Well, we are still here in San Miguel marina with the wind being a steady 27 knots, gusting to 30+ and this being inside the marina, a quick look outside and the answer is easy, I don’t think so!
Ugrib is telling us that by Wednesday this should start to die down and a quick chat with the local confirms what we believe, which is that they have never know it to be so windy for such a long period.
But never a dull moment…
We had helicopters and ambulances arrive one evening a couple of weeks ago, we gather because they had spotted an immigrant boat. We could see an orange rescue boat out at sea, but after a while they were all stood off, maybe they were landed up the coast or a false alarm, I don't know. I gather it is a fairly regular occurrence though now.
It also looks like we have missed out on some salvage dive work here, an extremely dodgy looking commercial dive operation were running out of here daily when we arrived with one of those commercial trailer compressors used on road works strapped to the deck of their 18ft wooden boat, standing a good two foot proud of the rails, with a normal commercial compressor (not a diving one) strapped to the wheelhouse roof. I have no idea what they were doing but they went out everyday in this overloaded boat and the swell outside is big. The only way you'd know it was a dive boat was the hardhat painted on the side. Anyway, the other day the little dive boat didn’t come back as usual and another small boat turned up instead, there was a bit of a flurry and a van arrived with a hard hat painted on the side. Then over the next couple of days, the second little boat goes out then arrives back towing a big yellow lifting bag each time. We went to look and in the lifting bay of the marina there now sat a towable commercial and another portable commercial compressor, which we are guessing were salvaged off boat number 1. We can only imagine that the generator was dislodged in the swell and took the side of the boat out when going over board, sinking the lot. Anyway, needless to say, no signs of any of those troublesome Health and Safety types to be seen! They certainly do things differently abroad hey!
So you see, there seems to be no end of entertainment sitting in the marina.
One morning we watched in horror at a big gorgeous wooden 75 plus foot Turkish gullet sailboat going out for the first time in months it seemed. Within the harbour they managed to accidentally deploy the headsail and have that flogging around whilst the poor helmsman tried to turn it round in a strong wind and the crew blustered trying to furl it. The marina is still under construction and is very shallow in places for a boat like that. However, they ended up the wrong side of the channel markers, in water so shallow that there were clouds of mud coming up when they motored. They hit three of the channel markers coming back into the channel with two lines trailing in the water at the stern. There was a lot of shouting in Bulgarian aboard, guys jumping into the tender which was being towed behind with a line loose enough to get round the props. They then tried and failed to start the tender (the name of which incidentally is Joker Boat!). Next, someone jumped off the pontoon and swam out to help them. It looked like they were trying to go straight back to their berth but after several attempts at reversing and ending up beam onto quite a strong wind they headed out to sea for the day. We were just pleased that a local motorboat had turned up that morning to take the spot between them and us on the pontoon!
We were then just waiting for the next instalment when they got back… though there was some fairly nasty black smoke coming out the exhaust, so we weren’t sure they would. However they did return, this time with someone on board who could now park the boat. We were informed by one of the marina staff that they had turned back due one of its engines failing.
The following day we heard from one of the people on board, who spoke a little English that they were trying to get to La Gomera and would be departing later that day. They left the dock and proceeded into the marina to get the best chance at turning this huge boat around to depart. At the point of making its turn and now beam onto the wind, both engines failed, I watched in horror as this massive vessel was heading straight for us under its own momentum. People were frantically running round the deck with the usual screams in Bulgarian and I shouted Jo on deck to get ready to help out with what seemed our impending doom. The boat slowed down to a halt about 10 meters in front of us. With the wind being as strong as it was and they being beam onto it, they started to move side ways down the marina passing us just out of harms way, phew!
If we thought the first time was entertaining, we had seen nothing yet. They tried to deploy the anchor, which later on they confessed that no one knew how to do it, but had gone through the motions anyway. One of the crew jumped into the water with a line with the intention of swimming to shore and securing a line. Halfway across they found out that the line was not long enough, so frantically they scrabbled around on deck to find another which would reach. On finding a line they threw this to the crew member in the water who then re-started his swim to the pontoon.
At this point we decided to help, because there was no way he would be able to climb out of the marina onto the pontoon unaided. We took the line from the crew member and secured it to the mooring cleat and then pulled him out of the water. The boat then started to slew round into the wind, as you would expect. The length of the line they had out would mean that they would pull up alongside the boat behind their berth, using it as a fender. The owner had just gone back home the following day and I am sure he would not have welcomed the sight of this huge vessel using his boat as a fender.
The captain and crew seemed confused what to do next and were stood on deck watching things unfold. We shouted instructions to place some fenders down on the starboard side to at least give some protection to the now imminent contact with the neighbouring boat. They sort of got the message with one out nine crew members doing something about it. At this point the marina guy arrived, having been attracted by all the attention and was looking on saying that this happens every year!
We both jump onto the moored boat and attempt to slow down the collision with additional fenders and as much brute force as we could apply to keep the boats apart. Jo was trying to communicate with the skipper of the boat to tell him to start winching in on the line to the shore to move the boat forward and out of the way. After something resembling charades, Jo had by way of visual imitations managed to get her point across and someone started to winch in the rope, not with the huge windlass on the front but a small winch on the back of the boat. Apparently, no one knew how to use the anchor windlass and they were not sure it worked anyway?
The boats at this point were almost touching, so I requested that some of the crew come on board the boat being crushed to help with fending off. Eventually, after sometime and the marina guy insisting that they come and help, not just watch the proceedings, they complied. The fenders on the boat being crushed were now flat against the dock with all the weight that the big gullet was applying, just glad it was not my boat.
I then had a chance to get on board and start to see what was being done as the gullet seem to have stopped moving forward- the answer was nothing. One of the female crew was still having breakfast and clearly that was more important. So, I found the biggest winch I could and lashed the only line we had at that moment to the dock and began winching in the mooring line and moving us slowly up to a vacant space. I grabbed one of the crew demonstrating my actions and getting him to continue, after all, it’s not my boat. The next thing was to get another line ashore, which I did after some communication problems with the skipper. I climbed across the other boat back to the dock to now catch the second line.
The skipper had other ideas, he had waved his arms at the submarine support boat to come across and act like a tug to pull him off. He threw the second line across to the support boat on the port side of the gullet, who then cleated it on and began the process of towing, only for it to rip off the starboard railing on board the Turkish gullet with an almighty CRACK. It then became clear they had taken the tow line from the starboard bow over two sets of rails before throwing it to the support boat! At this point the support boat decided that he had had enough as they were too stupid to have re-run the line to a secure towing point and promptly departed with sounds of laughter coming from the wheel house. The line was eventually passed to me on the pontoon, where it was securely moored to a strong cleat.
A request to recommence winching was acted upon fairly quickly and slowly the boat was inched up alongside the other boat, until it was back into its own mooring. As we were watching all this, the marina guy was telling me all about them, saying that this was typical every year and they don’t even have any communication onboard, no VHF, nothing just mobile phones.
Once the boat was secure to the dock we said our farewells and went back to our boat, the owner had to be prompted by the marina guy to say thank you, which he did in due course and returned back to chat with one of his crew member’s. The marina guy thanked us no end for helping out and explaining that without it, he would have not liked to see the outcome.
Who needs TV! To be fair it is not nice to crow, it could be us one day struggling, actually it was quite terrifying to watch.
The following day, they eventually succeed in leaving the marina, third time lucky, but not without the usual pantomime and nearly taking out the submarine, the whole marina sighed a big relief, but as we know they will be back!!
We have also found a local doctor to complete our vaccination records and take on board some drugs, which we thought would be useful - powerful painkillers and antibiotics, which the doctor prescribed without any trouble. I got the feeling we could have asked for anything and he would have been only to happy to help. The doctor was quite a character, spoke very good English and Spanish of course, he must be under 30 years of age, t-shirt, jeans and trainers, playing solitaire on his computer as he was talking to us. He took a keen interest when we told him what we were about, as one of our next destinations would be the Caribbean, he himself coming from Cuba. Anyway he also recommended we take some powerful seasickness remedies, which he was sure we would get from the local pharmacy. He wrote out the prescription, which we dropped off at the pharmacy to collect the following day. The list was quite big one, 3 pages, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Tetanus, Diphtheria & Typhoid vaccines, 2 types of Antibiotics, various painkillers and the Anti vomiting solution. The look on the pharmacist face on reading the list was a classic, what the….
Anyway the following day we picked up the drug stash and made our way back to the Doc’s for him to perform the injections, which he did promptly and not using the needles which came supplied with the drugs, as they made six inch nails look feeble and I for one am glad he did not. He also supplied us with half a dozen syringes with needles to administer the anti vomiting medicine as tablets could not be guaranteed to help if you are vomiting, makes sense. He then trained us both up on how to inject one another with the dose, what a nice guy. One of the boxes of antibiotics was said to be £60.00 a box back in the UK, we got them for 4.5 Euros, bargain.
We are both sat recovering on the back of the boat with Jo having one sore arm and me with two.
Sunday, 31 August 2008
Sunday, 24 August 2008
Marina San Miguel, Tenerife
At the risk of being repetitive, we are still in Marina San Miguel, Tenerife, the forecast continues to be daily in the 20-25 knot range (we’d not seen 25 knots on the forecast until we got to Tenerife, now we see nothing else!), although we have clocked 30 plus knots sat in the relatively sheltered marina so even this is optimistic. As previously mentioned, the forecast alone would not be insurmountable were it not for the wind acceleration zones on route which can almost double the wind strength.
The forecast last Sunday looked like last Thursday would be the day to go, a slight window existed enough for us to get to La Palma at least. We check the forecast daily and by Tuesday’s forecast, the Thursday window had gone. We checked again on Wednesday, same story, on Thursday we checked the forecast and the window was back, but as it is an 82 mile sail from Tenerife to La Palma we needed to have set off at or before first light to make it and it was now 10:30am! Quite frustrating, but with guests arriving on 3rd September into Tenerife we have decided now not to risk getting to La Palma and being unable to get back to meet them. We may still visit after they leave as this will give us a good route back to Gran Canaria avoiding the worst of the acceleration zones by heading along the north of the islands. Gran Canaria is our last destination before the Cape Verdes, as we need to stop in to collect some items we ordered in Las Palmas before we move on.
Although there is little to do locally, we have kept ourselves amused on board. I have been catching up on some overdue emails, which has been great to hear from a few people that I haven’t spoken to since I left. I have also had a fair amount of admin duties to catch up on with end of year accounts etc to do. I have also made some good progress on wedding planning, we have venues now for the wedding, reception and we are treating ourselves to three days hotel accommodation for the wedding. Although this is at a resort with a marina, so we can still see Invincible and only because we have family staying aboard to look after her whilst we are ashore!
I have also been quite engrossed in a good book so haven’t even been keeping up with my Spanish lessons, so now that is finished I have to get back to work! Kevin has been doing quite a bit of research into boat set up, now we have got some miles in and before we set off on the next log passage. Following our experience of Force 7-8 winds and gusting Force 9 every time we make passage in the Canaries recently, Kevin has decided to order an ATN Gale Sail. The design is American and consists of a long sock which hanks on over the top of the furled genoa, thereby preventing accidental deployment of that sail in strong gusts, connected to a 60 sq ft sail (in our case) and is hoisted on our spinnaker halyard. It is a very simple but effective design and gets a really good write up, particularly by the long term cruisers such as Hal Roth, whose book we have on board. Hopefully that should be here before we head to La Gomera (customs permitting) with our friends Jill & Phil and knowing the La Gomera acceleration zone as we do now, will get it’s first outing on that trip.
Kevin has also been doing a thorough check through of other equipment on board and has had our Sea Brake out on the pontoon and decided that the bridle which came with it for our boat length (but presumably assuming monohull beam) is not long enough. He has used some excess line from our kedge anchor to rig up a new bridle with sufficient to allow operation from port aft winch and starboard helm winch respectively, which allows it to be used for emergency steerage. He has also been doing his usual maintenance checks which detected loose grub screws on the rudder stock, which has now been rectified, definitely the sort of preventative maintenance we like to do sitting in a marina rather than the equivalent repair on passage.
We have also discovered a great bar along the coastal path which has an unobstructed view of the coast north from the marina, behind glass panels and under awnings held down by steel girders! It is fairly well sheltered and even better has Happy Hour from 5-7pm, which is just right for our usual routine of a couple of drinks before returning to the boat for dinner. It seems that this is no secret oasis though because last night all the ex-pat Brits complete with dogs were in too. It’s a 10 minute walk along the coast and makes a good break from the marina, we can confirm the weather forecast watching the waves crashing impressively up the cliffs or through the valiant attempts of yachts who decide to brave the weather only to turn round again after 20 minutes, all of which we watch with a cool beer. We realise that this is really not a hard life and 2 weeks lounging in Tenerife is actually what millions of people save up for as their annual holiday, so we are by no means complaining about the weather, which apart from the wind is glorious sunshine everyday, with occasional cloud in the morning.
We have been itching to do some snorkelling on the other side of the breakwater to where our boat is moored where the tourist Submarine goes everyday. We have spoken to two separate groups who have been aboard and both have reported seeing large Atlantic rays. Having watched the support boat from the café regularly, the sub goes no further than can be easily snorkelled, unfortunately the sight of waves crashing on the headland immediately outside the breakwater has put us off attempting that either by swimming or in our little tender, but if we do get a calm day some day soon we will be out there to see for ourselves. Otherwise we may even resort to a submarine trip ourselves as we have never been aboard one.
The forecast last Sunday looked like last Thursday would be the day to go, a slight window existed enough for us to get to La Palma at least. We check the forecast daily and by Tuesday’s forecast, the Thursday window had gone. We checked again on Wednesday, same story, on Thursday we checked the forecast and the window was back, but as it is an 82 mile sail from Tenerife to La Palma we needed to have set off at or before first light to make it and it was now 10:30am! Quite frustrating, but with guests arriving on 3rd September into Tenerife we have decided now not to risk getting to La Palma and being unable to get back to meet them. We may still visit after they leave as this will give us a good route back to Gran Canaria avoiding the worst of the acceleration zones by heading along the north of the islands. Gran Canaria is our last destination before the Cape Verdes, as we need to stop in to collect some items we ordered in Las Palmas before we move on.
Although there is little to do locally, we have kept ourselves amused on board. I have been catching up on some overdue emails, which has been great to hear from a few people that I haven’t spoken to since I left. I have also had a fair amount of admin duties to catch up on with end of year accounts etc to do. I have also made some good progress on wedding planning, we have venues now for the wedding, reception and we are treating ourselves to three days hotel accommodation for the wedding. Although this is at a resort with a marina, so we can still see Invincible and only because we have family staying aboard to look after her whilst we are ashore!
I have also been quite engrossed in a good book so haven’t even been keeping up with my Spanish lessons, so now that is finished I have to get back to work! Kevin has been doing quite a bit of research into boat set up, now we have got some miles in and before we set off on the next log passage. Following our experience of Force 7-8 winds and gusting Force 9 every time we make passage in the Canaries recently, Kevin has decided to order an ATN Gale Sail. The design is American and consists of a long sock which hanks on over the top of the furled genoa, thereby preventing accidental deployment of that sail in strong gusts, connected to a 60 sq ft sail (in our case) and is hoisted on our spinnaker halyard. It is a very simple but effective design and gets a really good write up, particularly by the long term cruisers such as Hal Roth, whose book we have on board. Hopefully that should be here before we head to La Gomera (customs permitting) with our friends Jill & Phil and knowing the La Gomera acceleration zone as we do now, will get it’s first outing on that trip.
Kevin has also been doing a thorough check through of other equipment on board and has had our Sea Brake out on the pontoon and decided that the bridle which came with it for our boat length (but presumably assuming monohull beam) is not long enough. He has used some excess line from our kedge anchor to rig up a new bridle with sufficient to allow operation from port aft winch and starboard helm winch respectively, which allows it to be used for emergency steerage. He has also been doing his usual maintenance checks which detected loose grub screws on the rudder stock, which has now been rectified, definitely the sort of preventative maintenance we like to do sitting in a marina rather than the equivalent repair on passage.
We have also discovered a great bar along the coastal path which has an unobstructed view of the coast north from the marina, behind glass panels and under awnings held down by steel girders! It is fairly well sheltered and even better has Happy Hour from 5-7pm, which is just right for our usual routine of a couple of drinks before returning to the boat for dinner. It seems that this is no secret oasis though because last night all the ex-pat Brits complete with dogs were in too. It’s a 10 minute walk along the coast and makes a good break from the marina, we can confirm the weather forecast watching the waves crashing impressively up the cliffs or through the valiant attempts of yachts who decide to brave the weather only to turn round again after 20 minutes, all of which we watch with a cool beer. We realise that this is really not a hard life and 2 weeks lounging in Tenerife is actually what millions of people save up for as their annual holiday, so we are by no means complaining about the weather, which apart from the wind is glorious sunshine everyday, with occasional cloud in the morning.
We have been itching to do some snorkelling on the other side of the breakwater to where our boat is moored where the tourist Submarine goes everyday. We have spoken to two separate groups who have been aboard and both have reported seeing large Atlantic rays. Having watched the support boat from the café regularly, the sub goes no further than can be easily snorkelled, unfortunately the sight of waves crashing on the headland immediately outside the breakwater has put us off attempting that either by swimming or in our little tender, but if we do get a calm day some day soon we will be out there to see for ourselves. Otherwise we may even resort to a submarine trip ourselves as we have never been aboard one.
Sunday, 17 August 2008
Marina San Miguel, Tenerife
We are still in San Miguel Marina waiting out the 20 - 25 knot winds forecast until at least next Thursday when we hope to make our crossing to La Palma. It would seem from those we have spoken to who have sailed regularly in the Canaries for several years, that this year the winds have been far stronger than usual, so we are just biding our time until the forecast improves. We have noted whilst sailing that the forecast strength is usually increased by 15 knots or more in the acceleration zone so we are happy to wait.
We have been reading the pilot guides and researching on the internet (as much as the rather flaky WIFI will allow) our next destinations – the Cape Verdes and La Palma. There may be a full marina (due to open Sept 2008) or just one pontoon in La Palma, little seems available to confirm. The previous pontoon arrangement was managed by the Club Nautico which provides access to its facilities of a swimming pool and WIFI for a reasonable berthing fee on a stern-to pontoon, although this is apparently rather rickety. We have learned on the internet that the Marina La Palma is to pass into the management/ownership of the Calero family who run a marina of the family name in Lanzarote. This was supposed to lead to the expansion of the facilities, to I think 200 plus pontoon berths, by Sept 2008 and presumably a considerable increase in price. I will be ringing Calero tomorrow to see if we can find out before we depart.
The Cape Verdes island group also sounds like it will be an interesting stop-off point, apparently Mindelo which everyone raves about as an excellent anchorage now also boasts a marina and resort suitable for super yachts. It shows that even in 4-5 years since the pilot books were written much can change. We plan to visit three of the islands in the group from what we have read so far, but this may change when we get there. I think we both feel that this will be the first real exploring and the first different culture we will experience and we are looking forward to it. However, much is spoken about the potential for theft of tenders/outboards etc plus the need to employ boat boys at up to £10 a day in Mindelo to protect your boat, so it also has its downsides.
Otherwise, we have been fairly quiet, performing a spring clean for the boat following our previous visitors and preceding our next in September. There is a fair bit of activity in the marina and regular tourists wandering by on their way to the inevitable Submarine tour who stop and look at the boat, we must be in dozens of holiday snaps this year. We even provided a tour of the boat to a family who stopped by, the husband having recently enrolled on a crewing course in the autumn and harbouring ideas of embarking a trip similar to our own who was keen to hear our plans.
This morning we explored a little more of the Golf del Sur resort which we are on the edge of, taking a 2 hour walk into San Miguel village. If there was any original Canarian habitation in the area that preceded the resort it is not possible to see the evidence of it and all we found was more and more villas / hotels and a commercial centre of restaurants, bars and a Nisa supermarket. There were many empty units and villas for sale and not many tourists in evidence (although in fairness it was Sunday morning). There is a very large resort part-built and with no signs of recent activity, the bare skeleton of which commands the view of the coastline, as we have often seen elsewhere. I am always amused by the local technique for structural support of buildings during construction which appears to consist of the use of acroprops in as large a quantity as possible, the picture below is a fairly mild example we have seen literally hundreds used on a single floor of a building to support sometimes several floors above it.
We have been reading the pilot guides and researching on the internet (as much as the rather flaky WIFI will allow) our next destinations – the Cape Verdes and La Palma. There may be a full marina (due to open Sept 2008) or just one pontoon in La Palma, little seems available to confirm. The previous pontoon arrangement was managed by the Club Nautico which provides access to its facilities of a swimming pool and WIFI for a reasonable berthing fee on a stern-to pontoon, although this is apparently rather rickety. We have learned on the internet that the Marina La Palma is to pass into the management/ownership of the Calero family who run a marina of the family name in Lanzarote. This was supposed to lead to the expansion of the facilities, to I think 200 plus pontoon berths, by Sept 2008 and presumably a considerable increase in price. I will be ringing Calero tomorrow to see if we can find out before we depart.
The Cape Verdes island group also sounds like it will be an interesting stop-off point, apparently Mindelo which everyone raves about as an excellent anchorage now also boasts a marina and resort suitable for super yachts. It shows that even in 4-5 years since the pilot books were written much can change. We plan to visit three of the islands in the group from what we have read so far, but this may change when we get there. I think we both feel that this will be the first real exploring and the first different culture we will experience and we are looking forward to it. However, much is spoken about the potential for theft of tenders/outboards etc plus the need to employ boat boys at up to £10 a day in Mindelo to protect your boat, so it also has its downsides.
Otherwise, we have been fairly quiet, performing a spring clean for the boat following our previous visitors and preceding our next in September. There is a fair bit of activity in the marina and regular tourists wandering by on their way to the inevitable Submarine tour who stop and look at the boat, we must be in dozens of holiday snaps this year. We even provided a tour of the boat to a family who stopped by, the husband having recently enrolled on a crewing course in the autumn and harbouring ideas of embarking a trip similar to our own who was keen to hear our plans.
This morning we explored a little more of the Golf del Sur resort which we are on the edge of, taking a 2 hour walk into San Miguel village. If there was any original Canarian habitation in the area that preceded the resort it is not possible to see the evidence of it and all we found was more and more villas / hotels and a commercial centre of restaurants, bars and a Nisa supermarket. There were many empty units and villas for sale and not many tourists in evidence (although in fairness it was Sunday morning). There is a very large resort part-built and with no signs of recent activity, the bare skeleton of which commands the view of the coastline, as we have often seen elsewhere. I am always amused by the local technique for structural support of buildings during construction which appears to consist of the use of acroprops in as large a quantity as possible, the picture below is a fairly mild example we have seen literally hundreds used on a single floor of a building to support sometimes several floors above it.
Thursday, 14 August 2008
San Miguel, Tenerife
We are now back to having just the two of us on the boat, both Alex and Sean are now safely back in the UK after spending three weeks on board. We dropped them off at the airport with the hire car we have rented for three days.
Yesterday we went up to Santa Cruz to do some shopping at IKEA and Carrefour, we filled the car to the roof, with loads of pasta, sauces, tinned food, fresh food and beer of course, we spent most of the day organising the location of the food, now having three locations we have nicknamed, long term, medium term and short term storage, not sure we have got this right at the moment as the beer is in the medium term location?
We bought an electric toaster, which we can use when on shore power, this being one of the things I was missing and I am glad to say is working a treat!
Also we bought a pressure cooker, which will speed things up on the cooking front, reducing the amount of gas we use, cant be a bad thing, so today we will be doing some research on recipes for use with a pressure cooker any suggestions will be welcome!
We have the car for one more day, so we will be getting our monies worth and no doubt visiting more shops!
Yesterday we went up to Santa Cruz to do some shopping at IKEA and Carrefour, we filled the car to the roof, with loads of pasta, sauces, tinned food, fresh food and beer of course, we spent most of the day organising the location of the food, now having three locations we have nicknamed, long term, medium term and short term storage, not sure we have got this right at the moment as the beer is in the medium term location?
We bought an electric toaster, which we can use when on shore power, this being one of the things I was missing and I am glad to say is working a treat!
Also we bought a pressure cooker, which will speed things up on the cooking front, reducing the amount of gas we use, cant be a bad thing, so today we will be doing some research on recipes for use with a pressure cooker any suggestions will be welcome!
We have the car for one more day, so we will be getting our monies worth and no doubt visiting more shops!
Sunday, 10 August 2008
San Miguel Marina, Tenerife
I had a very good night’s sleep being gently rocked in my bed and early in the morning I suddenly heard the engines start and I got up and changed and then I heard the anchor being pulled up which was really loud because my bunk is right next to the anchor locker. Dad and Jo had decided to set off as soon as it was daylight so we could have the best crossing we could because the winds are lighter in the morning.
It didn’t take long before we reached a wind acceleration zone which is off La Gomera which you can see from the harbour and whilst we were on the way back the winds reached our highest yet which was 41 knots and then after about an hour suddenly eased down to 25 knots again but we are glad we set off earlier because the winds could have been even worse later on in the day.
It was quite a misty day and we couldn’t see Tiede at all unlike our last crossing, but Jo saw the shadow of Tiede on the sun as it was rising so we knew it was there.
Whilst on our way back we were followed by a frigate which shadowed us for a while slowing right down to the same speed as us, we had previously seen in San Sebastian.
Also when we were on our journey we saw the Fred Olsen ferry going back and forth and Dad used the MARPA system on the radar to track how fast it was going and it showed it was going 36 knots. We also saw the Armas ferry as well. We left a bit of room for the ferries to pass so we didn’t get too close.
Also whilst we were sailing along Dad caught a fish on the fishing rods which were trailing off the back of the boat, however it was too windy to reel it in and it got off and took our lure with it.
When we were nearer to San Miguel we hit another wind acceleration zone which had started an hour earlier than what it previously did when we were there previously. Jo had to hand steer because the auto pilot couldn’t keep us on course as we were going in to the head wind which is the most difficult one to deal with. We saw about five Jet Ski’s and we have found out that it is 120 Euros for two hours to go on them, it reminded us of the film Water World were they were called Smokers.
I thought that this was a good experience on our journey back because we reached speeds of 10.1 knots as we were surfing over the waves. However this time we didn’t see any dolphins which I was expecting to see like last time we did the same route.
When we reached San Miguel marina we tried our new system of throwing a bowline to the marina assistance that are stood on the pontoon so we can control it from the boat because in the past we have had problems like them not tying us down or tying us down and then taking it off again five minutes later or trying to hold the boat themselves and not using the cleat but eventually we were tied down. This time we were on a much nicer pontoon than the time before. When we were all settled we realised that we were moored next to a boat that which we were two boats away from in San Sebastian.
We then got connected to the shore power and got the hose pipe connected and gave the boat a clean to get rid of all of the salt off it. Jo also did some more cleaning on the inside of the boat and made the heads sparkling clean. That was then followed by a delicious tomato soup which dad had made but I had to go to the shop to go and get some bread as it all had run out and when I reached the shop it was really surprising to hear lots of English voices. When I got back we all sat down and ate the tomato soup really fast as we were all really hungry.
We all got showered and changed and got ready because tonight we planned to go out for our tea and go back to the restaurant that sells the really nice chicken and chips. First of all we had to go and visit the old lady in the bar by the marina and we had a drink there and we then went on to the Irish bar to have another drink and we noticed on the TV that the news was showing floods in Ireland and that we would much rather be here than there.
Then we set of to the restaurant and at the beginning we were the only ones there so our starters came out super quick which was brushetta but they call it tomato bread, then our main meals were cooked just as quick as well and we had three times chicken and chips and Jo had the vegetarian pizza. Then after a bit of deciding we all, apart from Jo had dessert as well which was quite surprising because Jo loves dessert but she shared with Dad as they had a massive ice cream sundae but really wanted the caramel cup but they only had one left and Sean had it and I had Banana split which was really nice.
After that we all went back to the boat and shortly went to bed as we were all very tired.
Alex Penney
It didn’t take long before we reached a wind acceleration zone which is off La Gomera which you can see from the harbour and whilst we were on the way back the winds reached our highest yet which was 41 knots and then after about an hour suddenly eased down to 25 knots again but we are glad we set off earlier because the winds could have been even worse later on in the day.
It was quite a misty day and we couldn’t see Tiede at all unlike our last crossing, but Jo saw the shadow of Tiede on the sun as it was rising so we knew it was there.
Whilst on our way back we were followed by a frigate which shadowed us for a while slowing right down to the same speed as us, we had previously seen in San Sebastian.
Also when we were on our journey we saw the Fred Olsen ferry going back and forth and Dad used the MARPA system on the radar to track how fast it was going and it showed it was going 36 knots. We also saw the Armas ferry as well. We left a bit of room for the ferries to pass so we didn’t get too close.
Also whilst we were sailing along Dad caught a fish on the fishing rods which were trailing off the back of the boat, however it was too windy to reel it in and it got off and took our lure with it.
When we were nearer to San Miguel we hit another wind acceleration zone which had started an hour earlier than what it previously did when we were there previously. Jo had to hand steer because the auto pilot couldn’t keep us on course as we were going in to the head wind which is the most difficult one to deal with. We saw about five Jet Ski’s and we have found out that it is 120 Euros for two hours to go on them, it reminded us of the film Water World were they were called Smokers.
I thought that this was a good experience on our journey back because we reached speeds of 10.1 knots as we were surfing over the waves. However this time we didn’t see any dolphins which I was expecting to see like last time we did the same route.
When we reached San Miguel marina we tried our new system of throwing a bowline to the marina assistance that are stood on the pontoon so we can control it from the boat because in the past we have had problems like them not tying us down or tying us down and then taking it off again five minutes later or trying to hold the boat themselves and not using the cleat but eventually we were tied down. This time we were on a much nicer pontoon than the time before. When we were all settled we realised that we were moored next to a boat that which we were two boats away from in San Sebastian.
We then got connected to the shore power and got the hose pipe connected and gave the boat a clean to get rid of all of the salt off it. Jo also did some more cleaning on the inside of the boat and made the heads sparkling clean. That was then followed by a delicious tomato soup which dad had made but I had to go to the shop to go and get some bread as it all had run out and when I reached the shop it was really surprising to hear lots of English voices. When I got back we all sat down and ate the tomato soup really fast as we were all really hungry.
We all got showered and changed and got ready because tonight we planned to go out for our tea and go back to the restaurant that sells the really nice chicken and chips. First of all we had to go and visit the old lady in the bar by the marina and we had a drink there and we then went on to the Irish bar to have another drink and we noticed on the TV that the news was showing floods in Ireland and that we would much rather be here than there.
Then we set of to the restaurant and at the beginning we were the only ones there so our starters came out super quick which was brushetta but they call it tomato bread, then our main meals were cooked just as quick as well and we had three times chicken and chips and Jo had the vegetarian pizza. Then after a bit of deciding we all, apart from Jo had dessert as well which was quite surprising because Jo loves dessert but she shared with Dad as they had a massive ice cream sundae but really wanted the caramel cup but they only had one left and Sean had it and I had Banana split which was really nice.
After that we all went back to the boat and shortly went to bed as we were all very tired.
Alex Penney
Saturday, 9 August 2008
Playa de Guancha, La Gomera
Today was the day we was setting off to go on anchor, the weather had forecasted that the wind had died down, but as we got outside the harbour walls we realised it was stronger than the forecast, so we had a bit of a change of plan and went to a different bay but it turned out to be very nice and we decided that we would stay the night.
We were shortly followed by another boat who anchored quite close to us.
First of all dad jumped in the sea with his mask and snorkel to check the anchor and with a few adjustments it was set. Whilst Dad was swimming around he noticed that there was an old mooring block so when he came back to the boat he got his dive equipment on a went down with the lines and tied us down to it so we weren’t going anywhere.
When he got back we filled up the dive cylinders ready for our dive, when they were done Dad and I got ready to go in.
We both jumped off the sugar scoops at the back of the boat and swam round to the front of the boat and went down following the line which was attached to the mooring block.
When we reached the bottom we were on white sand and we swam over to the reef which we followed around and we saw more life than what we were expecting to see.
We saw lots of wrasse, blennies, trumpet fish, clams, a spider crab, flat fish, sprats, sea urchins and we even saw an octopus hidden down a hole in the reef.
Also whilst we were on the dive, Dad found a large round shell on the sea bed and after the dive we came to the decision that it must be from a sea urchin but it is different to any other sea urchin shells any of us have seen before.
When we got out the cylinders we re-filled and ready for Jo and Sean to use as they were going in for a dive as well.
Alex Penney
Jo and I put our kit on and got in the water which was really refreshing as it was very hot on deck. We went to the bottom and headed to the reef. The water was very clear and we saw a variety of fish, I had taken the camera down and took a few photos. I really enjoyed the dive and hope to do more the next time I come out to visit Kevin and Jo.
Sean Penney.
After we had all been diving we all just did a bit of sun bathing and reading our books.
We then had our tea which was mushroom pasta but pasta and pesto for Sean and settled down for the night on anchor watch and it was Dad and I on first but Sean stayed up with us to play some cards. Time passed quickly and Sean decided to go to bed as he would have to get up shortly for his watch with Jo. Dad and I carried on playing cards for a while and when we went outside to check we weren’t moving we turned the torch on and had a look around and when we shined it on to the water loads of flying fish started to jump out of the water. I have never seen flying fish before and I thought it was really amazing how far they could actually jump out of the water.
Then it was time to swap over and Dad and I went to bed and it was Sean’s and Jo’s turn to be on watch.
Alex Penney
We were shortly followed by another boat who anchored quite close to us.
First of all dad jumped in the sea with his mask and snorkel to check the anchor and with a few adjustments it was set. Whilst Dad was swimming around he noticed that there was an old mooring block so when he came back to the boat he got his dive equipment on a went down with the lines and tied us down to it so we weren’t going anywhere.
When he got back we filled up the dive cylinders ready for our dive, when they were done Dad and I got ready to go in.
We both jumped off the sugar scoops at the back of the boat and swam round to the front of the boat and went down following the line which was attached to the mooring block.
When we reached the bottom we were on white sand and we swam over to the reef which we followed around and we saw more life than what we were expecting to see.
We saw lots of wrasse, blennies, trumpet fish, clams, a spider crab, flat fish, sprats, sea urchins and we even saw an octopus hidden down a hole in the reef.
Also whilst we were on the dive, Dad found a large round shell on the sea bed and after the dive we came to the decision that it must be from a sea urchin but it is different to any other sea urchin shells any of us have seen before.
When we got out the cylinders we re-filled and ready for Jo and Sean to use as they were going in for a dive as well.
Alex Penney
Jo and I put our kit on and got in the water which was really refreshing as it was very hot on deck. We went to the bottom and headed to the reef. The water was very clear and we saw a variety of fish, I had taken the camera down and took a few photos. I really enjoyed the dive and hope to do more the next time I come out to visit Kevin and Jo.
Sean Penney.
After we had all been diving we all just did a bit of sun bathing and reading our books.
We then had our tea which was mushroom pasta but pasta and pesto for Sean and settled down for the night on anchor watch and it was Dad and I on first but Sean stayed up with us to play some cards. Time passed quickly and Sean decided to go to bed as he would have to get up shortly for his watch with Jo. Dad and I carried on playing cards for a while and when we went outside to check we weren’t moving we turned the torch on and had a look around and when we shined it on to the water loads of flying fish started to jump out of the water. I have never seen flying fish before and I thought it was really amazing how far they could actually jump out of the water.
Then it was time to swap over and Dad and I went to bed and it was Sean’s and Jo’s turn to be on watch.
Alex Penney
Friday, 8 August 2008
San Sebastian , La Gomera
Today was our last day in San Sebastian, La Gomera before we were setting off to go and anchor in a small bay just around the corner. First of all what we had to do was get the boat ready for when we were setting off by filling up the water tanks and shopping etc.
Jo made tuna salad for dinner and drained away the oil from the tin and a lot of fish gathered underneath the boat.
If we ever didn’t know where Sean was all we had to do was look at the port sugar scoop where he would always be sat listening to his iPod.
After that Jo, Sean and I went for a quick swim in the sea to cool us all down as it was quite hot we then got a shower and back to the boat to get ready for the night ahead.
First of all we went to the Tropical Bar and had a few drinks in there.
We then had a walk around the town to see if we could see any nice restaurants to eat in, it took us a while but we did find a very nice one in the end. We picked a table and sat down with our drinks and we waited for our food to come. I had a pizza which was extremely nice, Jo had tuna which always looks good around here and Dad and Sean had chicken in garlic which also was very good, but this time none of us could manage a dessert.
After we had eaten we went to another bar which is in the middle of the square and is surrounded by huge trees and Dad introduced Sean to tequila slammers complete with salt and lime.
We then went back to the boat we played cards for a while then went to bed to get some rest in before tomorrow.
Alex Penney
Jo made tuna salad for dinner and drained away the oil from the tin and a lot of fish gathered underneath the boat.
If we ever didn’t know where Sean was all we had to do was look at the port sugar scoop where he would always be sat listening to his iPod.
After that Jo, Sean and I went for a quick swim in the sea to cool us all down as it was quite hot we then got a shower and back to the boat to get ready for the night ahead.
First of all we went to the Tropical Bar and had a few drinks in there.
We then had a walk around the town to see if we could see any nice restaurants to eat in, it took us a while but we did find a very nice one in the end. We picked a table and sat down with our drinks and we waited for our food to come. I had a pizza which was extremely nice, Jo had tuna which always looks good around here and Dad and Sean had chicken in garlic which also was very good, but this time none of us could manage a dessert.
After we had eaten we went to another bar which is in the middle of the square and is surrounded by huge trees and Dad introduced Sean to tequila slammers complete with salt and lime.
We then went back to the boat we played cards for a while then went to bed to get some rest in before tomorrow.
Alex Penney
Thursday, 7 August 2008
San Sebastian , La Gomera
Today we had planned to spend a nice day on the beach. Jo and I went to the beach first, we were just doing a bit of sun bathing and then going for the occasional swim in the sea. We were then joined by Dad and Sean and we all went for a swim in the sea together which we all enjoyed because we found it really refreshing because it was nice and cold. Then we all did some sun bathing and all of us apart from dad got a little burnt but Jo got burnt the worst.
When we had finished we all went and got showered and changed and went for a few drinks in the Tropical bar (which we have nicknamed it) and then to Club Nautico (“the Cave Bar”) and then set off back to the boat were we had made some tapas for tea which was really nice. We had Canarian potatoes, pork, brushetta, olives, Spanish omelette, salami, chorizo however we were meant to be having some chicken as well which looked really nice and the time it was in the oven it would have been dropping off the bone, but Jo who insisted on turning the oven on before we left, didn’t and totally forgot so we had to have it for our dinner the day after instead.
Alex Penney
When we had finished we all went and got showered and changed and went for a few drinks in the Tropical bar (which we have nicknamed it) and then to Club Nautico (“the Cave Bar”) and then set off back to the boat were we had made some tapas for tea which was really nice. We had Canarian potatoes, pork, brushetta, olives, Spanish omelette, salami, chorizo however we were meant to be having some chicken as well which looked really nice and the time it was in the oven it would have been dropping off the bone, but Jo who insisted on turning the oven on before we left, didn’t and totally forgot so we had to have it for our dinner the day after instead.
Alex Penney
San Sebastian , La Gomera
Today we had planned to spend a nice day on the beach. Jo and I went to the beach first, we were just doing a bit of sun bathing and then going for the occasional swim in the sea. We were then joined by Dad and Sean and we all went for a swim in the sea together which we all enjoyed because we found it really refreshing because it was nice and cold. Then we all did some sun bathing and all of us apart from dad got a little burnt but Jo got burnt the worst.
When we had finished we all went and got showered and changed and went for a few drinks in the Tropical bar (which we have nicknamed it) and then to Club Nautico (“the Cave Bar”) and then set off back to the boat were we had made some tapas for tea which was really nice. We had Canarian potatoes, pork, brushetta, olives, Spanish omelette, salami, chorizo however we were meant to be having some chicken as well which looked really nice and the time it was in the oven it would have been dropping off the bone, but Jo who insisted on turning the oven on before we left, didn’t and totally forgot so we had to have it for our dinner the day after instead.
Alex Penney
When we had finished we all went and got showered and changed and went for a few drinks in the Tropical bar (which we have nicknamed it) and then to Club Nautico (“the Cave Bar”) and then set off back to the boat were we had made some tapas for tea which was really nice. We had Canarian potatoes, pork, brushetta, olives, Spanish omelette, salami, chorizo however we were meant to be having some chicken as well which looked really nice and the time it was in the oven it would have been dropping off the bone, but Jo who insisted on turning the oven on before we left, didn’t and totally forgot so we had to have it for our dinner the day after instead.
Alex Penney
El Hierro to La Gomera
We had made the decision to return back to La Gomera after a hard night sailing across to El Hierro, we were very disappointed with the description from our pilot guides and now have lost faith in them, we could have chanced going south to La Restinga, but did not want to risk another disappointment. At this stage we were roped to the concrete wall with all our fenders employed. We made a quick sandwich and a hot drink before we slipped the ropes and set off back.
You could see in the faces of Alex and Sean, who had just had a sailing experience they would choose to forget, let alone go back out and sail back. We all sat eating our sandwiches in total silence, whilst we was waiting for daylight outside La Estaca, the wind had died a little and also backed, thankfully!
We left the harbour and rounded the massive break water, instantly meeting a huge swell as soon as we turned the wall, this was soon passed as we entered deeper water and the swell reduced to the now common Atlantic roll, we motored out about 2 miles to get a clear direction of the wind, before deciding on our sail plan, the wind was on our port bow between 10 – 12 knots with very lumpy sea’s. We predicted that the wind speeds would probably increase further out, so we opted to start with the first reef in the main and the first reef in the genoa, which we know is very conservative we have always chosen to take it easy, after all we are not in a race, no need to put the boat and crew under any unwanted stress.
I entered the first notes into our logbook at 10.00, the sky was very cloudy with rain clouds in the distance, something we are currently not used to seeing, but small blue holes started to appear, which started to cheer up the crew. The log book was updated every hour and the GPS position transferred to the paper chart, plotting our progress. The boat was handling the swell well and everyone was settling in for the crossing.
As we predicted, after about an hours sailing we had covered 5.5 nautical miles, the wind started to increase, Jo was on the helm. Sean and Alex were sat in the cockpit reading books, the boat was handling the conditions exceptionally well giving everyone on board a comfortable ride, but you could sense that people had that impending doom feeling about them as we started to leave El Hierro behind and move further into the white tops.
Another hour passed and the log was updated again with a distance travelled of 7.5 nautical miles, not bad, I like to crack on when conditions permit, but being conservative with the sails, the boat seemed to be doing all the work and the crew were beginning to start to enjoy the sailing again. As we thought the wind increased to 22 – 24 knots, we already had the reef in the main so just put another reef in the genoa, I had previously shown Sean a video, which I had taken from the escape hatch in the heads window and without us knowing he had done the same, which we have now published and you can view. The video sort of tells some of the story with the bows riding over the now confused seas, the boat pressed on and seemed to be exacting its revenge over the previous nights sail. The crew were also rising to the challenge as the boat speed increased also did the interest in our progress.
The next log entry and chart update reviled a distance travelled of 9.0 nautical miles, fantastic, considering the wind and current was on the port bow, everyone including the boat was now enjoying a cracking sail, we had planned to head to Valle Gran Ray, being the first available port on La Gomera and the shortest distance to sail, but everyone was happy to continue back to San Sebastian.
Alex commented about our previous experience on monohulls and that by now we would be healing over with the toe rail in the water and everyone hanging on from grim death, but not today!
Another hour into our progress and we started to see the wind, start to back and reduce in strength as we started to enter the shadow of La Gomera. The wave heights also started to reduce, the reefs were taken out of the sails, but the wind now had almost dropped to nothing. We had experienced 24 knot wind speeds only 10 minutes ago and we were now down to 6 knots, we started the engines and motor sailed back to San Sebastian. Sean who was now at the helm and had been for some time was getting into the full swing and rhythm of steering the boat and was not about at any time about to give up that position, who needs an autopilot!
Sean at the Helm
We arrived back in to San Sebastian about three hours earlier than predicted and after cleaning the boat, with all hands vigorously helping out, following a 36 hour sailing experience on board Invincible.
San Sebastian
The evening was spent on the back of the boat discussing our experience, Alex was talking about the phosphorescence she could see out of the escape hatch on the port side forward berth as the boat went through the waves. Sean woke up through the evening thinking that the boat had turned upside down, but then realised he was sat up in bed, we all gained something form the last couple of days.
You could see in the faces of Alex and Sean, who had just had a sailing experience they would choose to forget, let alone go back out and sail back. We all sat eating our sandwiches in total silence, whilst we was waiting for daylight outside La Estaca, the wind had died a little and also backed, thankfully!
We left the harbour and rounded the massive break water, instantly meeting a huge swell as soon as we turned the wall, this was soon passed as we entered deeper water and the swell reduced to the now common Atlantic roll, we motored out about 2 miles to get a clear direction of the wind, before deciding on our sail plan, the wind was on our port bow between 10 – 12 knots with very lumpy sea’s. We predicted that the wind speeds would probably increase further out, so we opted to start with the first reef in the main and the first reef in the genoa, which we know is very conservative we have always chosen to take it easy, after all we are not in a race, no need to put the boat and crew under any unwanted stress.
I entered the first notes into our logbook at 10.00, the sky was very cloudy with rain clouds in the distance, something we are currently not used to seeing, but small blue holes started to appear, which started to cheer up the crew. The log book was updated every hour and the GPS position transferred to the paper chart, plotting our progress. The boat was handling the swell well and everyone was settling in for the crossing.
As we predicted, after about an hours sailing we had covered 5.5 nautical miles, the wind started to increase, Jo was on the helm. Sean and Alex were sat in the cockpit reading books, the boat was handling the conditions exceptionally well giving everyone on board a comfortable ride, but you could sense that people had that impending doom feeling about them as we started to leave El Hierro behind and move further into the white tops.
Another hour passed and the log was updated again with a distance travelled of 7.5 nautical miles, not bad, I like to crack on when conditions permit, but being conservative with the sails, the boat seemed to be doing all the work and the crew were beginning to start to enjoy the sailing again. As we thought the wind increased to 22 – 24 knots, we already had the reef in the main so just put another reef in the genoa, I had previously shown Sean a video, which I had taken from the escape hatch in the heads window and without us knowing he had done the same, which we have now published and you can view. The video sort of tells some of the story with the bows riding over the now confused seas, the boat pressed on and seemed to be exacting its revenge over the previous nights sail. The crew were also rising to the challenge as the boat speed increased also did the interest in our progress.
The next log entry and chart update reviled a distance travelled of 9.0 nautical miles, fantastic, considering the wind and current was on the port bow, everyone including the boat was now enjoying a cracking sail, we had planned to head to Valle Gran Ray, being the first available port on La Gomera and the shortest distance to sail, but everyone was happy to continue back to San Sebastian.
Alex commented about our previous experience on monohulls and that by now we would be healing over with the toe rail in the water and everyone hanging on from grim death, but not today!
Another hour into our progress and we started to see the wind, start to back and reduce in strength as we started to enter the shadow of La Gomera. The wave heights also started to reduce, the reefs were taken out of the sails, but the wind now had almost dropped to nothing. We had experienced 24 knot wind speeds only 10 minutes ago and we were now down to 6 knots, we started the engines and motor sailed back to San Sebastian. Sean who was now at the helm and had been for some time was getting into the full swing and rhythm of steering the boat and was not about at any time about to give up that position, who needs an autopilot!
Sean at the Helm
We arrived back in to San Sebastian about three hours earlier than predicted and after cleaning the boat, with all hands vigorously helping out, following a 36 hour sailing experience on board Invincible.
San Sebastian
The evening was spent on the back of the boat discussing our experience, Alex was talking about the phosphorescence she could see out of the escape hatch on the port side forward berth as the boat went through the waves. Sean woke up through the evening thinking that the boat had turned upside down, but then realised he was sat up in bed, we all gained something form the last couple of days.
Wednesday, 6 August 2008
New Video - Mahe 36 at Sea
Video from Sean Penney taken from the escape hatch in the heads of Invincible under sail:
New Video - Dolphins
This video was taken from La Rochelle down to the Canaries and has been edited by Alex.
Warning this video has loud music on it!
Warning this video has loud music on it!
New Video - Fiesta del Carmen, Puerto Mogan
Alex has kindly edited the video we took of the Fiesta del Carmen in Puerto Mogan and it is now available on YouTube. Please note, there is loud music if watching it at work!
See link on the right-hand column or press play below:
See link on the right-hand column or press play below:
Monday, 4 August 2008
La Gomera to El Hierro
The plan for the day was to set off to find an anchorage on the west side La Gomera, before we eventually set off for El Hierro. Ugrib was predicting very light (5 to 10 knots) winds later in the evening and also for the following day between the two islands, this would give us chance whilst on anchor, for diving, swimming and any other water sport activities (playing in the tender!).
Departing at about 10.00 in the morning after everyone had chance to have breakfast and take a shower, we slipped the ropes with help from our neighbours who insisted on it, even though we now have a very good, well practiced routine. “No thanks we are ok”, replied Jo, but that did not deter him from assisting us and doing totally the opposite to what Jo was asking. I was in the process of showing to Sean how to set up a slip and what actions to take when the request to slip was heard, when I heard Jo whose voice was now getting louder. I looked over at what the problem was and saw our additional helper removing the slips, which we had setup previously, without any request from the helmsman. No one was on the helm at this point, so a very quick lesson for Sean who did his part very well and me responding by jumping up at the helm to take control, before our boat started to batter the boat next to us or bounce repeatedly off the pontoon removing pieces of shiny gel coat in the process. The boat next door had previously had a visit from a marine surveyor, explaining the cost of the damage he had caused from his last attempt at parking his own boat, hitting the biggest, most expensive looking boat in the marina, ouch! We reversed out of our designated location, without hitting anything, a bit sooner than I expected, no harm done, who needs coffee to wake you up in the morning!
We departed San Sebastian, via the small ships channel onto a flat calm blue sea with clear skies and the sun now making sunglasses compulsory, although Alex does not bother to wear any at any time.
Our destination was an anchorage near Valle Gran Rey so as to make the crossing to El Hierro as small as possible, we headed along the coast standing off about a mile passing other possible anchorages, which looked fabulous. One of them I noticed from the chart had a wreck right in the middle of the bay which later proved to tempting, after passing other possible anchorages, we turned back to go and investigate. On our passage we noticed another yacht in front of us, which through the binoculars looked like another catamaran and seemed to be heading to El Hierro. On turning around to go back to the bay, the other yacht followed suit and started to follow us to our new planned destination. The yacht did turn out to be another catamaran, a Lagoon 410, with a Norwegian flag off the back.
We anchored in the far north eastern part of the bay and as soon as the anchor was set, it seemed either the boat had burst into flames or I had my first mutiny with all hands diving in the crystal clear blue water, all surfacing with some individual comment from the initial shock, which soon wears off and becomes very pleasurable!
Alex was soon equipped with mask and snorkel and set off to explore the reef, Sean was happy enough to be floating around in the water, Jo was preparing lunch and I put on the diving gear to go and inspect the anchor, which was visible form the surface (10 meters), but I insisted it needed closer inspection. The Norwegian boat arrived soon after dropping anchor about 30 meters from us, why so close? I have no idea, maybe just being friendly!
The bottom was sandy, a mixture of white and black sand, made perfect anchoring and I can confirm the anchor was well set, swam around a little to make sure we did not snag on that wreck, which we had not. We all retired back to the boat at the dinner lady’s request to an excellent lunch followed by chilling out all afternoon, with Sean improving his sun tan further than expected.
Anchor watch had previously been explained to the crew and a new proposal was now offered, who would like to do a night sail to El Hierro, with all hands unanimously in favour, we decided to set off at 20:00, with our usual night watch routine in place (21:00 – 00:00, 00:00 – 03:00, 03:00 – 06:00, 06:00 – 09:00)
Passing Playa Santiago, La Gomera
The first watch was Alex and I, so both Jo and Sean retired to get some rest before they started the midnight watch. We were under motor as there was very little wind, peaking at 6 knots on the nose so not much good and as Ugrib had predicted, so no surprises. Alex had her first night sailing experience with phosphorescence beginning to glow from the stern and the clarity of the sky with stars appearing in the thousands visible to the naked eye, we also spotted a couple of shooting stars. We were soon replaced by the second watch and we both retired to get some rest with nothing to report apart from the glow behind us was Valle Gran Rey and the passing of a cruise ship.
Half an hour into the rest I heard the genoa being brought into service with the engines being turned off, great no noise from the engines plus we get to save on the diesel bill, a great notion to sleep on. 15 minutes later with waves now starting to pound on the side of the boat, I decided to go and see what was happening, the situation was that we had winds increasing from 18 to 24 knots within a short space time, which seemed to be fine, leave them to it and a good experience for Sean. Back to bed, after another 10 minutes the pounding was now a bit more serious, so back up to see what the current conditions were, the wind had now increased to 30 knots, which was not expected or predicted at all. This must have been a local wind acceleration zone, which is not described in any of our pilot guides?
Alex was still in bed and hopefully sleeping through it, this being Sean’s first experience of a night watch was not feeling at his best and this was not what I wanted for both Sean and Alex to experience. I volunteered to take Sean’s place and he can go back to his room and sit this one out, the windex was now reading 34 knots and we were not even halfway across. The good news it was coming from the starboard quarter, so the boat was not hanging around, though it did mean we would arrive in El Hierro much sooner than anticipated. Which is what happened, we arrived about 3 hours sooner than expected, we heaved too 2 miles off the harbour entrance waiting for day light. This should have been around 06:30 - 07:00, 07:40 we were happy enough to enter the harbour, the pilot guides explaining that is a new marina with pontoons, which have both electricity and water supplied to each berth, great, chance to rope off and do a bit of exploring, ha, so we thought!
We entered the marina, which was surrounded by a big new substantial breakwater, one of the biggest we have seen so far in the Canaries, then onto the yacht marina, which also had been substantially upgraded. On the approach I passed a comment to Jo saying we should be ok for a berth as I could not see many masts. In fact I could not see any, we entered the marina to the biggest disappointment we have had so far, not a pontoon in sight, only local swing moorings which were full of local boats. We pulled in alongside the big concrete wall, which is not yacht friendly at all or any boat come to that. We both checked the pilot guides again, surely two of them can’t be wrong, yep they were, and in fact both accounts were very similar in description, Hmmmm.
Marina La Estaca, El Hierro
We then decided, that the description did not match our expectation, so the good thing with a boat, if you don’t like it, you can go. We woke both Alex, (who had slept all the way through the crossing) and Sean, explaining to them what the current situation was and our dilemma. We could risk going south to the other marina on El Hierro and trying that, but we were now losing faith in our pilot guides, so with only Jo touching land to pull the mooring ropes over the bollards, we decided to go back from whence we came!
Departing at about 10.00 in the morning after everyone had chance to have breakfast and take a shower, we slipped the ropes with help from our neighbours who insisted on it, even though we now have a very good, well practiced routine. “No thanks we are ok”, replied Jo, but that did not deter him from assisting us and doing totally the opposite to what Jo was asking. I was in the process of showing to Sean how to set up a slip and what actions to take when the request to slip was heard, when I heard Jo whose voice was now getting louder. I looked over at what the problem was and saw our additional helper removing the slips, which we had setup previously, without any request from the helmsman. No one was on the helm at this point, so a very quick lesson for Sean who did his part very well and me responding by jumping up at the helm to take control, before our boat started to batter the boat next to us or bounce repeatedly off the pontoon removing pieces of shiny gel coat in the process. The boat next door had previously had a visit from a marine surveyor, explaining the cost of the damage he had caused from his last attempt at parking his own boat, hitting the biggest, most expensive looking boat in the marina, ouch! We reversed out of our designated location, without hitting anything, a bit sooner than I expected, no harm done, who needs coffee to wake you up in the morning!
We departed San Sebastian, via the small ships channel onto a flat calm blue sea with clear skies and the sun now making sunglasses compulsory, although Alex does not bother to wear any at any time.
Our destination was an anchorage near Valle Gran Rey so as to make the crossing to El Hierro as small as possible, we headed along the coast standing off about a mile passing other possible anchorages, which looked fabulous. One of them I noticed from the chart had a wreck right in the middle of the bay which later proved to tempting, after passing other possible anchorages, we turned back to go and investigate. On our passage we noticed another yacht in front of us, which through the binoculars looked like another catamaran and seemed to be heading to El Hierro. On turning around to go back to the bay, the other yacht followed suit and started to follow us to our new planned destination. The yacht did turn out to be another catamaran, a Lagoon 410, with a Norwegian flag off the back.
We anchored in the far north eastern part of the bay and as soon as the anchor was set, it seemed either the boat had burst into flames or I had my first mutiny with all hands diving in the crystal clear blue water, all surfacing with some individual comment from the initial shock, which soon wears off and becomes very pleasurable!
Alex was soon equipped with mask and snorkel and set off to explore the reef, Sean was happy enough to be floating around in the water, Jo was preparing lunch and I put on the diving gear to go and inspect the anchor, which was visible form the surface (10 meters), but I insisted it needed closer inspection. The Norwegian boat arrived soon after dropping anchor about 30 meters from us, why so close? I have no idea, maybe just being friendly!
The bottom was sandy, a mixture of white and black sand, made perfect anchoring and I can confirm the anchor was well set, swam around a little to make sure we did not snag on that wreck, which we had not. We all retired back to the boat at the dinner lady’s request to an excellent lunch followed by chilling out all afternoon, with Sean improving his sun tan further than expected.
Anchor watch had previously been explained to the crew and a new proposal was now offered, who would like to do a night sail to El Hierro, with all hands unanimously in favour, we decided to set off at 20:00, with our usual night watch routine in place (21:00 – 00:00, 00:00 – 03:00, 03:00 – 06:00, 06:00 – 09:00)
Passing Playa Santiago, La Gomera
The first watch was Alex and I, so both Jo and Sean retired to get some rest before they started the midnight watch. We were under motor as there was very little wind, peaking at 6 knots on the nose so not much good and as Ugrib had predicted, so no surprises. Alex had her first night sailing experience with phosphorescence beginning to glow from the stern and the clarity of the sky with stars appearing in the thousands visible to the naked eye, we also spotted a couple of shooting stars. We were soon replaced by the second watch and we both retired to get some rest with nothing to report apart from the glow behind us was Valle Gran Rey and the passing of a cruise ship.
Half an hour into the rest I heard the genoa being brought into service with the engines being turned off, great no noise from the engines plus we get to save on the diesel bill, a great notion to sleep on. 15 minutes later with waves now starting to pound on the side of the boat, I decided to go and see what was happening, the situation was that we had winds increasing from 18 to 24 knots within a short space time, which seemed to be fine, leave them to it and a good experience for Sean. Back to bed, after another 10 minutes the pounding was now a bit more serious, so back up to see what the current conditions were, the wind had now increased to 30 knots, which was not expected or predicted at all. This must have been a local wind acceleration zone, which is not described in any of our pilot guides?
Alex was still in bed and hopefully sleeping through it, this being Sean’s first experience of a night watch was not feeling at his best and this was not what I wanted for both Sean and Alex to experience. I volunteered to take Sean’s place and he can go back to his room and sit this one out, the windex was now reading 34 knots and we were not even halfway across. The good news it was coming from the starboard quarter, so the boat was not hanging around, though it did mean we would arrive in El Hierro much sooner than anticipated. Which is what happened, we arrived about 3 hours sooner than expected, we heaved too 2 miles off the harbour entrance waiting for day light. This should have been around 06:30 - 07:00, 07:40 we were happy enough to enter the harbour, the pilot guides explaining that is a new marina with pontoons, which have both electricity and water supplied to each berth, great, chance to rope off and do a bit of exploring, ha, so we thought!
We entered the marina, which was surrounded by a big new substantial breakwater, one of the biggest we have seen so far in the Canaries, then onto the yacht marina, which also had been substantially upgraded. On the approach I passed a comment to Jo saying we should be ok for a berth as I could not see many masts. In fact I could not see any, we entered the marina to the biggest disappointment we have had so far, not a pontoon in sight, only local swing moorings which were full of local boats. We pulled in alongside the big concrete wall, which is not yacht friendly at all or any boat come to that. We both checked the pilot guides again, surely two of them can’t be wrong, yep they were, and in fact both accounts were very similar in description, Hmmmm.
Marina La Estaca, El Hierro
We then decided, that the description did not match our expectation, so the good thing with a boat, if you don’t like it, you can go. We woke both Alex, (who had slept all the way through the crossing) and Sean, explaining to them what the current situation was and our dilemma. We could risk going south to the other marina on El Hierro and trying that, but we were now losing faith in our pilot guides, so with only Jo touching land to pull the mooring ropes over the bollards, we decided to go back from whence we came!
Sunday, 3 August 2008
San Sebastian , La Gomera
Today for our breakfast me and Kevin has a full English, Jo had some fruit and Alex had some cornflakes. Today we did some shopping at the super market to stock up because we plan to set sail across to El Hierro and maybe La Palma.
Kevin has been looking at the weather forecast over the last few days and it did not look good it was showing there were 25 knot winds, it should die down by tomorrow morning and that is when we plan to go. When we went diving on Friday we could see from the beach the swell out at sea, it looked rough. We had been quite lucky to find a sheltered spot which was reasonably calm to get in and out. For tea tonight is Paella which Kevin has mastered followed by a game of Gin Rummy. Then bed.
San Sebastian
Sean Penney
Kevin has been looking at the weather forecast over the last few days and it did not look good it was showing there were 25 knot winds, it should die down by tomorrow morning and that is when we plan to go. When we went diving on Friday we could see from the beach the swell out at sea, it looked rough. We had been quite lucky to find a sheltered spot which was reasonably calm to get in and out. For tea tonight is Paella which Kevin has mastered followed by a game of Gin Rummy. Then bed.
San Sebastian
Sean Penney
Saturday, 2 August 2008
San Sebastian , La Gomera
Today started with French toast for me and Kevin and Jo and Alex had some cornflakes. Today we had planned to have a chill out day and that’s exactly what we all did. I had a bit of shopping to do. I set out to the main street, I was looking for a good bottle of wine for my dad. I found a bottle of red - El Faustino Rioja, this looked good so I bought it. It looked that good we had it the same evening, sorry dad I will get you another. After about one hour of walking round San Sebastian I decided to head back to the boat, on my way back I spotted a small shop that sold English newspapers so I decided to buy one and go to have a drink at the local bar with my paper. After a few drinks I headed back to Invincible, Kevin had varnished the new tender seat, Jo and Alex were relaxing. We had a few hours more relaxing then we got ready to go out for a drink, We headed to the Tropical Bar , which is a small bar on the beach front we had a two drinks there then decided to walk down to a different bar on the beach front, then headed to the Cave Bar to have our last drink, Jo and Alex drunk up and went back to cook our tea while me and Kevin decided to have a few more, after we had finished we headed back to a lovely chilli and the bottle of red. Then we went to bed.
San Sebastian
San Sebastian
Sean Penney
San Sebastian
San Sebastian
Sean Penney
Friday, 1 August 2008
San Sebastian , La Gomera
This morning started off with a salvage dive for me, what happened was on the boat next to us was welding on a rod holder onto the stanchion when he dropped it into the water, so he tried to find it with a magnet but it didn’t work so I got changed and jumped into the water to get it back for him, I missed it on my first attempt but on my second I got it and he was very happy I got it back for him.
After that we all just sat outside and relaxed in the sunshine with a nice cold drink on the back of the boat.
We then had a bit of dinner and got ready to set off in the car again to go for another dive in the same place as we did yesterday as we all really enjoyed it.
When we got there it was really windy but it was still alright to go in for a dive, we went in the same order again me and Dad first we seemed to see even more than we did yesterday, what we saw was some sea slugs and sea cucumbers, various wrasse, lots of sea urchins, loads of flat fish, some blennies, a trumpet fish and even a moray eel.
Alex Penney
This was my second ever dive, I could not wait to get in the water, me and Jo got ready while Alex and Kevin was in the water. When they got out the water Jo and I got the stab jackets of Kevin and Alex, put them on then went straight in the water.
We saw a lot more fish this time and we went out a bit further than yesterday. After about 20 minuets in the water we headed back, took our kit off loaded up the car and back in invincible.
Sean Penney
Tonight we are going to go for some drinks before we go back to the boat or some tea which is going to be pasta with tomato sauce and chorizo
After that we all just sat outside and relaxed in the sunshine with a nice cold drink on the back of the boat.
We then had a bit of dinner and got ready to set off in the car again to go for another dive in the same place as we did yesterday as we all really enjoyed it.
When we got there it was really windy but it was still alright to go in for a dive, we went in the same order again me and Dad first we seemed to see even more than we did yesterday, what we saw was some sea slugs and sea cucumbers, various wrasse, lots of sea urchins, loads of flat fish, some blennies, a trumpet fish and even a moray eel.
Alex Penney
This was my second ever dive, I could not wait to get in the water, me and Jo got ready while Alex and Kevin was in the water. When they got out the water Jo and I got the stab jackets of Kevin and Alex, put them on then went straight in the water.
We saw a lot more fish this time and we went out a bit further than yesterday. After about 20 minuets in the water we headed back, took our kit off loaded up the car and back in invincible.
Sean Penney
Tonight we are going to go for some drinks before we go back to the boat or some tea which is going to be pasta with tomato sauce and chorizo
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