Aleria Update 5

5. Hello all from Gran Canaria.

Well after about a month of sunshine, marinas, and exploration in the Maderia group and Canaries, we have decided to move on to the Caribbean…as soon as our replacement parts from TackTick are tracked down that is. We hope that will be tomorrow morning.

Our time in the Atlantic Islands will be marked by fond memories of Portuguese breads, Spanish wines, sumptuous tropical fruits and vegetables, tapas bars, cruiser’s beach parties, colourful sunsets, and newfound friends. Also of doing laundry, fixing boats, and now, awaiting deliveries in exotic destinations.

We last wrote from Tenerife, where we enjoyed Santa Cruz, a lovely small city, and Mount Teide, a formidable volcanic presence. From there, we travelled down the coast searching for a remote anchorage where we could get away from city and marina life for a few days. We kept trying out the recommended anchorages and finding them tenuous. It was like Goldie Locks searching for the right spot: “This one is too exposed. That one is too rocky. The third one is just right, for now.� We anchored off Montana Roja near the Aeropuerto Sud just after sunset. It was a nicely protected spot in a cove behind a conical mountain off a beach surrounded by rocky shore. The backdrop was the back side of Mount Teide which looks the reverse image of Croagh Patrick back in Ireland. We awoke in the morning to find out we were closer to the beach (yet in 30 feet of water) than we would like AND the beach was a nude enclave. It was littered with naked men tucked into the huge lava rocks along its shore like lizards warming themselves and couples parading with purpose. We decided to move on to La Gomera after breakfast.

In La Gomera, we found the equivalent of paradise. A small marina with loads of friendly sailors was right on the main street of the town of San Sebastian, flanked by steep hills and black sand beaches - one on either side. The town was not hugely touristy as it is not a cruise ship port. It had lovely restaurants serving typical Canarian food, zumerias serving fresh fruit drinks and local cerveza, a great ferreteria (hardware store), a chandlery, a fresh produce/meat/fish market, a supermarket or two, a church, a museum, a gallery and a bus depot. We rode bikes around the entire town in less than an hour with stops. It had everything we needed.

The first night, there was a cruisers BBQ party to which we were invited. The local handyman strung up a half barrel on a broken boom from the roof of his shed. Everyone brought their own meats which they cooked over the suspended BBQ and sat together discussing their experiences to date and their plans for the near future. Everyone here was on their way elsewhere, except a few who were here to stay for a while – some for the season, some for a year or two. Some had been underway for 15 years or more, others had had just bought their boat a couple of weeks before. A German couple, two GPs, were sailing the world in two-month stints as they managed to get two months off from their practices each year. They’d sail somewhere, leave their boat, return the next year and continue.

We met some very nice people with whom we have now developed permanent friendships. One helped Alex diagnose and fix the problem with our SSB (the through hull fitting had corroded) and saved us thousands of dollars in repair work. I witnessed a boat collide with his and provided a witness report in return. Everyone helps everyone else in a small place like this. We also joined the local Atlantic cruisers net, a group of English speaking boats all crossing the Atlantic to the Caribbean over the next couple of weeks. We check in on the SSB daily and report our conditions and positions so there is a record of where we are and what weather we are facing. Those still in the harbour share information via VHF about where to find the best supplies and services, where to check out, who has books to trade and so on. It is a tightly interlocked community of likeminded individuals embarking on a month long voyage at sea. It is comforting to know that someone out there will hear us and answer.

The entire center of La Gomera is a national park preserve and a World Heritage Site littered with hiking trails of every difficulty. And, the bus system is a treasure. There are buses that go from San Sebastian to every place you can get to by road. You can stop along the way and follow a trail through boreal laurel forests to the next bus stop. The bus winds along impossibly serpentine roads with precipices either side where lush valleys and gorges intersect the mountains and mesas. This is the oldest of the islands and millennia of erosion have made it a fertile paradise. It is where the kings of the kings of the indigenous Guanches people, descendants of Cro Magnon man, lived. Recently, an international team of expert meteorologists proclaimed La Gomera’s climate to be the most perfect in the world. We believe it.

Columbus is the equivalent of George Washington around these parts. In every major stopover, you’ll find a place where Columbus stayed, prayed, or lived. These homes and churches are now museums dedicated to the explorations of the New World. In the little church in San Sebastian, there is even a mural covering one whole wall of three ships plundering a foreign stronghold. We have visited them all.

We finally regretfully moved on to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. We had a 22-hour upwind slog through rough seas and 20-25 knot winds before being completely becalmed just 15 miles away. Yuch! We did see the resident pod of pilot whales and one lone dolphin en route. That was the highlight of the trip. Las Palmas is a large city and not very nice. The marina is huge and impersonal, with none of the community feeling of La Gomera. It is so huge that you must have either a dinghy or a bike to get anywhere. It is a micro city with its own bars and restaurants, shops, and chandleries. It also has a micro climate that is much different from the other islands. It is much cooler here. We hoped that the parts we were awaiting had been found and we could soon leave.

The few charming parts of Las Palmas are far away, yet we managed to find them. The old city has a lovely flair, with huge dominant cathedral, another Columbus house museum, and opera house and theatre and sidewalk cafes. We went in search of dinner there one night. Riding our bikes for miles along deserted streets we were just getting discouraged when we came upon an intersection where human presence started to increase dramatically. The noise got louder and louder until we reached an intersection where the din was deafening. Millions, of people were out on this main shopping avenue. There were throngs of teens in bands, old women with canes, young families with babies in strollers, old men with walkers, young singles and couples dressed to the nines, and us. The shops with thriving, the restaurants were packed; the city was alive with laughter and banter. It was so loud we could not hear each other speaking. It seems the entire city was here at 9:30 in the evening to be seen and heard. We got lucky and found an outdoor table being vacated at a central tapas bar, where we enjoyed ringside seats and delectable treats for our dinner.

Yesterday, we spent the day doing laundry and provisioning. In the morning, we made the trek to the produce market and stocked up on fresh fruit and vegetables for 30 days at sea. Then we took our cooler on wheels and luggage cart to the supermarket. There we stocked up on 48 litres of fresh water, 12 liters of juices, assortment of breads, cold cuts, meats, cheeses, cereal bars, chocolate, cat food, toilet paper, and all the stuff one needs for about 30 days at sea. Then we schlepped this all about 1.5 miles from the supermarket to the boat, onto the boat, and into the freezer/fridge and cabinets wherever they would fit, removing superfluous packaging as we went. This is the life of the passage-making cruising sailor.

We haven’t even scratched the surface of these islands. It is mostly marina sailing – there is only one good anchorage we heard about between Lanzarote and Graciosa but it was too far for us to go this trip. We heard there was a group of American flagged vessels anchored there organizing beach parties every other night. Oh well, next time. We will definitely return, especially since we now know that a winter circuit around Maderias-Canaries-Azores is easily doable and increasingly popular. It is an excellent way to spend winter within easy reach of the Mediterranean for summer cruising.

Last night, we joined the Atlantic Cruisers Net beach gathering so we could meet some of the people from the radio net. Three boats left this morning, the first of the group. They will be the advance guard reporting weather and sea conditions to the rest of us behind. Today, we will sit here at the internet caf© and download weather information from windguru and passagemaker and tonight we will check in with Herb Hilgenberg of Southbound II via SSB. Herb will be helping us with weather routing the entire way, as long as we can connect by radio.

Tomorrow, if we get our package, we will check out with customs and have our passports stamped by immigration, critical for re-entry at the other end. We’ll sail south toward the Cape Verdes to catch the trade winds without stopping there to avoid the dengue fever outbreak. Right now it looks like we’ll make landfall at Barbados but that all depends on the winds. We plan to spend time in the Grenadines first, then work our way north. So, farewell for now and we’ll see you on the other side. As they say here, vaya con Dios.

PS: Congratulations to Matej and Karen, the newest Mr. & Mrs. Korzeniowski, whose wedding we missed in Philadelphia yesterday. We wish you a lifetime of joy together, with great adventures en route.