands. La Gomera is small, steeply cliffed, and quiet — San Sebastián de la Gomera was Columbus's final port before the 1492 crossing, and the association gives it a particular resonance for Atlantic sailors.

Anchorages in the Canaries

The Canaries are generally not a destination for sheltered anchorages of the tropical sort — the northeast trades blow steadily, ground swell wraps around the islands, and many anchorages are open to one or another quadrant of exposure. That said, there are comfortable anchoring options: the bay at Playa de las Canteras adjacent to Las Palmas is used by boats that prefer not to pay marina fees, though the holding is variable and north swell rolls in periodically. The south coast of Gran Canaria has several bays that provide some shelter in the prevailing trade wind direction. On Lanzarote, the north-side anchorages in Graciosa and the Famara cliffs area are beautiful but exposed to NE swell. Use a good pilot guide — Rod Heikell's Atlantic Islands or the RCC Pilotage Foundation guide — and check the conditions carefully for any anchorage with a western or northern exposure.

Start Day: The Traffic Separation and the Departure Area

The ARC start is conducted off the Las Palmas waterfront in the bay outside the marina. World Cruising Club organises a start line with marks and committee boat, and the fleet departs in classes — monohulls, multihulls, and divisions by size — over a period of a few hours. The departure is spectacular from the shore and from the boats themselves: 200 boats all making sail in the same patch of ocean, almost all heading southwest.

The immediate challenge after the start is the traffic separation scheme around Gran Canaria — commercial shipping lanes that the fleet must respect. The typical routing takes the fleet south and southwest of Gran Canaria before turning to the passage heading; pay attention to the briefing on the start-day routing instructions, which World Cruising Club distributes in the final days before departure.

← Boat Preparation  |  Passage Tactics →

Frequently Asked Questions

What marina do ARC boats use in Las Palmas and where is it located? The ARC fleet uses the Muelle Deportivo, a large purpose-built marina in the port area of Las Palmas directly adjacent to the Real Club Náutico de Gran Canaria. The marina can accommodate the full rally fleet of 200-plus boats and has the fuel, water, and shore facilities needed for passage preparation. It is within walking distance of the city centre and the main provisioning options.

What is the best supermarket for provisioning in Las Palmas before an Atlantic crossing? Mercadona is the most commonly used supermarket by ARC and independent Atlantic sailors for bulk provisioning in Las Palmas. It is a major Spanish chain with large stores carrying a comprehensive range of canned goods, dried staples, and long-life products at reasonable prices. Several chandleries and marine provisioning suppliers are also located in the marina area for more specialised offshore provisions.

What seminars and preparation events does the ARC organise in Las Palmas before the start? The World Cruising Club, which organises the ARC, runs a formal pre-departure programme at Las Palmas that includes safety briefings, meteorological seminars with professional weather routers, navigation talks, and social events that allow crew to meet other boats and establish potential buddy-boat arrangements. These seminars are a significant part of the rally's value for first-time transatlantic sailors.

How large is Las Palmas as a city and what does that mean for provisioning options? Las Palmas is a city of approximately 380,000 people — the largest city in the Canary Islands — which means it has the full infrastructure of a major Spanish city: large supermarkets, hardware stores, ship chandlers, sailmakers, and a variety of marine service providers. This depth of supply makes it one of the best-equipped departure ports for any Atlantic crossing.

What is the typical distance and sailing time from Las Palmas to Barbados? The passage from Las Palmas to Barbados is approximately 2,700 nautical miles, and most cruising boats complete it in 14 to 21 days depending on speed and wind conditions. The route follows the northeast trade winds from the Canaries at roughly 27–29°N down into the trade wind belt at 15–20°N, where the wind is typically consistent at 15–25 knots from the northeast.