In which we end our winter tour of the Canaries, finishing up where we started.
We started February anchored
off Montana Roja, Tenerife. A nice,
sheltered anchorage and it needed to be as a strong NE’ly wind blew for several
days reaching F9, over 40 knots at times.
Books were read and I even managed to make a little progress with my
Spanish. The main beach was deserted but
a little one tucked in the corner had its daily visits by hardy sun
seekers. There were also the occasional
wind- and kite- surfers. One of the
latter gave us a minor drama one lunch time.
We watched him try, and fail, to get going after falling off and, after
the 5th attempt decided that he wasn’t going to succeed and, as he
was drifting towards South America, thought that we ought to do something. We had started the engine and were about to
heave up when the official rescuers from around the headland at Medano arrived
on a jetski towing an inflatable tender.
Sheepish surfer returned to the beach.
That night, a SAR helicopter conducted a lengthy search operation in the
area but we believe this was an exercise as there was nothing on the marine VHF
or Navtex requesting assistance.
On the 4th,
supplies were running low and the wind abated, so we decided to return to La
Gomera. We had a good start, running
under just the genoa but, once more had to motor for a while before picking up
a light northerly which brought us back to St Sebastian. Theoretically, the parts for our headsail
furling system should have arrived but we got increasingly strange messages as
to their whereabouts. It transpired that, although the Canaries are happy to be
part of the E.U. when it comes to grants for major projects, they are outside
when it comes to imported goods. They
eventually arrived but I had to pay an additional 32 Euros: 23 to open the file
and 9 excise duty, charged not only on the parts but also on the transport
cost. Theoretically, we could claim this
back but the local official just scowled and went back to more important
paperwork. Having got the parts, fitting
was a breeze and, for the first time, we were able to deploy and furl the genoa
without using a winch (in light airs, at least).
Up the mast
We had returned in time for
the local Mardi Gras Carnival. Not quite
on Rio’s scale but great fun. Although
there were daily visits by cruise liners, these were booted out before
nightfall, allowing the locals to enjoy themselves without being swamped by
tourists. On Friday evening was the
ceremony to pick the carnival queen. The
candidates had made incredibly intricate costumes, some mounted on lightweight
gantries which they towed around the stage.
Most of the evening was taken up with musical groups. These were of variable quality but equal enthusiasm. Seemingly, to qualify for performance, each
song has to mention ‘carnival’ in each verse and ‘La Gomera’ in the
chorus. Our favourite was the wonderful
‘Tronchi Ponchi Monchi’ group, who interspersed singing with the playing of
trumpet shaped kazoos.
Carnival Queen. She is towing this structure.
Saturday was the grand parade
with grand floats, singing groups and drum bands. Carnival queens, senior and junior were
towards the front, with runners up following.
Every float appeared to have catering on board and at the tail of the
procession small groups in fancy dress pushed covered supermarket trolleys. The reason for this became
apparent later. Following the parade
there was a gap of a couple of hours when each group had a picnic supper before
the carnival ball, which went on until 5 AM.
We know the time not because we were present but because it was open air
and only 100 meters from the Marina.
They even managed to drown out the noise from the generators on the
ubiquitous ARMAS ferry.
Sunday was a rest day but
Monday saw the talcum powder parade where everyone, wearing white, saunters
through the town puffing talc in the air and on friends old and new. The theme is continued into the evening with
the talcum powder ball – a repetition of Friday’s dance but rather whiter. We joined in, stripping off on deck on return
and hosing down the following morning.
Before
Before
After
Although it meant missing
Friday’s ‘Internment of the Sardine’ (truly), we decided to move on on
Wednesday and set off round the North of Gomera back to La Palma. A spirited start into a NNW’ly F6, followed
by a cracking beam reach with NE’ly F4 across to Santa Cruz. The motion in the marina was as bad as before
but we wanted to see the town so stayed 2 nights. Santa Cruz, once away from the harbour, high
rise hotels and MacDonalds is a very pleasant town still with local character
among the tourist orientated shops. The
Carnival had obviously hit here too as the streets, cars, and shopfronts were
covered in talc. This meant that footing
on steep, talc covered cobbles was somewhat precarious in places.
We had had enough rocking
around by Friday and set off, once more, for Tazacorte. Again, we went down the East coast, this time
with just the genoa in a following F5-6.
This followed us round the bottom and we only had to motor a mile or so
before finding a NNW’ly F2 which took us gently back to Tazacorte.
On our previous visit, we had
identified a walk in the Tambuirente caldera, where you take a taxi to the top
and walk down. We had even done the
first mile and back to ensure that it was suitable so on Saturday morning we
took a bus up to Los Llanos and 2 taxis up to the top viewpoint. The first 5 Km, descending gently through
pine forest, was very picturesque. The
guidebook suggested 1.5 – 2 hours and we managed it in 1h 35mins so felt we
deserved our picnic before the 7 Km leg.
This, it was suggested, would take 4 hours. It was soon apparent that this trail was somewhat
more challenging. The first part (once
we found it) took us down a steep path with hairpin bends to the valley floor
and a dry(ish) river bed. Unfortunately
the bed was blocked at intervals by rock falls, necessitating scrambles on
rocky diversion paths. It was a footsore
duo who emerged at the bottom car park 3h 55mins later. Fortunately, there was a sign giving the
number for a local taxi company and we splashed out on getting him to take us
back to the boat. On writing, 2 weeks
later, we still have bruised toes from descending 3000 ft.
We stayed in Tazacorte for a
further week doing a little light maintenance, a little sun bathing and a little
eating and drinking with the occasional walk up to the main village for
provisions. I still failed to persuade
Elsie to visit the banana museum so we have an excuse for returning.
It was time to start thinking
of moving on and back to mainland Europe.
There were forecasts of 2 periods of wind from the north, starting on
the 21st and 26th respectively and we decided to take
advantage of this by making two overnight passages: first to Santa Cruz de
Tenerife and then to Lanzarote. We departed
Tazacorte at 0945 on the 21st and alternately motored and sailed up
to the north of the island where we would find a nice F3 to take us
across. Not so. We would have been content with the speed
that the actual F2 gave us but, being beam on to the swell, we just rolled too
much to keep the sails full and they slapped and banged so it was motor 6
hours; sail 6 hours and arrived at Santa Cruz at 1130 on the 22nd. A nice marina, convenient for the city centre
(or it would be, if the footbridge hadn’t been closed due to construction work). Part of the reason for coming here was to
solve a long running problem with the radar: the book says that it will work
down to 8.7 volts, but it had been cutting out as high as 12.5V, easily reached
on a long passage. After much probing,
we believed that it was caused by a voltage drop inside the chart plotter and
had found the man who not only understood the system, but had the tools. It turned out that the cause was two-fold.: poor
design, in that there was a voltage drop inside the plotter (and it was
inherent, checked by temporarily replacing PCBs); and poor installation, in that
there was an excessive run of too small gauge of wire. We managed to buy and run some suitable cable
ourselves to get round the second part of the problem but Jose didn’t have time to
connect it up for us so we still have yet to get it properly working.
Snow on Tiede, Tenerife
Snow on Tiede, Tenerife
The second leg of the
passage, from Tenerife to Lanzarote, we too much rather than too little
wind. Leading up to departure, the
forecast had increased from F4 to F6 but we actually encountered F7, inevitably
during Elsie’s watch in the middle of the night. Having become used to bumbling about the
islands, we had become a little blasé about passage preparation and left the
dinghy lashed on deck. It got moved by a
wave and we lost the seat overboard.
Lesson learned. I also managed to
break the oven door handle by grabbing it when rolling so have the entertainment
of obtaining parts to be sent out to us.
The wind, although stronger than forecast, was from a good direction and
we managed to achieve the perfect place for springing off on our next passage
up to Madeira: la Graciosa, the small island at the northern end of
Lanzarote. Here we stayed, at anchor for
the next few days with the forecast of getting a nice beam wind to take us up.
Monthly stats:
Logged 408
Over ground 404
