La isla bonita

The usual 'marina from above' shot: Tazacorte

It's been a good stay in Tazacorte. We had planned to be off after just one week, but the favourable forecast suddenly deteriorated as we were confronted with the first gale force weather since our arrival in the Canaries back in November. It so happened that this was pretty much the best spot in the archipelago to sit out the weather, coming from the northeast as it was, so sit it out we did. No hardship, mind you! There is ample hiking to keep a body occupied for many weeks.

Church square in El Paso

Ancient petroglyphs, created by the island's
original inhabitants (pre-Spanish conquest),
outside El Paso

Caldera frog

Inside the Caldera de Taburiente

The multi-coloured waterfall

On the Route of the Volcanoes

Emerging from the clouds

Volcan Martin

Another tempting cottage 

The caldera from 1,000 metres 

View from Los Brecitos

When not hiking, we had the usual run of boat maintenance jobs to keep us busy, plus swimming, socialising and plenty of reading. Even more than Gomera, La Palma has high proportion of Germans, which is also reflected in the boats at Tazacorte Marina. A simple visit to the dentist (for which I had duly prepared the Spanish phrase for 'I have a broken molar') turned out to be a German situation - the practice consisting of 6 German dentists. Anyway, a good job done, at reasonable cost.

Our boon companions here have been the Roede Orms, a family of four on our size of vessel, the Sophies, both on one-year sabbaticals, and the Men Goes, long-term cruisers with a cat and dog (Spanish water dog) aboard. The hound, seemingly, has no problem holding its bladder for 24 hours at a stretch. Pretty ideal sea dog.

Tomorrow we plan to depart for Las Palmas.

Magic

A bridge to nowhere on La Gomera

Traditional costumes in the San Sebastian Day parade

After 45 days and one last fiesta (San Sebastian's name day) we finally managed to tear ourselves away from Gomera. Islanders partying the night through doesn't make for a good night's sleep, but we had to go sometime. We chose to go southabout the island to avoid having to beat through the acceleration zone and had a pleasant sail around to Valle Gran Rey where we anchored for the night in only slightly rolly conditions. At 0430 next morning we hoisted our anchor and motored out from the wind shadow of the island on a beautiful starry night. Destination: Tazacorte, on the west side of La Palma, about 55 NM away. The wind was a brisk Force 5 to begin with but soon moderated. How nice to have good sailing conditions at last! Alas, as soon as we rounded the lighthouse on the southern tip of La Palma the wind was blocked by the high island, like switching off a fan, and we had to motor the rest of the way.

The anchorage at Valle Gran Rey

Tazacorte, with the slightly bizarre slogan 'the last and peaceful European marina', turns out not quite so peaceful after all. A recently built sea wall is being demolished. Drilling starts at 8 am and continues, with seemingly random intermissions, until dusk. Other than that, it's a nice place and quite a few of the gang from Gomera have appeared here as well. Yesterday we escaped the construction noise by hiring a car with Alois and Daniela of Galloper and Ludo of Siddhi and explored the beautiful northwest of La Palma.

It's the almond blossom season

From the banana plantations near Tazacorte, we quickly passed through a wine-growing region and almond orchards just coming into bloom to pine forests at higher altitude. This is when smoke began to pour from the engine of the rental car. Luckily, unlike the rest of us (oops), Daniela had her mobile on her and after a short tea break we were presented with an identical car, albeit with less fuel. We only noticed this halfway up the mountain to the 2400 odd metre Roque de los Muchachos and kept our fingers crossed that the fuel was enough to make it there and back down to the nearest petrol station.

The MAGIC telescope

Roque de los Muchachos is the site of numerous telescopes, including the very cool-looking and impressively acronymed MAGIC telescope, which indirectly detects black holes by observing light emitted when gamma rays collide with particles in the upper atmosphere. La Palma has a special law forbidding the use of upwards-pointing lamps to keep light pollution to a minimum and, on the mountain, use of vehicle headlights is not allowed.

More telescopes

View over Caldeira Taburiente

The mountain top was above the tree line and above the clouds (hence the value of the site for observatories) with stunning views over the caldeira to El Teide on Tenerife and El Hierro to the southeast. A magical place.

Sailors on top of the world

Deluxe caves at Puerto de Puntagorda

On the way down we expended the last of the fuel on the final hill before the closest petrol station and rolled into it, breathing a sigh of relief. We then stopped at the cove of Puerto de Puntagorda where locals have converted caves into summer cabins and hewn a natural swimming pool from the rocks. A bottle of Palmeran white wine on a terrace overlooking the sea at sunset rounded off a super day. The western side of the island is definitely the more beautiful and we are glad we came back for it.

Mystery leak revealed

Burns Supper on board Fettler.
Thanks to Robin for the tinned haggis and whiskey!

On the passage over we again had a little bit of water coming in at the same place as the old mystery leak, thought to have been remedied in the Azores. Jim decided to take the angle grinder to the area and revealed some old damage which had not been repaired properly. Eight layers of glass later, this should not give us any further trouble.

Fiesta!

While storms and gales rage back home in Edinburgh, we have slowed to winter-in-the-Canaries pace and savoured the unfamiliar sensations of celebrating Christmas and Hogmanay in shorts and tee-shirt. Sonja's folks left us on the 16th of December and, though our original intention was to return to Las Palmas for the festive season, the gentle charms of La Gomera convinced us to stick around and enjoy.

The charms of La Gomera: Playa de la Guancha,

Views of El Teide and

Los Roques

San Sebastian is a real cat town, with its main park a haven for moggies. There are several dozen of them, fed and looked after by cat-loving locals. Nearly all of them have been neutered (and have a clipped ear to make it obvious) and look fit and healthy, but they do make themselves scarce when there are small children about, suggesting some unfortunate experiences. The marina has two cute felines, too.

The marina cats (Photo: Andy Scott)

Wildlife in the park

Half Ear, the friendliest of the park felines

It may not be the cheapest of marinas, but San Sebastian is very pleasant and well stocked with cruising boats and cruisers of our type - small and unpretentious, fun to spend time and share ideas with. We keep learning at every encounter and feel privileged to be part of this distinct community existing on the margins of society, moving on the oceans and meeting on the fringes of the lands. Unsurprisingly most are retired and not facing the prospect of having to return to work or the fear of running out of funds, but there is a substantial minority of younger folk either taking a year or two out, working and sailing in bursts or living by some alternative means that we've yet to discover.

These islands are staunchly Catholic, so Christmas is a big deal. There was a lot going on during the evenings previous, including the Nativity play put on by the community - Belen Viviente (Living Bethlehem). Perhaps a hundred people of all ages were involved in the production (plus goats and ducks) and it was watched by most of the rest of the town.

Hanging out on Pajaro (Photo: Andy Scott)

Christmas Eve is the main focus of the celebrations, but it took us some time to figure out what was going on. We went out with our Spanish friend Fernando (who sails a 1963 Pearson Triton, Pajaro, uses hank-on headsails and a similar paraffin stove to ours) at about 11 in the evening to look for a beer. The streets were almost completely deserted, the only sign of life being the sounds of family celebrations drifting out from the windows above. It was almost uncanny, a ghost town. A dark figure approached and Fernando stopped to ask him what was happening. The chap was very friendly and obliging but unfortunately and, somehow aptly, mute. He whipped out a note pad and wrote down, "It's Christmas Eve. Everybody is at home celebrating with their families." Fernando further enquired if things would pick up again later and the written reply assured us they would. We stopped in at the church and listened to a little of the midnight mass before returning to the boat for a whisky.

When we re-emerged the party was getting started. Bars opened up, sound systems began pumping. Hundreds of very smartly dressed people poured into the streets, dancing, drinking and flirting. The noisiest bars, as ever, were right next to the marina so there really wasn't much point in going home to bed and we stayed the course, keeping an eye on proceedings until it all started to wind down at around 0600.

Some of the Christmas BBQ crowd (Photo: Andy Scott)

We were back up again in good time to join the big cruisers' Christmas BBQ on the pier which, extraordinarily, Canarian Television sent a crew to cover. Sure it was a splendid event, attended by sailors from all over, but it must have been a slow news day. The BBQ was a potluck affair with everyone bringing along some meat, salad, drink or sweet. Beautiful.

Hogmanay was celebrated in similar style, with a big sailors' BBQ and then on to the town party which commenced at midnight with a very good dance band playing. The locals didn't really get going until 0200, which was about the time Sonja and I turned in. We slept surprisingly well, given the incredibly loud music that went on non-stop (a disco taking up where the band left off) until around noon the following day. Serious party people, these Latins!

La Gomera, a compact island of contrasts

We have now spent a week exploring Gomera with my parents and it may just be our favourite Canary island. There is lots of good hiking, with extensive forests on the cool high plateau in the centre of the island and terraced ravines on its outside. In fact, everywhere that can be terraced has been terraced, but unfortunately most of the terraces are no longer cultivated; at most a few little dragon trees grow on them. It's not quite clear why so much land has been abandoned for agricultural production, but most likely it's due to the climate being significantly drier than in the past. The temperature gradient on the island is amazing. We've passed in an hour from 25C at sea level to 10C at around 1000m elevation.

There are a lot of interesting small boats about in the marina. The Talisker Challenge (rowing across the Atlantic,  solo or in teams) left from here just before we arrived, but two of the boats subsequently limped back. For a row boat they are quite deluxe, but it's still a hardcore endeavour. Jim admits to being strangely tempted by these little craft...

On our pontoon there are some French sailing legends, twins Emannuel and Maximilien Berque, who have made a habit of sailing tiny home-built vessels across the Atlantic. They have even done it without any instruments - no sextant, no GPS, no compass - nada. The latest Micromegas is their fifth, a 5 metre-long catamaran. Each hull is just a big enough pod for one to sleep in. They have a Trangia camping stove and carry 50L of drinking water for the crossing. Ah, the home comforts of Fettler!

Seeing numerous bags of gofio piled up on the catamaran made us want to try this Canarian cereal flour and it turns out to be great boat food. Gofio is pre-cooked and comes in different grain varieties (maize, wheat, barley and mixed). It's somewhat reminiscent of Weetabix. We've now switched to it for breakfast, mixed up with milk, date syrup and banana. Gofio, especially the corn variety, can also be used in savoury dishes, for thickening soups etc. Maximilien and Emannuel even mix it with red wine.

We checked out several possible anchorages on the south coast of the island by land and they all seem quite open and prone to swell so we are not sure if we are going to go there by sea. The Canaries are definitely not an anchoring hotspot; the only protected anchorages being found inside larger harbours. The wind fairly howls through the marina most days, funnelling through the high valleys, but once out of the wind the weather is balmy and, unlike the locals, we still swim in the sea most days. We are now chillling in San Sebastian and waiting for the strong northeasterlies to subside for a couple of days so that we can make for Las Palmas in time for Christmas and New Year. That being said, this place is growing on us to the extent that we might just sit tight a while longer.

Gran turismo

Inside the GPS

Our three weeks in Las Palmas passed very quickly. First we did a lot of boat jobs, including changing the display on our GPS (thanks to Dave and Fran for still having one and sending it to us!) and installing a 60W solar panel after the non-marine-grade solar suitcase broke. We don't have space to mount the panel permanently so it is moved around to catch the sun at anchor or in the marina and then fits snugly under the cabin table while under way. Then we did a lot of socialising and a bit of exploring, but only in city limits.

One of Christopher Columbus' old pads.

The cathedral, Santa Ana.

Las Canteras

Highlights of the social life in Las Palmas were a big Thanksgiving party organised by the American sailors in the anchorage (yes, there are boats with ovens large enough to cook turkey), the hospitality by Liz and Terry aboard Mahler and hanging out with some real Northeners, Erik and Solfrid on Fulmar, whose home port is Longyearbyen (80 degrees North).

We elected to stay at anchor for most of the time, partly for fear of acquiring cucarachas on board, something we want to avoid at all costs. During the four days we spent in Las Palmas marina and again in San Sebastian on La Gomera we liberally sprinkled insecticide on our mooring lines to keep the cockroaches out. Certainly something you don't have to think about in the North!

The produce grown on the Canaries is excellent and we've been enjoying the local tropical fruits such as custard apple, mango, persimmon and guava as well as the citrus fruits and bananas. In fact, the scent of the guavas in the hammock permeated the whole cabin, no need for incense.

The Christmas decorations are going up in the islands, but it's hard to feel in the Christmas spirit when the weather is warm and the scenery arid. The palm trees along the Las Palmas harbour front are decked out in blue LEDs, there are nativity scenes sculpted out of the sand on the main beach and baubles in some large cacti. Mahler had a Christmas lighting up party and her strings of coloured dolphins are much more tasteful than the santas climbing up the rigging on a neighbouring boat in the anchorage.

The Christmas sand sculpture

And the anti-capitalist one.

Our passage from Las Palmas to Gomera was a good one. We saw flying fish and a shark and Jim saw lots of dolphins, common and bottlenose, during his night and early morning watches. We went down the east coast of Gran Canaria and got a good look at the barren hill sides. The whole island looks parched. We tried to stop at Pasito Blanco in the south, but the swell was outrageous and it turned out not to be feasible to anchor anywhere along that coast in these conditions. On it was, through the night. This time we experienced the infamous acceleration zones between the islands as we crossed from Gran Canaria to Tenerife. One minute we were motorsailing, the next we had Force 6 from the north and a heavy swell, making for several hours of wild sailing. As soon as we passed the southern tip of Tenerife all calmed down again and it was back on with the engine. We arrived at San Sebastian at lunchtime in brilliant sunshine and are now awaiting the arrival of my parents who will be spending a week on the island.

Barren island: the southeast coast of Gran Canaria

We've been doing some hard thinking about our cruising plans and, as usual, it's all change. We have decided to remain in European waters – quite a hard decision to take while surrounded by hundreds of boats preparing their crossing to the Caribbean or South America, but it feels like the right one for us. Coming this far south, we've realised that we don't want to be away for years and years and that we do want to explore and spend time in the places that interest us closer to home. What we enjoy most about sailing is the pottering about and it makes more sense to do that in Europe than go thousands of miles and spend a lot of time on the ocean and then have a long way back again, with not much help from the prevailing winds. One thing we considered was going to the Caribbean rather than to Brazil, but it doesn't appeal to us that much (one memorable description by an American sailor: 'the best sailing in the world but don't bother going ashore') and you need to really want to get to the other side, otherwise there is not much point in crossing the ocean. We'd rather have nice hills ashore for hiking, secluded anchorages and friendly locals than hot weather, nice as it is.

So the new plan is to winter in the Canaries, toodling around all the islands apart from El Hierro (where there's currently a volcanic eruption going on). In the spring, head for Madeira and northern Portugal, spend a lot of time cruising Galicia and maybe overwinter there (with full use of our paraffin heater). More than once we've heard from people that the best bit of their Atlantic Round was Galicia. Then continue the Celtic cruising and make our way back home via Brittany, Cornwall, Ireland and Scotland. And  instead of Patagonia, one summer we'll go to the Lofoten islands.

La Palma to Las Palmas

Santa Cruz de La Palma

We spent 10 days in La Palma and probably didn't do it full justice as we were recovering from the passage down (mentally more than physically really). Even so, we had a good time and found the island very pleasant, with varied scenery and excellent fresh produce.

To the north: a dry river gorge, with plenty of bananas growing. 

In the midst of high laurel forest.

To the south: scene of the most recent volcanic activity (70s).

Black sand and igneous rock abutting blue sea and sky.

Although the marina was about half empty there was no shortage of fellow cruisers for us to hang out with. It was a particular pleasure to meet Pippa and Dee on Sula - our kind of boat: Elizabethan 31, 1967 vintage. They proved to be great partners in foraging and we enjoyed a couple of chestnut feasts together. Our other great foraging success was finding a big patch of ripe cherry tomatoes growing wild by the roadside. Delicious!

We departed SC de LP on the Monday evening so that we could be confident of reaching Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in daylight, on Wednesday morning. The passage was fairly uneventful and mostly pleasant. We skirted round the dreaded acceleration zones (where the wind funnels around and between the high islands and can suddenly boost its speed by 15 knots) and didn't have to motor much.

Originally we planned to wait until after the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) had left Las Palmas but Raymarine tech support (whom we contacted about the problem with our wind instrument) directed us there to meet up with their factory engineer in town just for the big event.
Many times we'd been told that Las Palmas is a mad place to be in the run-up to the ARC. Over 200, mostly large and very expensive, boats fill the marina to capacity and the overspill fills the anchorage area as well. We were a bit nervous about even finding a spot to drop the hook but all proved to be well on arrival when we found a Fettler-sized gap tucked well in to the anchorage.

Marina? Full.

No expense spared. A helicopter rescue
demonstration for the ARC.

Things were snug in the anchorage.

Las Palmas has been altogether a pleasant surprise. We had good luck with getting things sorted right from the start, when we randomly encountered the very Raymarine engineer we needed to see. Within hours of arrival the TackTick trouble was over.
The social scene is brilliant too and we're really enjoying catching up with old friends and meeting new. Las Palmas is a big city and looks possibly a bit grim on the approach but it's very friendly and a half-hour walk takes one into the charming old town. There's even a free city bike scheme which we have been able to register for.

The ARC departed yesterday, amidst great fanfare. We walked along the sea wall to see them off and returned to a much more tranquil marina and anchorage.

And they're off!

Bow fenders are compulsory at the start.

Next stop: St. Lucia. Bon voyage!