All boats are sinking........

After several,'when are you leaving?', 'Manana'. We eventually left. Its always hard to leave a place you have enjoyed , and El Hierro was a very special place.  We decided to leave at 4 am with the aim of arriving in our next destination, Tazacorte,  La Palma, before nightfall.

It was quite an experience following the coast in nautical twilight and being able to orientate yourself to places you had walked in the previous weeks.

The smell of the pine forest was evocative of the taste of El Hierro's honey and we had a stash of yoghurt's  and quesadilla's for our journey.



The sun rose as we approached the  Meridian and Orchilla Lighthouse. We had been on the Sea of Calmas  and as soon as we rounded the southwest tip of the island, we picked up a North East wind.

This was the area where the recent swarm of earthquakes had hit El Hierro .....and we sailed right over the spot , tacking towards  El Golfo.

       The wind was flukey and one minute we had the gunnels underwater making 7 knots upwind reefed down, the next we drifted and had to resort to using the engine.

This certainly gave Meriva her 'trial' sail after all the recaulking but Tristan was torn between adjusting the sails and pumping the bilge.




We were unable to buy a replacement electric pump on El Hierro so we always new this might  be a strenuous trip.


                                                                   







We were joined by a pod of dolphins.
I clung to the genoa as we bounced into the rising seas....in the end gave up photographing the dolphins as the motion of the ocean was 'challenging'.  I had to concentrate on sailing otherwise I was threatened with a swimming lesson.

The seas were very 'confused'  but Meriva was brilliant at sailing upwind.  Our concern was there was still water coming in,not from the repairs but from around the mast-step where we were unsure whether work was needed. Turns out it is needed! It  did not put us in danger and was not unmanageable but we felt we needed to address the problem once we arrived at our next destination.

It took us longer than we had anticipated  and after 22 hours at sea without a break we were both exhausted. Its amazing how your eyes play tricks on you when you are entering a port at night. Tristan was calling the sailing directions to me, but on the horizon it looked like the other way was the right way. These 'false friends' would have spelt disaster.....the next morning the hotels and artistic structures did not exist, in fact they were cliffs, submerged rocks and banana plantations!

We finally tied up to the reception pontoon at 2 am and  I took a brandy as my comfort, Tristan a large bar of Turon!  Sleep was the easy bit. Waking up the next morning to put the boat onto a pontoon berth was difficult, although we had plenty of choice as the berths were empty.  We had a lot of mopping up to do......the hatch had leaked again, and the hanging locker was not totally dry.  Its not such a problem......out with the washing lines and buckets. I've quite a routine going on now, and as Tristan says, 'All boats are sinking, its just a question of how quickly'.

The Great White Hunter

We decided our reward for all the hard work on Meriva's hull,  was to hire a jeep and tour El Hierro. Although the buses and gua guas are brilliant for linking up, its easier not to be tied by time.

El Hierro is the smallest  of the Canary Islands with an area of 27km squared and is the most recent in its geological formation. The triangular shape is due to three rifts which form its spine, and over the years giant
landslides have created El Golfo, El Juan and Las Playas.




We decided to start our tour at the Valley of Las Playas viewpoint. After driving down an unmade road into the pine forest, we found we had the best internet connection to date.....in the middle of no where! The crescent shaped collapse is 5km in diameter and 1000metres high.

The views down to the Parador at Las Playas were spectacular....bit unnerving when we heard a loud bang followed by  the sound of falling rock.
Its hard to conceive the volume of material that has fallen into the sea creating this area.







The diversity of flora on the island is fantastic. Just in the small area around the view point.

Unfortunately I only bought one floral guide with me so latin names will be added at a later date!










The countryside is spectacular with meadows and a profusion of colour, dotted with the occasional hobbled cow. Hobbled because the walls here are so low.

We drove to El Garoe, the Sacred Tree  above a well which was the 'source ' of water for the island.

Water picked up by the trade winds condenses on the mountains and trees, known as horizontal rain, it collects in natural pools. The original tree was blown down in a hurricane in 1610.

The water from this Garoe tree was used by ancient islanders, the Bimbaches, until the 15th century. The current Laurel Tree was planted in the last century actually in the main pool, not above it. The pool had been filled with earth after it lost its clay lining.

We took a deserted road to Jinama but the view was obscured by low cloud.

Tristan had previously walked  from Sabinosa on the south west of the island to El Pinar on the east with Francoise, a fellow traveller and was keen to go back to see the area without knee hieght cloud.

View over El Golfo, the second of the rifts that has collapsed into the sea. Landslides have been happening in this area during the recent seismic activity.


We lunched at Frontera, one of the most seismically active parts of the island,  followed by the drive of our lives. The road from Frontera to Sabinosa and down towards the sea is 'scary' but that was nothing compared to the butt clenching road from Sabinosa along the coast to the Monumento Meridiano! Its a good job we did it when we did as this road is now closed due to the hundreds of earthquakes in the area over the last few days, the largest being 4.9 on the Richter scale. Sabinosa has  changed its GPS position by 2cm  during this last burst of seismic activity and the island has been raised by 11cm.

 View from the parador at Sabinosa towards the area of El Hierro that is currently most volcanically active. Most of the earthquakes are out to sea.

 The scree slopes are very unstable at the moment as magma is being pushed under the island triggering landslides

Monitoring seismic activity

The road disappears and its difficult to see where you are going.....no safety barriers here!

Mirador de  Lomo Negra II at 260 m . Some of the rocks have a bluish tinge due to sea water coming in contact with very hot lava......very pretty.


We followed the road around the coast towards El Juan, the third collapsed rift.

View over El Juan.

The choice was to visit the Orchilla Lighthouse or the Meridian Monument. We opted for the latter. The road disappeared and went into a  cinder track. The tracks osteopaths love!

The Meridian monument marked the spot where one of the many meridians existed before being moved to Greenwich.















From here we meandered back to La Restinga through the pine forests.

Weird things turn up here  like giant floating orange squash bottles!

Our time in La Restinga is nearlly over. It has been an unforgetable experience. We have been covered in Saraha Dust during a Calima, experienced my first earthquake and survived hurricane force winds whilst being propped up in trees,acroprops and oil drums.
We have savored the delights of  Pastor de Oveja and El Tomillar, Quesadilla, and fresh fish  from the local Pescadores Cooperative.

We have met some wonderful people who have a fantastic lifestyle on a 'tranquil' island.

Clogged Arteries

Meriva was lifted out of the water in El Hierro on the  26th February, 2013. It all went very smooth thanks to Dario, the Crane Driver who was very professional, calm and efficient. We also had a little help from our friends LoLo, Gill, Matilde and Felice.

Go on you jump first, no you.....what shall we do?

It was an interesting challenge for Tristan to sort out the boat support on the hard without a cradle.
This would not have been possible without the help of Williams, our landlord and local 'Mr. Fix It'.

We have survived hurricane force winds and minor but frequent earthquakes,  propped up on acroprops and a cradle made of local El Hierro Canary  pine sourced from the woodyard in El Pinar.   The rusty old oil drums just add a little 'extra', just in case!

Tristan has re-caulked a lot of both the topsides and underwater seams. I re-varnished all the  varnish.

Before

The caulking cotton was posted from the UK and arrived in four days. Lucy was fantastic and posted  us replacement zinc anodes for the prop. Susanna from  ' Taxi Divers' was the key to  our parcel deliveries and we are grateful for her kindness. Caddy  in the Cooperativa  de Pescadores was brilliant at ordering materials from  Tenerife. However  we had trouble getting Epiphanes Number  24 so  Meriva is now International Ivory!

During

We have now finished painting the hull and antifouling. We have been unable to get boot top, so we have had to use anitfouling. It may not the best finish, but we need to do sea trails and will no doubt get Meriva out of the water again before the end of the year when she will have a full makeover.

Time has flown by, we will have had Meriva out of the water for a month on Tuesday, fortunately the weather hasn't been too hot. Our days in the flat are numbered  and while we have enjoyed having showers and a washing machine; being able to walk away from the boat at the end of the day has been essential for surviving the programme of boat repairs, we are looking  forward to moving back onto the boat and going sailing!

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!