Droopy Bottom

After a few weeks identifying the problem and consulting with the experts.....we have now decided that at the grand age of 47, Meriva needs corrective surgery to her bottom.


I flew back to the UK to see my beautiful daughters, granddaughters and Mum, and to collect the necessary parts to restore our boat to its former glory.

Every night Tristan would Skype to say he had just ordered something that was 'really essential'!  In the mean time, poor Lucy's house was filling up and I was having nightmares as to how I was going to get back with over 40kg of bronze bolts, white lead and white microfibres.....not to mention the electrical components, English tea, and  a years supply of contact lens.

I had to email the airlines and double check they were happy with the goods for our 'boat in transit'.  I must say Easyjet  were brilliant, but I had to fly back via Tenerife as  the airline that flies  into La Palma wouldn't let me take excess baggage.

It was a  opportunity for me to catch up with a good friend, Ed  at the Atlantic Whale Foundation in Tenerife, who fortunately arrived the day before me. I spent three days there and sat on the Enterprise board.....a scheme to support budding young entrepreneurs.

I caught the ferry from Tenerife back to La Palma and Tristan hired a car to get me and the excessive baggage back to Tazacorte.
I would thoroughly recommend the ferry crossings to anyone... its a fun way of getting around the islands.....and as far as I am aware their boats don't leak!

We had resisted hiring a car, insisting on using buses, but you can't get to the 'best bits' of the island.  We gave ourselves a 'day off'  before the hard work and toured the island.

The highest part of La Palma is Roque de los  Munchachos,  2423m......overlooking the Caldera de Taburiente.....absolutely stunning views across the Cumbre Vieja, Los Llanos and Tazacorte and  over to the islands of Tenerife, La Gomera and El Hierro.

The flora was spectacular and fragrant, with  several  varieties of Echium.

At the top of the mountain you have some of the best  observatories in the world including Galileo.

Remote controlled travel hoist

We took Meriva out of the water a week ago......our priority being to create shade to stop any planks opening up in the heat. I have used up all our towels, spare sheets and duvet covers.

Banana netting seems to work well, but we are aware that wooden boats and sunshine don't mix.

Tristan has managed to remove part of the wooden keel below the garboard and scarf joint.

Some of the bolts had sheered but we have replacements. The aim is to reinforce the keel to reduce movement and put in extra throat bolts for the strap floors, replace all bronze bolts and put in the white lead between the scarf joint and keel using our specially manufactured hollow screw with grease nipple!

This is a lot of work but its part and parcel of having a beautiful wooden boat......and a wooden boat builder for a husband!

The keel was successfully removed without any damage to the wood which saves some time.








Tristan has spent a few days pumping the white lead into  holes drilled carefully into the  keel....and it has worked brilliantly.

His only problem was the white lead contained red lead crystals and they blocked the grease nipple so it has been time consuming and a lot of bad language emanated out of the heads!













Our plans for the next few days.......making patterns for the new floors to strengthen the boat for and aft of the mast, cut and shape the wood (easily obtainable in La Palma), rebolt on the keel and repair the garboard. May take a bit longer than a few days....depends on how much sleep Tristan gets!

Before  Meriva is launched we will need to recaulk more seams but this is going to be ongoing and hopefully once we get sailing again this should begin to stabilise.

Some people go sailing, mainly those with fibreglass boats.....we spend more time in boat yards!   We are the yardies!

Somewhere on our travels we came across 'dinner' feeding on fennel!

A hollow screw with a grease nipple

Each day we are further along solving the ongoing 'maintenance' issues. Tristan has been scrutinizing blueprints and removing floors, measuring up for replacement bolts. By the time we finish this boat will be stronger than new.  I will fly back to the UK to see my family and pick up our 'survival' kit......but in the meantime we have been enjoying La Palma.

We took a bus to Tijarafe and walked down the old path through the Barranco Jorabo to El Jesus.

To town of Tijarafe , like many of the towns had wonderful buildings,mainly around the church.





We came across this place with a cage and a cross and both wished we hadn't watched
 ' Being Human'.










The descent down into the barranco was steep but you are either walking up hill or down on this island.

   













The flowers were beautiful and although there is commonality between islands, each island has its own outstanding 'beauties'.

There were no photographs taken between these two sites as  we had to walk under the rock face ......with warning signs of falling rocks, so I didn't hang around and they all came out blurred.









At the end of the walk we found an Artisan Brewery. I felt I needed to carry out a taste comparison of the beers locally brewed! Blonde bitter won.

Going into Los Llanos sourcing materials and in particular finding bolts for the 'essential wooden boat builder's tool', a hollow screw with a grease nipple, was  a challenge! But well provided for with Ferriteria's and machine shops. We bought the screws ans had them drilled out.

Now all we need is white lead putty.....not available in the Canary Islands! Then we can stop the water ingress.

The Jacaranda trees are all in flower with their   beautiful deep blue colours.



Everywhere around this island are bananas squeezed into any spot of land without a building!

Los Llanos is  a pretty town and we usually take the opportunity to walk down hill, back to the boat.






I think I am the source of some despair......I know where I want to go and usually we get there but I cant always give precise detail on how to get there! Mainly because my Spanish isn't up it!

We took  several buses to El Paso, well just beyond and got off at the Vistor's centre of the Caldera de Taburiente.

There are several really interesting boards with details of walks around the Caldera de Taburiente and the flora, fauna and geological formation of the Caldera. We now have to seriously plan our walks into the National Park......not just turn up.












We walked from the centre back down to El Paso, avoiding the roads where possible. The path took us past a field of bulls, so Tristan was instructed to avoid eye contact!

 The path took us down to an area known as  Fondo de la Laguna (the bottom of the lake). From here you could see the ridge that divided the north from the south of the island, the Cumbre Nueva, and to the south the Cumbre Vieja which is the site of the most recent volcanic activity.





   

The Eucalyptus smelt wonderful reminded me of sailing into Bayona.
In  one of the villages we came across the trough of Las Canales which was used for watering cattle.  We had run out of water  and were desperate to fill out water bottles but the sign was 'not potable' so we decided not to risk it this time......it looked a bit green.
 






The villages are beautiful, picture postcard  houses and Fincas with all manner of fruits and vegetables being grown.

We found an abandoned water channel for a picnic, with stunning views.

 A tranquil setting disturbed only by the scrapping of two lizards who very viscous with each other and came too close for comfort.



The winner stood his ground proud but alert.

Volcanoes and Bananas

We are awaiting wind. This is typical of the Canaries. They fluctuate from far too much wind to not enough, with the occasional shock of an unexpected acceleration zone where winds can reach 30 - 40 knots quickly.

We took  a bus to Fuencaliente in the South of the island, the area of volcanic activity.  You can imagine Tristan's pleas ....'no more volcano's'.

The walk was from the volcano San Antonio visitors centre down to Faro de Fuencaliente and the salt  pans a distance of around  7km's but my calves disagree.

We decided not to pay to see a volcanic crater which last erupted in 1677,  but opted to walk downhill to the coast. In the middle of nowhere you came across grape vines growing in the cinders.

This area of La Palma is famous for its wines grown on the island since 1505, which accounted for  the number of bodega's we passed en route.

Malmsey wine was praised by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. I have yet to try it!




Vineyards on the slopes around Volcano San Antonio with the marina in the very far distance.

Random vineyard in front of Volcano Teneguia










It was blazing hot and with all the black cinders the temperatures soared. We resorted to drinking out of the water canals using Tristan's hat.....may regret this later!

The San Antonio cinder cone.

The  San Antonio cinder cone was impressive  but as we walked down  towards the Volcano Teneguia (439m) which last erupted in 1971,  the destructive force was even more impressive.

 I remember the images on the television. It took a bit of nerve for me to walk up to the edge of the crater as the path was strewn with cinder, and  surrounded by sheer drops either side of the path. Being called a wuss helped!

You knew you would be in trouble if you slipped. The view at
the top was spectacular (if you like volcanoes he muttered!).

I should have realised from walking down Etna, that sandals were a bad idea, but the volcanic material on El Hierro was completely different and much easier to walk on so I had long abandoned my boots.   At least it gave me an excuse to stop (every five minutes)  and empty my sandals! The lava was quite different from El Hierro, mainly sharp cinders (scoria)  ranging in colour from reds to blacks and bluish tinges where the material had come into contact with water when it erupted.

The salt pans  were adjacent to the two lighthouses. Faro Negra was damaged during the volcanic eruption of 1971 and they built a new red and white striped one adjacent. There is absolutely nothing here but the lighthouses and the salt pans.



They were rebuilding the visitors centre so we walked around the salt pans following the information boards.
By this time we were desperate for water ....and filled up the bottles from a tap. The green floaty bits were a bit off putting but was no where else to get water.

The  process of salt recovery was interesting......

Water is pumped to inlet pools which trickle the water down into the saltpans. The colour is due to an algae Dunaliella salina and aparently there are also brine shrimps, Artemia which I remember my girls having as pets when the were young. Sea monkeys! These should have been a trade description issue!

Fortunately a gua gua returned us to Fuencaliente but via the most extensive plantations of bananas yet. Considering the number of bananas on this island, I reckon they must supply most of Europe.

You used to be able to buy banana puree to drink on the islands but it seems to have disappeared. However there is an increase in the number of cosmetics using bananas which I'm sure is much more profitable!