Briefly Las Palmas and then on to Tenerife
We had headed for Las Palmas fully expecting not to get into the Marina as the ARC (Atlantic Rally Crossing), 170 boats were gathering in preparation for their start on 20 November. We were prepared to anchor or in the worst-case scenario turn on the nav lights and keep going to Tenerife. Amazingly we got in for two nights. We did not see much of the island but we did find a great chandlery, immersed ourselves in the hustle and bustle or ARC fever, and got to see a bit of the old town, hang out and eat at the famous Sailors Bar, etc. The two nights flew by. On our last night, we were invited onto FatJax, a 64ft Shipman, for rum and lime cocktails.....a warm-up for the Caribbean. We had met Iain and Jacqui Kirkpatrick in the Graciosa anchorage. He had raced the ARC a few times and won it at least twice. The previous times had been with a full racing crew but this time he was doing it with just his wife and daughter. He was supposed to be taking it easy with them on board. Iain was a friendly, quiet, and understated guy that belied another side. Veronica asked him a few questions that will give you a bit of a sense of this. She asked him how often he flew the spinnaker on the crossing, the answer was that when he had a full racing crew, 100% of the time. They had 4 spinnakers on board and in one ARC had blown out and repaired 2. He also told her that they hand steer the boat 100% of the time as the autopilot can never do it as well as a human. When we went on the boat for drinks, there was an area about the size of a dance floor behind the dual helms. Veronica asked where you sit when you are helming the boat, the answer was that the helmsman never sits. We got the sense that the wife and daughter were going to have to put a bit in his mouth and pull very hard on reins, probably to no avail. This is certainly looking true as The ARC enters its 3rd day at sea. They are wonderful people and we hope to see them in the Caribbean. [A postscript update as I edit this before publishing it...... Veronica has been in touch with Jacqui by satellite e-mail. They were motoring the last 3 days into St Lucia after splitting the last of their spinnakers in half from top to bottom and losing a shackle from the jib and having to lash it to the rail.........you need deep pockets when you do this on a 64ft boat].
We left for Tenerife having had no response to our e-mails to get a booking in the Marina at Santa Cruz. This was a pattern in the Canaries. Veronica phoned them in the morning and was told that yes, they might have a berth but the lady would have to phone back to confirm between noon and 14:00. As we were halfway across the channel and in the traffic separation scheme, we got a call back to say sorry, no berth. We then frantically called 4 other smaller Marinas that were within striking distance and got; no sorry we are full. Eventually we decided to go north to an anchorage and try again for a marina the next day.
We had had a few hints, a few signs. But we were in denial and favoured other explanations. On the crossing from Gran Canary to Tenerife we had irrefutable evidence. The drawer with sweets, snacks, crackers and rye bread had been set upon, nibbles into many things, we had a hitchhiker on board and at this stage we did not know whether it was ratty or mousy. We needed it off the boat ASAP in case it started eating wires or pipes. In the worst case scenario this could cause a fire or if it went through a sea water pipe below the water level, sink the boat. It was the beginning of a stressful week, this exacerbated by the fact that we could not get into a Marina and get access to traps and sticky rat mats ASAP.
After a rolly night in Antequera (the anchorage up north) punctuated with the occasional rodent-rustling and pitter-pattering in the night, we headed south to Santa Cruz to try to get into a marina and to get some rodent traps before the shops closed on Saturday lunch time. We were successful with the latter. Mark went ashore at the northernmost Marina (which had no room for us) and went in search of traps and sticky mats and ended up walking about 10km with us picking him up at the main Santa Cruz marina, which after much negotiating with the worlds most unhelpful lady, we had to leave and head south for an anchorage again. We crept deep into Bahía de Abona, a rural back water and actually a very nice and comfortable anchorage that we shared with the Kiwi catamaran that had been with us the night before. Veronica and I went ashore on the big paddleboard and had a drink and a pleasant chat with our Kiwi neighbours. Luckily on both anchorages, the weather was benign and if not for our rodent passenger, they would have been sublime. On our third night on Tenerife, we managed to get into a Marina. San Miguel, right down south. It was to become home for 12 nights and I guess that was great as we needed some time to take stock and catch up on boat jobs, get rid of the rodent who was seriously overstaying its welcome. Once that happened, we could get our heads around provisioning, etcetera.
After the first night, Mark and Sarah decided it was time to go terrestrial to enjoy some time in the mountains and give us a break before our crossing crew arrived. Right! Time for serious rodent removal mode. We had traps and mats down everywhere but we were now getting a bit desperate. We called a local company called "Fog Off". Craig was fantastic, ultimately we had 12 traps down in the boat, some went off but our rodent friend was a clever bugger.
After four days in San Miguel all went quiet at night. We had 3 days with no noise and no evidence. We had the boat upside down with everything unpacked and vacuuming and checking every bilge with the 230v wet-dry vacuum cleaner. 3 days later we discovered his escape route. He had evaded all traps, but maybe got scared off by a rat-deterrent app that Veronica downloaded. We were sceptical about this as of course you can't hear the frequency of sound it emits, but it is supposed to sound like a very shrill alarm to rodents! Well, it seemed, he had gone up the engine blower intake pipe and chewed his way through the plastic vent. Incredibly and mercifully, to date we are yet to discover any other evidence of, or actual damage. All systems seem to be operating normally. Thank God!
In twelve nights you start to get familiar with a place, we hired a car twice for 3 day spells and found hardware stores, bought chandlery stuff, got a lot of boat work done, bought water containers from Chinatown (an amazing shop in a lot of wrong ways). Veronica had a haircut, I didn't.
We went to Santa Cruz, a lovely city, to visit some people that Veronica had been chatting to all across the Med. They have an Outremer 51, named Umoya (Xhosa for Spirit), and were crossing ahead of us. We shared a great lunch with them and on the way home, visited the Pyramids of Guimar, the restoration of which, was funded by the Norwegian anthropologist who did the Ra, Kontiki and Thor expeditions. It was worth a visit and much of the gardens and museum centred on his efforts to prove how people had navigated the major oceans long before the likes of Columbus, Bartholomew Dias, Drake, etcetera. It gave examples of pyramids all around the globe implying that there were similarities that contributed to the evidence that these civilizations had had a way of crossing oceans.
Our new crew, Phil and Mike were arriving between 21 and 24 November. Originally we were planning to meet them in Las Palmas but a combination of being unable to find a marina up north, a pesky rodent and strong winds over the days leading up to their arrival, meant that we decided that there was no ways we were going to go to the weather to fetch them. Sorry guys but the golden expectation management rule, you find the boat, the boat doesn't necessarily find you, came into play. Thanks for understanding.
Mike arrived and helped with boat jobs and took in some of the local stuff. We had booked a cable car ticket for the three of us to go up El Tiede, Spain's highest mountain. We got the hire car and set off, up up up. We climbed through the narrow roads, into the pine forests and into the volcanic moonscape in the National Park. We did a 5km walk at about 2100m amongst stunning rock formations and towering volcanic plugs. This Volcano rises 2000m from the sea floor and then another 3715m above that. Obviously, it has had many eruptions over the years, the last one was in the Middle ages which increased the height from 2500 to 2715m. There have been many vents and plugs over the years and what happens is that the lava that erupts and becomes sub-aerially exposed cools pretty much instantaneously and it is also layered/stratified with pyroclastic material, the stuff that is blown up into the air and rains down still semi-molten and on landing and cooling welds itself together leaving vugs (gaps) between them. This material is relatively soft and erodes easily. By contrast when an extrusive vent becomes inactive for whatever reason the lava inside the vent cools slowly. This is evidenced by the much coarser grain size. The mineral crystals actually have time to grow before everything around them cools and restricts their growth. The main result is much harder rock. Hence the old vents weather positively leaving spectacular rock towers. Also, in the landscape contraction cracks and smooth flow structures were evident. It was an exhilarating walk but the 150m vertical climb back up to the carpark was a little testing at over 2000m. There was more to come. We visited the impressive visitors centre which focused on the volcanic history but also on the local, and what I thought was interestingly called "Aboriginal" population. They were the Gaunchos. These guys were in the Canaries before the marauding, conquering and greedy Europeans arrived. It turns out they were somehow related to the Berbers but what I think is outstandingly interesting is that they somehow got to the Canary islands but they did not communicate or sail between them, each island had its isolated community. They did not trade between islands, communicate or co-operate. The language suggested they had some Egyptian connection. On Tenerife, when the Spanish settled, these guys retreated to the highlands and concentrated on honey harvesting and harsh subsistence, goats mainly. Incredibly at altitude in the winter, they extracted ice from the caves and took it down to 200m to trade with the Spaniards.
We went up El Tiede. The cable car base station is at about 2300m and the top is 3550m, with the top of the hill at 3715m.a.m.s.l. It is the highest I have ever been and still been in contact with terra firma. It is Spain's highest mountain. The views were stunning but the air was thin. We did the 500m walk to the look-out on the northern side of the peak. 15 steps up left you feeling dizzy and out of breath. Absolutely recommended if you're in Tenerife.
As an interlude paragraph, I should just mention that very much part of this trip has been running into and befriending so many like-minded people that are crossing this season. There are many other examples but in San Miguel we were back-to back with Ocean Dream 2 and Paul and Angie were on their way around the world for a second time. They had taken a year or two out in their 30's and almost completed it, when their second child was conceived. Paul took the boat back to the Med from Thailand. They told dreamy stories about the Pacific, were lovely people and generally spurred us on. Interestingly, there was a young couple on a boat called Curly. They had met in Sydney, he was Aussie and she was Norwegian. They were fitting a hydrovane, got two new crew and set off without any sea trails. They were back the same evening. The through hull bolt of the vane had leaked. They had not put a backing plate and Sikaflex behind the mounting on the boat. This was frankly at best naïve, to be fair silly and to be less fair, stupid. The lovely Norwegian had a melt down and was going to bail, the Aussie loved her, so he said he would carry on with the others and marry her later. Paul from Ocean Dream 2 told her about their first trip at the same age that they were now. He changed her mind, the local chandlery arranged to have a backing plate made-up and hopefully everything was happy thereafter. Just one story from the people that we have and continue to meet.
The following day we did our 1st of 2 big shops to provision the boat. Veronica wanted to stay in the Marina to sort the boat and Mike and I took a stunning drive all the way around the island. By contrast the northern side was lush and verdant. We descended 500m vertical down what is honestly the steepest and scariest set of switchbacks that I have ever experienced, a 20% gradient. We ended up in Santa Cruz, where we were to meet Phil, our fourth crew member, off the 21h00 highspeed ferry.
The next day, Veronica went with Phil for the second major provisioning shop for the Atlantic crossing. We are of course going to be able to replenish in Mindelo, Cape Verde but we needed to take advantage of the quality shops and the prices and variety they offered. While they were shopping, I went with our neighbours an hour to San Sebastian to check out the boat and check out all our crew. You could only do this on Tenerife and they cared less that you were going to go to another island for several days before actually leaving the Canaries and of course, The European Union. On the 26th November 2022, we finally departed for San Sebastian on Al Gomera. We had heard very favourable reports on the island. It was 35 NM and we had a gentle and wonderful sail, perfect for the new crew's initiation. In the next blog, Al Gomera and a passage to Cape Verde.
We left for Tenerife having had no response to our e-mails to get a booking in the Marina at Santa Cruz. This was a pattern in the Canaries. Veronica phoned them in the morning and was told that yes, they might have a berth but the lady would have to phone back to confirm between noon and 14:00. As we were halfway across the channel and in the traffic separation scheme, we got a call back to say sorry, no berth. We then frantically called 4 other smaller Marinas that were within striking distance and got; no sorry we are full. Eventually we decided to go north to an anchorage and try again for a marina the next day.
We had had a few hints, a few signs. But we were in denial and favoured other explanations. On the crossing from Gran Canary to Tenerife we had irrefutable evidence. The drawer with sweets, snacks, crackers and rye bread had been set upon, nibbles into many things, we had a hitchhiker on board and at this stage we did not know whether it was ratty or mousy. We needed it off the boat ASAP in case it started eating wires or pipes. In the worst case scenario this could cause a fire or if it went through a sea water pipe below the water level, sink the boat. It was the beginning of a stressful week, this exacerbated by the fact that we could not get into a Marina and get access to traps and sticky rat mats ASAP.
After a rolly night in Antequera (the anchorage up north) punctuated with the occasional rodent-rustling and pitter-pattering in the night, we headed south to Santa Cruz to try to get into a marina and to get some rodent traps before the shops closed on Saturday lunch time. We were successful with the latter. Mark went ashore at the northernmost Marina (which had no room for us) and went in search of traps and sticky mats and ended up walking about 10km with us picking him up at the main Santa Cruz marina, which after much negotiating with the worlds most unhelpful lady, we had to leave and head south for an anchorage again. We crept deep into Bahía de Abona, a rural back water and actually a very nice and comfortable anchorage that we shared with the Kiwi catamaran that had been with us the night before. Veronica and I went ashore on the big paddleboard and had a drink and a pleasant chat with our Kiwi neighbours. Luckily on both anchorages, the weather was benign and if not for our rodent passenger, they would have been sublime. On our third night on Tenerife, we managed to get into a Marina. San Miguel, right down south. It was to become home for 12 nights and I guess that was great as we needed some time to take stock and catch up on boat jobs, get rid of the rodent who was seriously overstaying its welcome. Once that happened, we could get our heads around provisioning, etcetera.
After the first night, Mark and Sarah decided it was time to go terrestrial to enjoy some time in the mountains and give us a break before our crossing crew arrived. Right! Time for serious rodent removal mode. We had traps and mats down everywhere but we were now getting a bit desperate. We called a local company called "Fog Off". Craig was fantastic, ultimately we had 12 traps down in the boat, some went off but our rodent friend was a clever bugger.
After four days in San Miguel all went quiet at night. We had 3 days with no noise and no evidence. We had the boat upside down with everything unpacked and vacuuming and checking every bilge with the 230v wet-dry vacuum cleaner. 3 days later we discovered his escape route. He had evaded all traps, but maybe got scared off by a rat-deterrent app that Veronica downloaded. We were sceptical about this as of course you can't hear the frequency of sound it emits, but it is supposed to sound like a very shrill alarm to rodents! Well, it seemed, he had gone up the engine blower intake pipe and chewed his way through the plastic vent. Incredibly and mercifully, to date we are yet to discover any other evidence of, or actual damage. All systems seem to be operating normally. Thank God!
In twelve nights you start to get familiar with a place, we hired a car twice for 3 day spells and found hardware stores, bought chandlery stuff, got a lot of boat work done, bought water containers from Chinatown (an amazing shop in a lot of wrong ways). Veronica had a haircut, I didn't.
We went to Santa Cruz, a lovely city, to visit some people that Veronica had been chatting to all across the Med. They have an Outremer 51, named Umoya (Xhosa for Spirit), and were crossing ahead of us. We shared a great lunch with them and on the way home, visited the Pyramids of Guimar, the restoration of which, was funded by the Norwegian anthropologist who did the Ra, Kontiki and Thor expeditions. It was worth a visit and much of the gardens and museum centred on his efforts to prove how people had navigated the major oceans long before the likes of Columbus, Bartholomew Dias, Drake, etcetera. It gave examples of pyramids all around the globe implying that there were similarities that contributed to the evidence that these civilizations had had a way of crossing oceans.
Our new crew, Phil and Mike were arriving between 21 and 24 November. Originally we were planning to meet them in Las Palmas but a combination of being unable to find a marina up north, a pesky rodent and strong winds over the days leading up to their arrival, meant that we decided that there was no ways we were going to go to the weather to fetch them. Sorry guys but the golden expectation management rule, you find the boat, the boat doesn't necessarily find you, came into play. Thanks for understanding.
Mike arrived and helped with boat jobs and took in some of the local stuff. We had booked a cable car ticket for the three of us to go up El Tiede, Spain's highest mountain. We got the hire car and set off, up up up. We climbed through the narrow roads, into the pine forests and into the volcanic moonscape in the National Park. We did a 5km walk at about 2100m amongst stunning rock formations and towering volcanic plugs. This Volcano rises 2000m from the sea floor and then another 3715m above that. Obviously, it has had many eruptions over the years, the last one was in the Middle ages which increased the height from 2500 to 2715m. There have been many vents and plugs over the years and what happens is that the lava that erupts and becomes sub-aerially exposed cools pretty much instantaneously and it is also layered/stratified with pyroclastic material, the stuff that is blown up into the air and rains down still semi-molten and on landing and cooling welds itself together leaving vugs (gaps) between them. This material is relatively soft and erodes easily. By contrast when an extrusive vent becomes inactive for whatever reason the lava inside the vent cools slowly. This is evidenced by the much coarser grain size. The mineral crystals actually have time to grow before everything around them cools and restricts their growth. The main result is much harder rock. Hence the old vents weather positively leaving spectacular rock towers. Also, in the landscape contraction cracks and smooth flow structures were evident. It was an exhilarating walk but the 150m vertical climb back up to the carpark was a little testing at over 2000m. There was more to come. We visited the impressive visitors centre which focused on the volcanic history but also on the local, and what I thought was interestingly called "Aboriginal" population. They were the Gaunchos. These guys were in the Canaries before the marauding, conquering and greedy Europeans arrived. It turns out they were somehow related to the Berbers but what I think is outstandingly interesting is that they somehow got to the Canary islands but they did not communicate or sail between them, each island had its isolated community. They did not trade between islands, communicate or co-operate. The language suggested they had some Egyptian connection. On Tenerife, when the Spanish settled, these guys retreated to the highlands and concentrated on honey harvesting and harsh subsistence, goats mainly. Incredibly at altitude in the winter, they extracted ice from the caves and took it down to 200m to trade with the Spaniards.
We went up El Tiede. The cable car base station is at about 2300m and the top is 3550m, with the top of the hill at 3715m.a.m.s.l. It is the highest I have ever been and still been in contact with terra firma. It is Spain's highest mountain. The views were stunning but the air was thin. We did the 500m walk to the look-out on the northern side of the peak. 15 steps up left you feeling dizzy and out of breath. Absolutely recommended if you're in Tenerife.
As an interlude paragraph, I should just mention that very much part of this trip has been running into and befriending so many like-minded people that are crossing this season. There are many other examples but in San Miguel we were back-to back with Ocean Dream 2 and Paul and Angie were on their way around the world for a second time. They had taken a year or two out in their 30's and almost completed it, when their second child was conceived. Paul took the boat back to the Med from Thailand. They told dreamy stories about the Pacific, were lovely people and generally spurred us on. Interestingly, there was a young couple on a boat called Curly. They had met in Sydney, he was Aussie and she was Norwegian. They were fitting a hydrovane, got two new crew and set off without any sea trails. They were back the same evening. The through hull bolt of the vane had leaked. They had not put a backing plate and Sikaflex behind the mounting on the boat. This was frankly at best naïve, to be fair silly and to be less fair, stupid. The lovely Norwegian had a melt down and was going to bail, the Aussie loved her, so he said he would carry on with the others and marry her later. Paul from Ocean Dream 2 told her about their first trip at the same age that they were now. He changed her mind, the local chandlery arranged to have a backing plate made-up and hopefully everything was happy thereafter. Just one story from the people that we have and continue to meet.
The following day we did our 1st of 2 big shops to provision the boat. Veronica wanted to stay in the Marina to sort the boat and Mike and I took a stunning drive all the way around the island. By contrast the northern side was lush and verdant. We descended 500m vertical down what is honestly the steepest and scariest set of switchbacks that I have ever experienced, a 20% gradient. We ended up in Santa Cruz, where we were to meet Phil, our fourth crew member, off the 21h00 highspeed ferry.
The next day, Veronica went with Phil for the second major provisioning shop for the Atlantic crossing. We are of course going to be able to replenish in Mindelo, Cape Verde but we needed to take advantage of the quality shops and the prices and variety they offered. While they were shopping, I went with our neighbours an hour to San Sebastian to check out the boat and check out all our crew. You could only do this on Tenerife and they cared less that you were going to go to another island for several days before actually leaving the Canaries and of course, The European Union. On the 26th November 2022, we finally departed for San Sebastian on Al Gomera. We had heard very favourable reports on the island. It was 35 NM and we had a gentle and wonderful sail, perfect for the new crew's initiation. In the next blog, Al Gomera and a passage to Cape Verde.
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