Car Hire - Visiting the Island

We had long intended to hire a car here on La Palma and yesterday I went down to the airport to pick it up. The island is certainly spectacular and we still have another day with the car so I will add some photos if they turn up. Yesterday was successful apart from the fact that I was not doing very well behind the camera. Today we went to see a volcano, El Volcan de San Antonio but the current southerly winds mean that the southern tip of the island is fog enshrouded so no pictures were possible. At least the visitor center was cheap at €5 each.

A typical view of the edge of El Caldera de Taburiente. This is a relatively old huge geological feature with lots of vertiginous walking around it which we wimped out of.

Clouds are a big part of the views of this island. This is looking across south from a mirador called El Time above Tazacorte.

The road up from the bottom of the Taburiente to Mirador El Time was a dramatic set of switchbacks. I enjoyed driving it but some of the corners are a bit "interesting"

Finally, for now, the afternoon light on the west coast was quite dramatic though my best effort at capturing it was not very successful. This island is much greener than the other Canary islands as well.

Downwind Rig

Modern boats are not well suited to sailing downwind. The ideal rig for prolonged downwind sailing is a square rig but this is of course hopeless on any other point of sail. We are therefore having to make special provision to allow our sloop rig to work more efficiently on the long downwind passages in the trades.

Essentially, this means using two head sails and leaving the main down. For this you need two poles to hold the sails out. We only have one of course and a second pole was always outside of our budget as we needed to get other things and the amount of time actually spent sailing in the trades is comparatively small. Happily, there is a way that I read about that allows you to get by with the one pole we have. The way is to use the main boom with a thing called a snatch block on it to route the sheet for the second head sail.

Thus, we will have the large genoa poled out to windward with the spinnaker pole in the usual way. We will then pull the boom out at right angles and hold it there with a preventer. Then we will hoist the smaller working jib with the spinnaker halyard and tie the foot to the samson post.

I have finally got around to working this out and so feel ready to use it for real now. I can't claim originality for this but got the idea from an inspirational book called Ocean Cruising on a Budget

You can order it here: Ocean Cruising on a Budget at Amazon. If you are bothered about Amazon and their tax avoidance, Bookharbour also stock it!

It will be exciting to try it out for real though the weather is looking decidedly light for the next few days. We are hoping the trade winds will fill in again before we come to leave for the Cabo Verde Islands! Setting it up here in the marina was quite a palaver but I think it will get easier though the pictures show better. Do bear in mind though that the wind will be behind us and the sails will not be flopping around as they are.

We have also now got, in best long distance cruiser style, a series of jerry cans lashed to the side deck!

Updated cruise album

Thanks to decent wifi here I have added a load of photos to the cruise album.

Cruise Album

La Gomera to La Palma and Santa Cruz

All the Canary Islands have had their own distinctive character and the most westerly of them has been no less different than the others. Of course we have only had a chance to visit the capital city Santa Cruz so far but it has a very different feel to the others. It is visibly wealthier than any of the others including Las Palmas and Tenerife. In fact, it feels to us much more like mainland Spain and Galicia in particular. This is in part due to the architecture but also the fact that it is cloudier. I don't think however that it will rain as much as it did on us in La Coruna in 2011 when we had as much rain as you would expect in south west England.

The passage across from San Sebastian on La Gomera was also enjoyable though long day sails are very tiring. We eventually tied up a bit after nine in the evening which made for nearly thirteen hours sailing. We were treated to yet another dramatic sunset though. Entry to the harbour is a bit of fun as you have to get clearance to enter just like big ships when still two miles out. You then find your way past the cruise ship, ferry and container docks into the head of the harbour. The marina itself is fairly soulless and there is a bit of noise and smell from the commercial docks. More intrusive is the smell of cooking fat from the McDonalds though. Why do they always stink?

Here are the obligatory snaps:

The old houses here have very distinctive balconies which are also very photogenic.

We are due to leave here tomorrow to go round to a harbour on the west coast called Tazacorte – the marina is supposed to be cheaper than here though we really like hit here so may blow the expense and come back before finally leaving.

Talking of leaving, this will be our last stop in Europe and also we need to be ready for some much longer passages. We are therefore drawing up lists of last minute jobs that should have been done ages ago. One of the more exciting things has been to get a Barbados courtesy flag. We don't have any others for the Caribbean but we have read that there is a woman in the Mindelo market who will make them up for us very cheaply. We are starting to feel excited but also a bit apprehensive at being on the threshold of a major new step in the cruise.

While wandering along the waterfront, we got a good view of La Gomera:

Then, later on we saw this rather bored man watching a brass band in the main square of town:

Position Update

There is another yottie blog site where you can use your satellite phone to send position updates which gives a lat and long. We don't run to that here but we have escaped from La Gomera and are now in Santa Cruz de La Palma. We had a nice sail to get here but haven't explored ashore yet. Boring photos and such like to follow.

A Walk In The Park

La Gomera is a very steep island but the center is realtively flat not being formed by a great big volcano like La Palma and Tenerife. Also, the main peak, El Alto de Garajonay, is quite accessible so we decided to try visiting it. I worked out a route where we would get the but to a place called Igualero and then we could walk over the top and catch the bus back from somewhere closer to San Sebastian on the other side. This would be neither too long or too steep for our unfit legs and poor heads for cliff edges.

This view is typical of the island with a mixture of sedimentary and basalt. These islands would really be a geologists dream though the human interaction would really make it a geography teachers dream location

The problems started when the bus failed to stop in Igualero. I suspect that I did not press the button hard enough to tell the driver to stop. The next stop was at a place called Chipude about five kilometers on and so another five KM from the mountain top. We then set out to walk back as waiting for the bus would have taken for ever. It is a long time since I have done any orienteering and I am decidedly rusty at it! The upshot was that we wound up zig zagging across the north eastern side of the island though we did eventually get on the right path. To cap it all off, we took a wrong turn very near the top and wound up back on the road about a km from Igualero and also in thick fog. So, we have failed to climb to the easiest peak in the Canaries and have managed to clock up about eight kilometers of walking.

The higher parts were all in fog and we didn't get to walk in the cloud forest on the other side though some of the landscape in the high places was amazing for it's mossy greenness.

Perhaps the strangest part was when we did get the bus back down. We had prepared by taking trousers, sweaters and waterproofs all of which we needed up there. Then, on arrival back at San Sebastian, we had to instantaneously strip everything off to get back to sub tropical winter temperatures. I didn't take a thermometer but it must have been a good ten degrees cooler up there!

Back in San Sebastian

We have briefly come back to San Sebastian De La Gomera as it provides a better route to La Palma. In two weeks time this will be starting.

Atlantic Rowing Race

They are gathering here now.

Some people think that sailing across the Atlantic in a thirty four foot boat is hardcore. However, it is nothing compared to rowing a 25 foot boat across the same bit of ocean!

Valle Gran Rey

Puerto de Vueltas sits at the bottom of one of the major valleys of La Gomera - El Valle Gran Rey. We took our most hair raising bus ride so far to a village at the top of it called Arure where we had lunch at a mirador. A couple from another boat we have got to know put us to shame by walking down a steep mountain path while we got the bus back down.

The views were amazing though!

Continuing at La Gomera

Well, we are still anchored of Puerto de Vueltas and look set to be here for a few more days. It is very pleasant here though access to electronic type stuff at anchor is non existant. There isn't even a mobile phone signal as the cliffs block sight of the nearest mobile mast. There is however an excellent internet link in the local ice cream parlour called El Sueno de Yanini.

We will likely be here for a few more days and will make a trip up into the Garajonay national park in the center of the island. We took a short walk up El Valle de Gran Rey yesterday. Chiefely it showed us how out of practise with walking we are!

There is a small hamlet part way up and the Barranco or dry river bed was not completely dry. We encountered these beds of bamboo but all the palm trees were scorched as if a fire had passed through at some point. Later on we saw a water truck which described itself as having anti-fire measures so I guess brush fires are a real problem.

The valley itself is very dramatic and we are particularly looking forward to taking the bus up the hill when we visit the national park.

Back near the bottom we found this church which provided an interesting foreground to the same hills.

Time here has also been enlivened with being able to catch up with Jen Buttery on Paikea who we first meat in Machico in Madeira. She left for La Palma this morning but it has been nice to talk to her and her dog Pico.

This morning brought some light rain and even a rainbow!

The Far Side of La Gomera

With apologies to Pink Floyd (I think). We have made the nineteen sea miles round to Puerto de Vueltas which sits at the bottom of the Valle de Gran Rey. It is nice to be anchored off a small stony beach though we are having to readjust to rolling around a bit. The problem with spending nearly all your time in marinas is that you lose the knack of the greater self sufficiency needed when lying to your own ground tackle. The last time we were at anchor was nearly a month ago in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Still, we are enjoying it here so far. Although it is not really remote at all, we do feel quite cut off as there is no mobile phone coverage here. Even in the town, things are quite sketchy. We have only been ashore very briefly so far but I will report more later on.

The anchorage is one of the more dramatic we have visited so far being right under some very high cliffs. Shelter from the prevailing winds is near perfect though it would quickly become untenable were the wind to go into the south. We have been reflecting on some of the river anchorages we used to visit in the UK where you would be more or less completely surrounded by land and the wind could blow from any direction with impunity. Here you have to trust to the fact that the wind nearly always blows from the north quadrant so any southerly facing shore is going to be well sheltered.

The other thing that we are noticing is that our time in the Canaries is coming towards an end. My Brother is going to be sailing with us to the Cabo Verde islands and he flies down on November 30. Thus, on the second or third of December we will be casting off to the next stage of this adventure. This is one of the things about cruising. You are always taking your departure for somewhere new. This makes for a bit of poignancy to each place you visit, especially if you have had to leave before you are ready. However, there is mixed up the anticipation of the next destination. I have started looking at the chart of the Cabo Verde islands with more concentration about possible passages between the islands and there are now a few waypoints in for the islands.

On top of this are the inevitable nerves about embarking on a long ocean passage. It is 780 odd miles from here to Mindelo which will be the longest passage we have undertaken so far. It should be an easy passage but you always worry before the actual departure about whether you have done sufficient preparation and all that sort of thing. Once on the move of course all worries and ennui will vanish to be replaced with the slower almost suspended feeling that long passages bring. There will then be the excitement of landfall and a new area to be visited. I suppose, that long distance cruisers finally stop when they find somewhere that they don't want to leave for whatever reason. Will we find that on this cruise?

random photos

Vallehermosa, La Gomera

People have been telling us that this island is quite the little gem and they are right. Yesterday we took the bus to Vallehermosa which is a little village really near the north coast of the island. The bust ride was very vertigineous but rewarded us with spectacular scenery. The village was also very nice and the cafe on the square served us the local wine. We were even able to buy some of the said wine in the local supermarket and I will be reporting on it after we try it this evening.

We also like San Sebastian and here are a couple of pictures we have taken. More will doubtless follow

Here are some of the numerous photos that your snap happy correspondent saw fit to take.

La Gomera

On our second attempt, we made it to La Gomera yesterday and are now esconced in the Marina at San Sebastian. So far, it looks to be a lovely spot but we will be exploring more. We also plan on spending some time at anchor in a place called Puerto de las Vueltas on the southern side of the island.

The passage over was much less fraught than Friday's attempt though the wind still got up to 25 knots near the end which is of course half of what we saw on Friday.

Here are a couple of pictures as the island is very photogenic and we have quite a good wifi connection here.


first of all, the last picture of Teide I promise! It was neat to sea that the rain we had was falling as snow higher up!

These are the approach and entrance to San Sebastian. It has ranked as one of the more spectacular approaches - landfall isn't quite right when you can see it from your departure point.

Sunny Tenerife

photo credit to Audrey

Forgot to mention

Yesterdays passage may have been a washout as far as sailing and getting places was but it was good for wildlife.

We first of all past a turtle very close as we were off Punta Rasca at the SE corner of Tenerife. I think the poor chap (I assume he was a male) was a bit bothered as he flipped over on his back as we passed but then turned right way up.

On the way back, we were passed by a small pod of pilot whales at nearly the same spot. They are only actually a bit bigger than dolphins but were still very impressive. We were still not feeling like getting the camera out though I am afraid.

Failing to get to La Gomera

We had finally got it together to leave Las Galletas for San Sebastian de La Gomera. We were thoroughly ready to go and the weather forecast was good with not too much wind forecast so we took our departure at 1000. First of all, we had no wind at all and good views of Pico de Teide as we motored past Los Cristianos. The photo shows it was a bit hazy though.

As we approached the one third mark the wind started to fill in but from due west. Our course was 290 so we had to continue to motor. The trouble was that the wind insisted in getting up until we had a sustained 45 knots and gusts of fifty knots. In pure wind terms this is a force 9 with gusts of force 10. It was not a storm of these proportions of course or our hair would be standing much more on end than it is! That said, it was blowing like hell and our progress slowed to the best part of nothing. We battled on till about 1400 when we worked out we would have another six hours or so till we arrived at that speed. We therefore turned back and covered the same distance in about three hours to get back to Las Galletas at 1700. All very frustrating, not least since it is the first time we have had an abortive passage on this cruise. Still, we are going to have another go either tomorrow or Monday.

I wanted to get a piccie of the anenometer showing 50 knots but the spray was flying by then and I was swearing far too much to think of the camera so here it is at 43.