Cruising the Canaries
10 November 2015 | Las Palmas, Gran Canaria
John Rowling
The old saw is that cruising is the art of boat maintenance in exotic places – and our passage sail from Gibraltar had found a few more matters that needed attention. While the crew got to work it was not long, however, before the Tenerife touring sirens began to call.
Santa Cruz turned out to be a Spanish gem – and although it’s a cruise and ferry ship hub for the island, the flow of passengers didn’t detract from its pedestrian-only boulevards and its intimate green plazas and parks. The atmosphere was relaxed and inviting. We tried a number of restaurants and cafes and found them all to be consistently good – both for service and quality of food.
The prize for service went to the maître de of the restaurant we dined at the first night in Santa Cruz. He had a comic style and brilliant timing. Garth, before ordering, asked the MD’s advice on one of the Canarian specialties of the house – the rabbit. The response – “it’s a very good rabbit dish (carefully considered pause) - if you like rabbit”! Garth chanced his arm and had the rabbit anyway. A close run second was the last night at a little restaurant we had all walked past from and to the marina for days. It proved to be very good home cooking, with the proprietor performing the roles of MD, waiter, sommelier, barman, assistant cook and chief bottle washer in the very small kitchen. It was a masterly and cheerful performance, enhanced by his Canarian wine recommendations and the excellent Spanish fare.
Steve took on with enthusiasm the roll of tour organiser and soon had us fitted up for a day tour to El Tiede – the largest mountain in Spain and one of the largest volcanoes in the world, rising over 7500 metres from the sea bed. Our driver was enthusiastic but his English limited. Fortunately Steve proved to be very competent interpreter. We swept through Laguna - an old island military town now a university town – on the outskirts of Santa Cruz and then onto the majestic volcano. We came, saw, marvelled, clambered, photographed and then went onto La Oratava - the capital of the original inhabitants of Tenerife eventually over-run by the Spanish conquistadors – before eventually returning to Trilogy via some of not very attractive tourist strips.
Our original plan had been, after exploring Tenerife, to sail first to Gomera, and then onto La Palma, before heading to Gran Canaria, the starting point for the ARC.
Bad weather interfered with our plans so we dropped La Palma in favour of Gomera. Good call. San Sebastian – Christopher Colombus’ port of departure for his voyages of discovery in the new world – was a small but appealing town, again with shady plazas and pedestrian friendly streets. San Sebastian promotes itself as the last provisioning post of the great explorer, but it seems Christopher had a love interest there too.
Steve and Paul hired a van and we went exploring. The scenery was exhilarating, the roads good but winding. The only 100 metres of straight road on the island happened to be at the marina. The rest was twisty and hilly – 50 klms of driving to make 25. Another great day of touring with stopovers at Agulo (a small hamlet of twisting roads and restored buildings) and the Parque National de Garangoy (an ancient forest of laurels). The highlights were many – the low light the marketing type who sold a line to the guide book to visit Playa de Alojera – “arguably the best beach in Gomera”. Towels and bathers at the ready we diverted off the main drag. It was a torturous drive and the end point deflating. The beach was under siege from landslides – some of the resort had already been swept away and the rest was deserted waiting its fate. The beach too was deserted – an uninviting black rock and stone swathe, with rocks and other dangers lurking beneath the cloudy water. We beat a hasty retreat back to the boat before the next landslide claimed us.
And so onto Gran Canaria some 120nm away. Our destination - Las Palmas - was mainly to windward – a hard uncomfortable slog upwind against strong currents. Some-what more character building than anticipated, but a good workout before the ARC.
The discomfort of the passage was forgotten shortly after dawn when we passed through a pod of about 100 small dolphins which were hunting and playing alongside a small pod of pilot whales before entering the marina at Las Palmas. It was a welcome sight to find large number of yachts which were participating in the ARC already berthed, flags cheerily fluttering in the early morning breeze.
Canary island cruising done, it was time to join the other 200 plus yachts and 1250 crew participating in the 30th Atlantic Rally for Cruisers.