Saturday 23 February 2013

Enjoying El Hierro

We have decided to take Meriva out of the water to re-caulk her.   We managed to order the caulking cotton from the UK and it was here within 4 days. Paint was ordered from  Tenerife and arrived in less than a week.

The main problem was finding sufficient props to hold up the boat. Tristan has made several trips to the sawmill to find pine props. We have also located a source of acro-props to hire so hopefully we will he hauling out next Tuesday.

In the mean time we are enjoying this beautiful island. If you like walking and tranquillity this is the island.It is easy to travel around by bus and gua-gua's (mini bus) which connect all the lying villages.


We visited the Frontera, the site of current seismic activity at the  base of El Golfo. El Golfo was an area where a massive landslide occurred, 15,000 years ago depositing huge volumes of debris into the sea. Its really obvious that a huge part of the island has disappeared and the remaining cliffs don't look  too stable!
At the foot of the cliff known as Risco de Tabataje is the Ecomuseo de Guinea. The archaeologically interesting village has dwellings from the early Spanish Conquistador occupants, the Bimbaches, of  El Hierro and was used until the mid 20th century when people moved into breeze block houses at Frontera.





 The houses were all built of basic building materials picked up from cliff falls, whilst the gardens and orchards were used to grow staple crops.


Part of the centre has been dedicated to conserving the El Hierro Giant Lizard (Gallotia simonyi) which is critically endangered, being threatened by feral cats and specimen collections!  It has been successfully  bred in captivity and reintroduced  in its original natural habitat.





 We walked down to the coast and found the location of the El Hierro pinapples.





We found a brilliant picnic spot overlooking the coast with water, BBQ's tables and chairs in the shade....a really chilled out place.  There is a fantastic board walk all around the coastal area here.




La  Restinga, where we are staying, is the sunniest part of El Hierro.

We took a bus inland just to feel the cold!  El Pinar  is a tranquil village at altitude, marking the start of the pine forest.








All the  fruit trees are in blossom, the almonds have formed and spring has definitely sprung. Its beautiful.














 Being tied up to a broken pontoon we are always watching the wind and swell direction.   It makes getting on and off the boat a test of  your core muscles!





This morning was spent watching the dolphins chasing fish ........the dolphins are locally called 'tuninas', which is a bit worrying as they eat a lot of tuna here! Today is the local carnival.....so watch this space!











Wednesday 13 February 2013

Seismic Location


We arrived in El Hierro after a lively sail from La Gomera. The winds were double predicted on Windguru and too much for 'Dexsteer' our friendly steering gear. I helmed and Tristan pumped the bilges....that  kind of says it all. We were taking on water and its now really obvious that all the caulking has gone and not just the bit we had spent the last month repairing.
Tristan's self preservation skills took over and  he managed to cook eggs and bacon doused in salt water, followed by lots of nuts! Overdose of salt on this trip.

As we approached La Restinga, the wind increased even more and  we were surfing down waves at 10.9 knots..... I felt like it was a competition to beat each surf and actually enjoyed myself. I'm not sure Tristan with his head down in the cockpit pumping the bilges and occassionally looking up to the water mountains felt the same. He had an 'oh shit' look when a mountain of green water dumped itself on the side decks but Meriva performed like the 1960s floating Ferrari she is, shugging the water off and screaming 'solo cercare di nuovo bastardi'. And they did! I have never felt such a concentrated  saline solution in my eyes!

We also blew out the genoa as it jammed in the furling gear and just when we didn't want sail we were unable to get it down. Typical we now had to head into the mountainous sea and got soaked but the difference from Biscay, it was warm and you soon dried. Crusty! Tristan's ingenuity prevailed and he used the boat hook to wind the sail in.

Entering La Restinga was something else! The wind was blowing 30 knots with gusts over 40 knots and a boat that was not going where she was told.

We eventually got lines ashore with a lot of help from fellow sailors.....I felt really guilty as our friends Trisha and Justin's children were yelling from their boat Selkie, 'Welcome to your new home', and I was so intent on getting the line ashore  I had ignored them!
The harbour wall clearly shows the seas around here....shame its not mentioned in the pilot book!

It was a relief to be tied up, however getting off the boat posed an ever greater challenge! The pontoon was broken, held together by nylon rope and tilting at an angle of 45 degrees.....most unstable wobble board ever!


Four lines ashore and then the skipper dived overboard.......to tie a line to a  submerged  concrete block.

We slept, slept and slept a bit more feeling battered and exhausted.

The damage wasn't as bad as we thought......the caulking had failed  as it didn't appear to have been replaced  at all,  and there was nothing for it..we had to  take the boat out of the water and do it properly.

A  yacht turned up two days later, the 'sail doctor' who  were able to repair our genoa. What a small world it is....a guy we  met hiding from a gale in Porto Sin was aboard and he remembered us.

Tristan has ordered the materials and we have sorted out lifting Meriva so as soon as they arrive we are on sticks. In the meantime we can enjoy El Hierro.

The constant volcanic activity is powerful and exciting and the lava fields are awesome.



 The black lava is twisted and contorted into rope shaped patterns unlike anything I have ever seen before.
Siempre vivre



Crystals of green tourmaline are in the uplifted rocks. Plants have colonised where ever they can find shelter. One plant, sea thrift, locally known as Siempre vivre,' always alive' is beautiful.



 We met a guy who took us down a lava tube and showed us petroglyphics from the Berbers.




Crawling out of his hole!



We have had some horrendous winds since being here and  we both feel glad to be tied up, but I think this has been everywhere in the Canaries. None of the pilot guides mention the acceleration around La Restinga, but being in an acceleration zone is an 'experience'.

A Calima covered the boat with a thick layer of  orange dust from the Sahara. Its frustrating as we had varnished and Meriva was looking good.....now  she looks like a cruising boat.....bleached and sand blasted.

The air quality all over the Canaries was bad for a few days and everywhere is filthy. We have no water on the pontoons or electricity so washing down the boat is not an option.  Both of us have taken to swimming daily and I have been scuba diving  for the first time since 2004!   


Somewhere out there is a volcano! It first erupted on 11th October 2011 and is a mile off La  Restinga..... most of the bars have the 'floating stones' which have been called Restingolites after the town. Whilst I am 'over enthusiastic'  about the current seismic activity, being here and amongst the locals, it has put everything into perspective. People are struggling to survive a combination of a 'bad 'economic climate and 'damage'  to the tourist trade when the word 'volcano' is mentioned.

It is an amazing place with fantastic geology and ecology and is totally unspoilt.