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!

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.

Ready about

Left at midnight as planned...beautiful balmy night with shooting stars, moonlight and dolphins.  Acceleration zone was great, especially when it was only blowing 5 knots.
I went down below to check (just in case).......water was pouring through a plank seam  in the hanging locker, on the water line. More washing!

Ready About.

We returned to La Gomera with our tail between our legs for more work on the boat.

Wooden boats. Who'd have 'em!

Safely tied up on the pontoon at San Sebastian Marina at 5.30 am. I suppose we had a lovely night sail, makes a change from a day sail!

It looks like we will be unable to make the Cape Verdes this year as its getting late for us to tour the Caribbean, but we will visit earlier in the season next time and spend some time visiting all the Islands.

Off to Las Calmas Sea

We have spent a month in La Gomera, the longest we have stayed anywhere so far on this trip.

 Lovely marina, beautiful blue skies, warm, friendly people and in spite of repairs to the boat, its been fun.

Our friends Nico and Chris and their beautiful  leather work, hand made on their beautiful Maurice Griffiths boat, Mew Gull.

We took a bus journey to Valle Gran Rey through the National Parc of Garajonay.

A huge area of subtropical rainforest was destroyed during the summer by fires.  I was quite shocked by the scale of devastation, and felt for the people whose homes were destroyed.

The palm trees looked a bit sorry for themselves but appeared to have coped with the fire better than the Laurel and pines.

Valle Gran Rey was very chilled out, has a  'secret beach' and feels and looks like a resort from the '70's, including many of the inhabitants, John Lennon look a likes.  It's escaped the development of many areas and oozes relaxation.

We have provisioned for over a month and its surprising Meriva is still afloat.

We are finally self sufficient...reminds me of the film about Hawaii..'Live life like you were in a canoe'.  It  is just as well as there appears to be very little from  here on for a while.

Later this evening we are off to El Hierro...  a trial sail to make sure everything  is OK...in the dark!

I've taken my stugeron ( I haven't sailed for over a month) and we are off to  La Restinga, the site of the major eruption 12 months ago in search of restingolites washed ashore from  Las Calmas Sea.

Lets hope the sea lives up to its name!

Out with the old and in with the new.

We left Las Galettas, Tenerife on  the 30th December 2012, with the wind  howling a near gale, but with relatively flat seas. However, it wasn't long before we were surfing down waves as we rounded Punta Rasca towards La Gomera.

We had our friends Euan and Nona on board for their first sail. It turned out to be a baptism of fire. Fortunately  when we sailed into the lee of South Tenerife the sea turned to glass and the wind stopped dead, as if a switch had been flicked.

Bottlenose dolphins played in the bow wave for a while and we saw pilot whales in the distance travelling south east.


We were becalmed and drifted in the heat over lunch, then the wind completely changed direction and we were heading straight into it, which wasn't very comfortable.

                                                                 

We ended up motoring, as the genoa halyard had parted... rather annoying as this was replaced along with the rigging by Mylor before we left! We think they used unsuitably thick line rather than trouble themselves to get the right size. To add insult to injury we also discovered that  the planks had opened up in the heat, during the previous weeks in Las Galletas. We were taking on quite a lot of water through the  top sides as we rolled along. Tristan did his best to reassure our friends that they shouldn't worry.....not too sure how well he did!

We made San Sebastian, La Gomera just after sunset and tied up to a pontoon, much to the relief of everyone.

New Years Eve was spent mopping up! Not the usual trip and rather annoying that the boat  had turned  into a saltwater shower. Fortunately the towels were in the way of the leaks and most of the other stuff  had been packed  in good old plastic boxes.


Tristan made several trips up the mast to try and draw the halyard through the mast  to no avail.

New Year was lively. We danced the night away to Meringue band which went on until 4 am, but then a nightclub took over, playing EuroPop music loudly across the marina until 10.30am , New Years Day. Not much sleep was had, but it was certainly a memorable start to 2013.

The repairs to the boat have taken longer than we had hoped and we had to order  a replacement halyard from  Tenerife.

Tristan has spent days caulking seams mainly around the shutter plank, but at least the sun is still shining.


I have applied several coats of varnish to the brightwork. It made a real change to have it dry in less than 24 hours!

We are enjoying being in San Sebastian...the marina is close to the town and there is a good market for fresh fruit and vegetables,

Photo says it all.....food, sanding, beers and vinyl gloves!

I have used the time to take stock of our provisions.

 My tin store reads like a marine food web:  19 tuna, 6 salmon, 4 squid stuffed with themselves (don't ask), 8 sardines, 3 cod, 5 scallops, 1 cockles, 15 squid in ink, 2 mackerel, 4 razor shells, 1 crab meat, 1 baby squid, 8 octopus, 2 anchovies, 1 kippers and Tristan insisted on a tin of pigs trotters (for when he's on watch).

We are hoping to catch fish but haven't so far so I'm hedging my bets!









On 16th January, after several weeks working, we applied a coat of top coat to the repairs on the hull  and headed off for the hills to Vallehermoso. This was a beautiful bus ride with spectacular views over  the edge of a precipitous road into the barranco's.

The North of the island supports terraces of bananas, avocados, and cut flowers.


One speciality desert is very sweet sickly palm syrup with smoked  goats cheese which explains the extensive number of palm trees grown on the island. We shared one but the sugar hit was too much.

                                                                                                                          

La Gomera has spectacular volcanic plugs but there have been no eruptions for 2.8 million years.....really want to go to El Hierro!

This was Vallehermoso, but viewed from the bus the volcanic plug was  in the centre of a huge volcanic crater that has weathered over the years.





The Romeria for San Sebastian is today, Saturday 19th January. Actually it started on Friday and  the celebrations were still going on at 5 am....so tonight will be even later. We are going out for a dance later.

                                                                                                                             

     

     Families were all out together..... and not a grey hair was in sight.

Back to the wobble board

I spent 10 days in the UK visiting my Mum, my girls, and my granddaughter, Lily and her new sister, Ruby. I now have another beautiful granddaughter. I flew back  into Tenerife on Christmas day....beautiful sunshine, a real welcome after many days of rain in the UK.

 I was relieved to see Tristan had waited; I saw  Meriva tied up in the marina as we flew over it!

It was good to be back on board and we spent most of Christmas Day unpacking all the boat bits I carried out from the UK, and eating all the wonderful almond biscuits waiting on the table for me. I  have no choice now but to sail long ocean passages.....need to remove the extra calories!

Euan and Nona joined us for  a meal in the evening and I  unpacked the 'hurricane' box to find
a christmas pudding.  Its difficult to steam on a boat .... you don't want  to fill the boat up with steam and it would use a lot of gas, so we decided to fry it in butter. Wow......never again will I steam christmas pudding. If you are having lots of butter in a brandy sauce, a bit more won't hurt

We are going to have a few day sails with our friends before heading south to our  next destinations La Gomera & El Hierro. I have always wanted to go to El Hierro, especially since the  volcanic eruptions last year.  I know Tristan will say ' not more volcanos' decorated with colourful expletives, but volcanos are my 'thing'.

In search of the Guanches

We spent a week on Lanzarote and succumbed to a trip around Timanmfaya......I ignored  the moans of 'not another volcano' from Tristan. The landscape was stunningly beautiful even though we disagree on the interpretation of 'beautiful'.

Fuelled up, victualed up, we set off for the south of Lanzarote......but decided to keep going.

Both of us were keen  to sail around Isle de Lobos.......the site of earthquakes in November 2012, but the wind was non existent so it was unfortunately a motor.








We then carried on around Fuerteventura to the sand dunes as we were told about  a good anchorage.  The sunset  was spectacular and along with shooting stars, dolphins and calm seas, life felt good.

Puerto del Rosario at sunset.....no wonder its

called rose! Sunrise was just as spectacular.

Arriving in the middle of the night meant we had to  stand off and bob until daybreak.

Its weird watching the lights from the shore and even weirder when the village you had been watching moves......some of these cruise ships are monstrous with so many lights it is really difficult to see their navigation lights.



Both of us were disappointed at the 'sand dunes' as the volcanic peaks looked like mountains dusted with snow rather than sand dunes..... the whole area was developed. Our peaceful anchorage was not going to be as peaceful as we imagined.

We decided to carry on and saw Gran Canaria rising out of the evening mist,sailed by it overnight and saw it disappear  at sunrise as we approached Tenerife.

This was a very emotional moment for me... I have always wanted to sail around Tenerife in my own boat. It still hasn't sunk in that we have sailed over 2,000 miles from Falmouth and this is just the start of our journey! We still have over 5,000 miles to go just to reach America (via Cape Verdes and the Carribean).





We had intended to go to one marina which had been created by diverting the coastline . I spent a summer recording all the species of marine algae to find out that it had all gone the following year!
With hindsight, I am glad we found an alternative. We are in Las Galletas which is a real place and understated. The marina is brilliant and we are perfectly situated for the town, buses and fantastic walks.

The coastline around Tenerife has been massively over developed  with  apartments and hotels but  some areas have been designated 'Reserva Natural Especial' or 'Monumento Natural'. This at least affords some protection from further development and even though heavily used by walkers, paths appear to be designated and followed.

We walked along the coastal area of  Monumento Natural, Montana Amarillo which had spectacular lava flows and  layers of  solidified ash.

At low water we scrambled over the base of the cliffs (mainly to avoid walking up the mountain), and I was rewarded by the best marine algae & mollusc diversity I have seen on the island for many years.







The walk covered the narrow strip of coast with its distinct vegetation... a halophilic belt.
The following day we walked in the other direction, equally beautiful over the Reserve Natural  Especial , Malpais de Rasca. The vegetation was stunning. It smelt like we were in a sauna but without the steam.
We opted out of climbing the Montana de Guaza ( bit of a trend developing here),  and caught a bus into Los Cristianos.....water supplies were running low and we had eaten all the nuts. Tristan had a 'feed me' look, time to take evasive action!

I fly back to the UK tomorrow for the birth of my second granddaughter and to see my girls.