In which we explore the western isles of the Canaries.
We started 2016 at anchor off Puerto de Vueltas, La
Gomera. We had already decided that we
liked the look of the island from our visit to San Sebastian and our views from
offshore. Despite no hire cars being
available in the Capital, we managed to find one here and took it for a couple
of days. It being a very small island
(about 15 miles in diameter) and mostly wilderness, we managed to drive just
about every available road. Since many
of them run from the coast to the central plateau, about 4000 ft AMSL via many
hairpin bends, we covered about 300 km.
It certainly is beautiful, with none of the high rise resorts, theme
parks and MacDonalds found on the larger islands. Our favourite village was Alajero, halfway up
the slope on the southern side with fantastic views over the ocean. A small church on a spur had been visible as
we cruised along the coast and fascinated Elsie. Close by is a dramatic four sided cliff
formed by the erosion around a volcanic extrusion. It had apparently been used as a place of
refuge by the natives when Moorish pirates came raiding.
La Fortaleza
On the 3rd, we decided it was time to move on and
headed North West to La Palma. With NE 4 on the beam, we made good time across
until we got to the southern tip where the usual blanketing killed the wind and
we had to motor the last 13 miles up to Tazacorte, pausing for a brief dip at
anchor of Puerto Naos (confusingly, there are many places named Puerto with no
vestige of a port). Tazacorte does have
a large port, built to take RoRo ferries which never arrived, but it does
provide excellent shelter for a modern marina.
The old port has been converted into a bathing beach, the most sheltered
that we have found on either La Palma or Gomera. Looking ahead, there would be a sailing wind
on the Tuesday and Wednesday, then nothing for a week so we decided, rather
than explore now, we would sail round the top of the island to the capital,
Santa Cruz. The first 15 miles were a
motor into wind but we then had a fine, if wet, sail round for the final
25. The NE trade wind brought in a damp
airflow to give us our first proper rain in over 2 months. We thought of asking for sympathy from our
friends back in Aberdeenshire but as they were suffering the worst floods in 150 years, decided not. Santa Cruz is
reputed to be very pleasant, once you get behind the initial row of tourist
hotels but, as it was still raining, we did not venture out of the marina past
the new MacD’s. We had thoughts of
sailing on to El Hiero on Wednesday, but there was no clear prospect of
returning on the forecast wind so instead we continued on our clockwise circuit
of la Palma. A NE’ly F4-5 gave us a
fantastic sail broad reaching down the east coast, although I enjoyed it more
than Elsie, who was rather tight lipped after I rejected her suggestion of a
second reef, shortly before hitting our peak speed of 10.5 knots. She was consoled a little by the largest pod
of dolphins we have ever seen. There
must have been over a hundred, racing along and leaping clear of the
water. An uplifting sight. Round the southern tip of the island, the
wind again died but, this time, then changed to a usable SW’ly to take us back
up to Tazacorte. This was the 12th
day of Christmas, 3 Kings Day in Spain so, as there would be no staff on duty
at the marina, we tried the unofficial anchorage at the entrance. This proved very comfortable but, with a few
local boats moored, space is limited.
We re-entered the
marina next morning and made enquiries for car hire. The only local provider was closed and the
nearest available was a bus ride away and had a minimum hire period of 3
days. We wanted to explore and took the
only car available, a VW Polo automatic.
I have always been wary of small automatics but this one, with a 1.4
engine and a 7 speed ‘box, proved the ideal vehicle for the tortuous mountain
roads, this time going up to 8000 ft AMSL.
There are many micro-climates on the island, making it difficult for a
visitor to work out where it will be sunny and where there will be thick cloud
/ fog but we managed to guess right most of the time with just the exception of
a damp lunch at Puerto Vueltas on the 3rd day. More spectacular views than can be listed,
especially around the huge volcanic caldera that dominates the north of the
island. On the northern lip of this is
an observatory, taking advantage of the high altitude and dark skies. Amongst many optical telescopes, hidden in
their domes, are a pair of Gamma Ray ‘scopes, with polished mirrors parked
down-sun during the day. Most
‘interesting’ drive was the 14 kilometers, climbing 2500 ft along a tiny,
winding road up to Los Brecitos, with precipitous drops and no barriers,
enlivened by the oncoming taxis and one 30 seater bus coming the other
way. If we visit again, we will take one
of the taxis and follow the footpath down.
Better for the heart in at least 2 ways.
MAGIC telescope
We wanted to ‘complete the set’ of Canarian islands and saw
our opportunity, with winds forecast to be SE’ly on the 12th – 15th. So, after a lazy day on the 11th
we made an 0430 start towards El Hierro.
Light winds, in the lee of La Palma, meant that we had to motor the
first 13 miles but, as soon as we passed the southern tip, we had fine sailing
winds on the beam all the way. El Hierro
has no usable anchorages and only 2 ports.
La Estaca is the commercial port, used by the high speed ferry from
Lanzarote. The inner harbour was
completely filled with local moorings, with visitors having to tie up to the
concrete wall. The southern port of
Restinga has recently been equipped with pontoons so we headed there, partly
for easier mooring but also to push as far South as we could (27 38 N). I had tried on a couple of previous occasions
to contact the harbour master, without success, but tried again. He spoke no English but a helpful German,
visiting his office translated that the pontoons were full, there was room on
the wall and it had been much improved to make it yacht friendly. So we continued down and arrived prepared
with fender boards, long lines, etc. We
were a little disappointed that we were offered no assistance to tie up but
were managing when we noticed a security guard waving at us from the
pontoon. There was a space for us after
all (albeit with nasty metal protrusions which required careful
fendering). No car locally but we
managed, the next day to catch the bus into the capital and take a round trip
on another which past Puerto de la Estaca.
As we came down the hill, blow me, there were beautiful new pontoons, with
plenty of spaces.
Having seen as much of El Hierro as we could easily achieve,
we set off at dawn on the 14th back to La Gomera. The forecast was for a SE’ly F3, which would
give us a gentle beam reach, but it never developed so we had to motor
practically all the way. We had noticed
brightly coloured bubbles on the surface.
A larger one looked like a child's toy, made of clear plastic with red
and blue decoration. We stopped and
backed up slowly to it and realised that it was a Portuguese Man-of-War
jellyfish. Gulp. Must be a bit circumspect with our daily
swims. Also saw more pilot whales.
Portuguese Man O'War
As we manoeuvred to anchor off Vueltas, the engine suddenly
started belching white smoke and the high temperature alarm sounded. As the windlass only works with the engine
running, there was a quick lower of first 10 meters of chain, stop engine, then
drop the rest of the chain on the brake.
This was a bit sticky so, obviously, time for a little maintenance there
as well. Replacing the raw water impeller
on the engine (though existing one had 5 of 6 vanes still attached) produced a
healthy flow of cooling water and has hopefully solved this problem. Checking
round in the night, we saw another freak of nature – thousands of green pipe
fish, about 40 cm long just swimming slowly around on the surface and
occasionally jumping. Were we in a
spawning ground? They surrounded us for
several hours but were gone in the morning.
To test the engine, we headed out and South in the morning. Tried sailing for a bit but the wind died so
we motored most of the way back to the anchorage near Santiago, this time
performing a running moor – dropped kedge anchor; motored ahead; dropped main anchor
and heaved kedge in tight. Worked reasonably
well for a first attempt, but managed to foul the kedge with the tripping line,
so that it did not set properly and had to be re-laid. Second time – perfect!
Wall to wall sun on Saturday so a lazy day of light
maintenance swimming and sunbathing. An
easy start to Sunday then, after picking up 2 anchors, motor up the coast to
San Sabastian, where Elsie was to stay with Ruby while Lionel caught the ferry
to Lanzarote and flight to Scotland for routine heath checks.
On return, there were a couple of maintenance tasks to complete, including a look at the headsail furling system, which had been harder than usual to operate on the last leg. Another trip up the mast revealed that the top bearing was missing. A phone call to the U.K. agent confirmed that the parts were available and that we should be able to fit them without removing the system from the forestay, which would be a major job. Since we would have to wait for the parts, it was back to the old dilemma of having to be in a certain place at a certain time. We could have just waited i n San Sebastian but we felt that we were becoming a fixture. Plan 'A' was to go back to La Palma, have a proper look at Santa Cruz, and then return to Tazacorte - a perfect place for lotus eating. The weather forecast, however, suggested that we might again find rain in Santa Cruz so decided to head east to Tenerife instead. As soon as we confirmed this with the parts supplier, the forecast changed, but we continued anyway. In theory, we should have had a good beam reach across to the bottom of Lanzarote, followed by a beat into 15 knots up to Montana Rojo. Instead, we had a light airs crossing, with more motoring than sailing, followed by a motor into a 25 - 30 knot headwind. We made it to the anchorage and spend a reasonably comfortable couple of days as the wind increased to a full gale which only abated on the evening of the 31st.
Monthly stats:
logged: 289
over ground284
On return, there were a couple of maintenance tasks to complete, including a look at the headsail furling system, which had been harder than usual to operate on the last leg. Another trip up the mast revealed that the top bearing was missing. A phone call to the U.K. agent confirmed that the parts were available and that we should be able to fit them without removing the system from the forestay, which would be a major job. Since we would have to wait for the parts, it was back to the old dilemma of having to be in a certain place at a certain time. We could have just waited i n San Sebastian but we felt that we were becoming a fixture. Plan 'A' was to go back to La Palma, have a proper look at Santa Cruz, and then return to Tazacorte - a perfect place for lotus eating. The weather forecast, however, suggested that we might again find rain in Santa Cruz so decided to head east to Tenerife instead. As soon as we confirmed this with the parts supplier, the forecast changed, but we continued anyway. In theory, we should have had a good beam reach across to the bottom of Lanzarote, followed by a beat into 15 knots up to Montana Rojo. Instead, we had a light airs crossing, with more motoring than sailing, followed by a motor into a 25 - 30 knot headwind. We made it to the anchorage and spend a reasonably comfortable couple of days as the wind increased to a full gale which only abated on the evening of the 31st.
Monthly stats:
logged: 289
over ground284
