Final Farewells
At the start of July 2005 we had a week in Plymouth to celebrate Andrew’s birthday and
sort a few things in town. Entering the marina at Torpoint was exciting. There
was a strong cross current, practically no water just outside the narrow
entrance gap in the stone walls and less than the length of the yacht in which
to turn before hitting the boats moored on the hammerhead opposite the entrance.
With hard reverse and Andrew’s wellies we avoided any damage. We also managed
somehow to get out again without touching anything! While there, we added a
brass strip to the keel of the dinghy and added a little more fibreglass
reinforcement on some areas. Then it was farewell to family again and departure
from Plymouth on Saturday 9th.
France Part 1
We arrived in L’Aberwrach ("Seaweed Harbour") about 30 hours
later but although the Northeasterlies were actually from the South until Sunday
morning, we only motored for a few hours here and there. The sea was calm. The
sun shone all day and the night was only 6 hours. And to add to our pleasure,
just before sunset Saturday we were entertained by a dozen large dolphins. We
didn’t take any pictures as everyone knows what they are like.
There is a glorious view from L’Aberwrach of a large expanse
of water strewn with rocks and islets, edged with seaweed and white stretches
of sand. The mainland is quite green and dotted with houses. But apart from
visiting one of the many good restaurants, there seems little else to do than
admire the view and the sun. There is a post office and a Tabac, but we found
no other shops or real town. There is a large sailing school from where the
children were busy in their dinghies, canoes and windsurfers all over the water
when we left L’Aberwrach after rising late in the morning. We headed for Ushant
as east winds were settled in for a few days, and gave the Chenal De La Helle a
miss this time. The tide and the wind were behind us and the sunshine warm
until we could see the lighthouse on Ushant appearing and disappearing in the
fog about 6 miles away. By the time it was 2 miles away visibility was down to
one cable, which looked little more than a boat’s length to the wall of fog all
around. We kept our distance off the north side of Ushant, with the tide giving
us an extra 2 knots over the ground. Then we changed course more southerly,
nervously heading for the end of the rocky ledges marking the way into the
anchorage of Lampaul. Suddenly I saw the land and the lighthouse. The fog ended
just a little way over the northern end of Ushant. It was a great relief to be
able to see where we were going in relation to the many rocks. The wind stayed
around a force 6 blowing directly out of this natural harbour and all
mooring buoys were occupied. So we dropped our anchor in a patch of sand close
to the beach and got a good hold. Several other yachts did the same thing
as the evening continued.
The thick fog from the night cleared mid morning and we had
a quick look round the town. It was a bit like St Marys on the Scilly Isles. We
left in time to sail to reach the Raz de Sein for slack water at 9 p.m. and
anchored off Audierne at midnight. During the
day we had mainly northerly winds, which blew
us nicely to the Raz in time. But although it was sunny, it took a while to stop
feeling chilly. We saw the fog come back over Ushant behind us. I also noticed
a dorsal fin flopping from side to side as we passed very close to a shark
basking on the surface of the sea.
It was a rather crowded anchorage and mooring spot off St
Evette, off Audierne, but very pleasant in the extremely hot sun, especially
when the sun awning was erected. There was no wind all day. We took a short
walk up through what was signposted as three different villages, around to
Lervily lighthouse and back along the coastline. We found no shops. In the
evening we joined in the ‘Fete of Seaweed’. This was a jolly family affair with
local food such as mussels and chips, Far Breton (plum cake?), Crepes, and French cider. There was a bagpipe band followed by a band playing traditional
music. All ages were dancing, mainly in circles and lines with arms or little
fingers entwined. Some dances had quite fancy footwork. It was wonderful just
to be in the middle of it and watch. I almost joined in one of the dances. Then
there was a great firework display on the harbour wall just before midnight. We
went back to the yacht then, but the music continued.
When coming in to the anchorage the aft navigation light
refused to work and the front one went out. So as well as the above pleasures,
in the morning we managed to get the aft light working again and in the
afternoon spent around four hours realigning the steering quadrant which had
been sticking. We managed to get it off the rudder post but still could not get
the key out of the post. After sawing a slot in the end to provide some
leverage, we only succeeded in breaking off a piece of the stainless key! It
will be another long job to do next time we can dry out the yacht and drop the
rudder.
Friday 15th we motored and sailed to Benodet,
again in glorious hot sunshine, exploring up the beautiful river Odet the next
day.
France Part 2.
Our next major stop was the Gulf of Morbihan. We anchored
one night of Le Palais on Belle Isle and then a few days in Le Crouesty marina.
(See article on the Morbihan area.)
Andrew’s sister and various other relatives were holidaying
nearby and we often met up. Unfortunately the day we planned to take sister
Helen and her husband Des out sailing for the day, from a peaceful anchorage in
the Eastern end called Le Passage, it poured with rain all morning. So instead,
they took us out for a day in the car visiting Roche Bernard and Radon. Roche
Bernard was a particularly scenic and historically interesting town, and would
no doubt have made an enjoyable trip by yacht up the beautiful river.
The day we took niece Katy and husband James out was a
glorious day for a sail. We sailed out to the island of Houat, the nearest
offshore island from Morbihan about two thirds of the way to Belle Isle. We picked up a buoy off theharbour by the town but it was too rough there to row ashore, so after lunch we went round to the ‘swallow tail’ end of the island and anchored off a fantastic
sweep of soft golden sand with many other yachts. The chart states that there
are high tension cables prohibiting anchoring in the area. But it seemed this
can be ignored! The little town seemed somehow in miniature with small white
painted cottages round triangles and squares with copious flowers. It also had
a decent supermarket considering the size of the town. While Andrew
rowed our guests back from the beach, I had my first swim in the sea, once
round the yacht, and then James, who had never sailed a yacht before,
thoroughly enjoyed helming all the way back in a fairly stiff breeze.
For the last part of our stay, my daughter Nicola and
granddaughter Rebecca, nearly four, came and stayed with us. We organised a
variety of things including visiting La Crouesty marina, mainly for eating out,
finding pirates treasure at Pen Mar on the Ile Aux Moines and a swim round the
yacht with Nicola off Ile D’Arz. The rest of the time was based in Vannes
marina, where Becky could have a go at trying to row the inflatable dinghy. We
hired a car in order to get to St Malo in time for the early morning ferry when
Nicola returned, so for her last day we drove to Carnac to see the stones.
There were thousands of them in fields and woods. Sometimes you could see they
were in straight lines. There were also burrows and tumuli. We took the tourist
train round the area first while it was a bit rainy, and then walked around
dome others. In the afternoon we went over the sand dunes onto a marvellous
beach between Carnac and Quiberon, where the sun shone and Becky and Nicky had
a wonderful time in the sea jumping over the shallow waves, while we built
sandcastles. I would have liked Nicola to have stayed longer but we had
forgotten just how much patience is needed with a small child.
On our last day in Vannes we found a good wi-fi place where
we tried to put extra credit on our phone, without success, and check our bank statements.
We then left with a couple of good days weather forecast to cross the Bay of
Biscay for Spain. It seems a great shame that after being in an area covered
with oyster beds, Andrew never got to eat any of them!
North Spain.
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Evenings here are nothing like in Dover. From about 9 p.m.
everyone goes out for the 'Pasada'. There are crowds sitting around on walls, outside pubs and
restaurants, drinking or talking. It is the time to meet. Again we have been
fortunate to stumble upon some local entertainment. In the main square a stage
was set up for a summer festival with performing musicians, singers and dancers. It was
called ‘Veranes Gijon’, Summer Gijon, and was showcasing local traditional
costumes, dances, songs and instruments. There were pipers and drummers, and a few orchestral
instruments and guitars being played. Sometimes the women had castanets but the
costumes were not flamenco dresses but more reminiscent of our Morris Dancers, the women in rather thick
looking skirts with under-skirts and aprons, the men in knee-length trousers,
waistcoats and cummerbunds. The women wore scarves on their heads and the men
had black hats like skull caps with a triangular piece stuck up on one side.
There was something Gaelic yet still Spanish about the whole thing.
Sunday night we were again treated to a magnificent firework
display.
During the following week we day-sailed along the coast
stopping in Ribadeo, Barquero and Cedeira, all very beautiful places, and suffered the loss of our Ceetrek
self-steering when its drive chain broke. We hope to find the part we need in
El Ferrol or La Coruna in the next day or two.
If you ever want a mechanic in a hurry, try Cedeira. We had
hardly finished anchoring when a guy in a little motor boat came alongside
jabbering away in Spanish. When he realised we didn’t understand him, he tried
again a little slower and louder. At this point I went and got the dictionary
and he came on board and fumbled through the ‘m’ section of the dictionary.
Finally we established he was a mechanic. He left saying he would be back soon.
A little later he returned signalling that the mechanic would be about ten
minutes but, we protested, we did not want a mechanic. The next morning a
bigger motorboat came along hooting, were we an English boat wanting a mechanic. Not us,
we said.
La Coruna now has a new marina, “Coruna Marina”. Their man
will meet you as you enter the harbour and direct you to a buoy or pontoon
space. There are still no finger pontoons but the usual stern lines to pick up.
There is a brand new building still smelling of new paint, and apart from the
toilets and showers, none of the other rooms are fitted out yet. Their man told us
that the old building alongside the Royal Yacht Club finished five years ago
and now there is this one – the cheapest. Actually the Royal Yacht Club is well aware of
the opposition and still attracts visitors. There are also some new pontoons
not yet in use, between the Royal Yacht Club’s property and the castle, where
the rocks with the stray cats are.
We arrived in La Coruna on Sunday 21st August and
somehow stayed there a whole week. Well, when you don’t get up till after
10, start socialising around 7.30 p.m. and have to fit lunch and a siesta in
between there is little time left. We did a lot of walking. The large chandlers
was an hour away and the motorcycle shop where we hoped to get our Cetrek drive chain repaired, was even
further. The chandlers ordered us some paint and provided us with a rubber strip
we can put round our dinghy to stop it bumping the boat. The motorcycle shop did not have the right sized
spring clip for our drive chain and neither did a nearby bicycle shop. We have tied
a piece of fishing line round, but have been given a thin piece of stainless
wire to use if/when it fails. The supermarket was quite a long walk when
carrying heavy bags, and the internet café was 5 minutes further on. We took
the foreward hatch off because the hinges had seized and after 2 days, the
marina mechanics were unable to do anything to it. The very nice bilingual
marina receptionist found us an aluminium window shop on the other side of town
and amazingly, after much shaking of heads and hand gestures and Spanish,
a little old guy there manufactured a working repair. I admire these craftsmen and wish there were
more willing to make repairs than insist you replace with new.
We socialised with two couples during this time. The couple
on Ocean Star were anchored in both Barquero and Cedeiro with us. They will be
leaving their yacht in Sada, near La Coruna, for the winter while they return
home to help with various family ailments. The other couple, on Lady Ayesha,
Tony and Leone, knew us from Civil Service rallies in the Solent. They have
been cruising around France and Spain this year, getting used to retirement and
testing out how they like the yachting life. They are returning across the Bay
of Biscay in a few days to sell their present yacht and were looking for a more
suitable blue water yacht, possibly in steel. A disaster though, some water spilt over our new Toshiba laptop as we were showing them some photos, and the keyboard is now malfunctioning.
West Spain
We motored and sailed round to Corme. On the way there were
a lot of bangs and smoke somewhere on the shore. As we got nearer there were 30 or more fishing boats of various sizes oddly dressed up in branches of greenery, anchored off
a small village where they had been letting off fireworks. They all then moved
to the next village bay and were soon fireworks were coming from there too. As
we arrived in Corme, just before dark, they were letting fireworks off there
too. We diden't discover what it was all about, presumably a fishing festival or blessing of some sort. Apart from in Gijon, we have not seen daylight fireworks before - it seems rather a waste as all you can see is a brief flash and the smoke. Corme
had a loud fair which went on till 4 a.m., and a town clock which chimed the
quarter hours, 3 minutes early – starting at 8 a.m. So a bit short on sleep, we
left Monday morning and had our best sailing day in Spain, to Finisterre. We
were making 6 knots goosewinging all the way till just off Finisterre when the
wind dropped. We then had to find our way into the harbour in thick fog!
We stayed in Finisterre a day as it was still quite foggy.
It was a pleasant enough little town with a small supermarket right next to the
harbour wall. We had dinner in a restaurant overlooking the beach and had the
most delicious razor shellfish as a starters.
The next day we motored out of the fog and then sailed
to Portosin on the south bank of the Ria de Muros. There is a modern marina there
with helpful staff who speak some English. A big bonus for us too was free
wi-fi. Here we found there was a Toshiba centre in Vigo where they would have
someone who spoke English in the mornings. We also got a copy of the laptop
invoice faxed out to us. Apart from the problems with the laptop, we punched a hole
in the dinghy when lifting it back onboard over the stanchions in Finisterre.
The marina girl didn’t know where we could get ‘resina de poliester’ but we
found a marvellous hardware shop in the village which had some. But what we
haven’t been able to get since leaving La Coruna is fresh milk. The dinghy was
patched up with fibreglass tape and resin and just needs some paint.
After 2 nights in the marina we crossed the ria to Muros,
anchoring in the bay. It is about 15 years since I was last in Muros. There are
still some of the old crumbling buildings with narrow alleyways and lots of
steps in between, but along the seafront and all around are numerous new
buildings and roads. The dinghy proved to be watertight even though the sea was
visible through the patch! Saturday morning we left with the drummers drumming
and the bugles blowing from the marching parade on the fishing quay. We motored
out to sea and the breeze filled in enabling us to have a lovely sail, even
though for several hours we were in and out of very thick fog patches. We
anchored off the nudist beach on the Isle of Ons just as everyone was
departing. We are now out of fresh milk and using sterilised from France.
The Ilse of Ons is at the mouth of the Ria de Ponteverde.
Being a weekend, the ferries brought lots of visitors over from the mainland,
many of whom came to the nudist beach, which pleased Andrew. We rowed ashore
and walked for nearly 2 hours up to the lighthouse, down to the habitation
where the ferries landed, and back to the beach. By this time the wind had got
up and I was quite glad it was a nudist beach as I didn’t have to get my shorts
wet pushing the dinghy out through the shore-break! We had a great sail then as
far as the Isle de Cies when it rained mistily and the wind dropped. As we
wanted to get to Vigo before it go dark, we motored up the Ria in the company
of quite a few other boats, a little like Southampton water on a Sunday
evening, and came into the Royal Yacht Club of Vigo alongside another yacht we
have seen on our travels. There are now 3 or 4 marinas in Vigo but this was the
only one for which we had a chart.
Monday morning you wouldn’t have recognised us, dressed up
smart and getting a taxi to the Toshiba repair shop near the central park on
top of the hill. After leaving the laptop and being told to phone on Thursday,
we explored the park with its remains of the old castle walls and spectacular
views and decided we had definitely come into the best marina for access to
Vigo. It rained on the way back so we stopped off for some lunch – a kind of
seafood paella only with fine spaghetti instead of rice. After a siesta we
found a supermarket but still no fresh milk.
Tuesday we left, finding the marina less expensive than
expected, though the facilities were not brilliant. We tacked slowly down the
ria in the sunshine and then it rained again as we made our way into the
Ria de Pontevedre and anchored off Combarro at the northern end, still raining.
The morning brought the sunshine and we were able to explore this remarkable
old village which is being restored in its old style. The houses and church are
built on the rocks rising from the beach. There are narrow alleyways and steps
between the buildings, but in many places the natural rocks are still part of
the pathways. There are an extraordinary number of the traditional maize stores
on stone pillars, mainly around the edge of the town next to the beach. While
there it was a spring low tide and we saw lots of people suddenly descend
across the long beach to the water’s edge as if perhaps a mass baptism was in
progress, but actually they were all digging for cockles! After making our way
round the bay to see what was happening, and then returning to the harbour, it
was time for lunch and try out the cockles in a tapas bar. Very nice they were
too, as well as the fried small green pimientos!
Thursday we were told that a new keyboard was arriving and
we could collect the laptop Friday morning. We hadn’t actually sailed into one
of the rias – the Ria de Arosa, but this was going to be a bit far if we were to
return to Vigo by evening, so we motored (no wind) to the island of Salvora, at
its entrance. The ria was in thick fog last time we passed and this time it was
quite misty until the breeze picked up in the afternoon. The island is now
private and we were not allowed to explore, but it was a pretty place to anchor
off for lunch. We then managed to sail in a good sunny breeze the 20 miles back
to Vigo before dark.
The laptop was duly collected in working order and then our
thoughts were to the supplies we might need before leaving what may be the
last town of any size for some time. We changed the oil in the engine and
renewed the filter, replaced the monofil round the Cetrek chain link with a
piece of fine stainless wire, got some laundry done, bought a new oil filter
and oil, and topped up our food and drink supplies, even finding some fresh milk!
The local guy on the next yacht said there was a huge regatta on in Bayona
which finished on Sunday, so there would not have been room for us had we gone
there as we originally intended before the problem with the laptop. The weather had not been good either and it might have been exposed on a mooring.
Portugal
We picked up a buoy overnight in Bayona and on 12th September made an early start before the wind really came in. It was another very hot day with a clear
sky. The wind soon strengthened from the northwest and we had a wonderful sail
to Viana Do Castelo, arriving around 8 p.m. Unlike Monday where suddenly at 7
p.m. the wind switched off, this time it blew up to a force 6 or 7 making
turning into the harbour and lowering the sails quite a wet and noisy business,
while being buzzed by windsurfers! This was a very smart town with some
interesting architecture and a pleasure to walk round. We left at lunchtime
making for Pavoa as we had been informed that Leixoes marina was closed, but we
had such a good sail making good time with the sails goosewinged that we
continued on to the big commercial harbour at Leixoes anyway, anchoring with several other yachts just outside the closed marina. It was not an easy entrance with large ships entering and
leaving, and no control lights. We didn’t want to radio in case we were told
that the marina was closed and to go away, so we just kept out of the way of
the big ships. There was a pleasant bonus on raising the anchor in the morning
in that it was not covered in large quantities of thick black stinking mud as
it had been last time we were there! It took about three hours of motoring under the clear
blue sky before the wind blew up and we sailed under the spinnaker until early
evening when it suddenly split right across from the top, and
then down the edge before we could get it down. It looked like a write-off, but had only cost us £100
in a boat jumble several years ago so we got our money’s worth out of it.
Unfortunately we had been unable to find a second-hand cruising chute before
setting off so we will have to buy a new one now. We arrived in Figuera around
11 p.m.
The marina at Figuera do Foz was the most expensive so far
since leaving England, except it gets cheaper pro rata the longer you stay – not
much use for the likes of us just passing through. It wouldn’t seem so bad if
there was a choice, but so often now there is no possibility to anchor and it
is pay for a marina berth or not stop.
We spent a whole day in Figuera to get a bit more paint on
in various places and for Andrew to finish his latest article to post on the website.
The next morning we went to the internet café but were unable to access ftp to
post the article. We got the weather which was not too brilliant but would be
improving. In the evening we chose a restaurant where it appeared a local
couple had just entered, and had our worst meal out ever, partly reconstituted
dried fish and shoe leather pork with grossly overcooked small jacket potatoes. At least the
wine was cheap. Not too impressed with Figuera, we headed out into a force 6
wind on the quarter and a very rough sea the next day. We rolled along at 5-6
knots just with the genny and decided to put into Nazarre for the night,
arriving just after dark. The wind had moderated and we hoped the seas would be
calmer by morning. A siren kept winding up and down constantly well into night!
Sunday was indeed a very good sailing day, goose-winging all
the way towards Cascais at 4-5 knots. Just before turning towards Cascais
and Lisbon, at Cabo da Roca, there are two headlands to get round. It was now dark
but we had a full moon. Just past the first point the speed shot up from 4 to 6
knots and we took in one reef in both sails, now on a beam reach,
but within another 5 minutes we were up to 7.5 knots and another reef went in. We
anticipating a hard time when around the second point and heading up into the wind.
But I expect you can imagine what happened next – as we went round the wind
died completely and we had to motor the few miles into Cascais!
The marina in Cascais was reported to be at Mediterannean prices so most yachts were anchored in the bay. (They
say the price drops by about two-thirds come October). There we saw several of the
other yachts we had previous seen on our travels; some Dutch, a few ARC yachts, a few
of the English going to the med and a younger couple, David and Hazel, in the
renovated Irish trawler Ros Ailither which we sailed alongside from Viana Do Castelo towards Leixoes.
They are also going to the Canaries and across the Atlantic, so we expect to
meet them again. We spent some pleasant time drinking and talking to Tom and
Ann on Alba Voyager, a fibreglass Bruce Roberts 40 footer. They had spent some
years renovating the inside with some rather ingenious storage ideas. A pleasant,
roomy, practicable boat which even had Andrew comment how he would appreciate
an extra couple of feet! They will be wintering in the Algarve before exploring
the Med.
We ordered a new cruising chute from Hong Kong Sails to be
delivered in the Canaries, found free wifi in the post office, explored the
shops and visited Lisbon. The post office provided wifi facilites through ‘PT’
whose card with password cost 5 euros for 1 hour. But the estate agent next door had an
unsecured wifi which we picked up very well through the wall. We started spending our mornings sitting at the wifi desk in the post office. They must have wondered how we got so much use out of a one-hour card!
In Lisbon we went round the Gulbenkein Museum and its
gardens, the Saturday Flea Market, the castle and the top of the hill beside
it, and down through the old town with its with its little old trams winding
their way, quite frequently, around the steep and narrow lanes. There is a
metro train every 20 minutes running along the coast between Cascais and
Lisbon. It takes about half an hour and costs around £1.50 return. With good
weather forecast for the following week and our preparations done, we thought
we would head out for Madeira on Monday 26th September, but there
have been some strong winds with extreme gusts blowing through the evenings and
well into the nights which were not forecast and were somewhat worrying, so
departure was delayed.
After a week we were ready to leave and the weather was
still being forecast as north-westerly winds of force four to five, so we
ventured out a few miles. The wind became a good force five with a steep short
swell making it very uncomfortable for a long trip, so we returned to the
anchorage. The next day a force seven was forecast and we watched the
ten Clipper yachts start their race. New York appeared to be first over the
line together with a few other yachts. The first few made a good start and were soon well away, but then the wind dropped completely on the line and the rest of the fleet found itself stuck. The last, Liverpool didn't cross the line until fifteen minutes
after the gun, by which time the first group were practically out of sight. A dispiriting start after months of preparation.
Crossing to the Atlantic Islands
On Wednesday 28th September we set off with good
conditions apart from a fog bank a few miles off the coast. The winds and swell
came from the east on our starboard quarter, but were slowly increasing. With a three hour
watch system it is possible to get seven hours’ sleep daily by grabbing some sleep during
every off-watch period, other activities being preparation,
consumption and clearing up of meals and drinks, and supporting the on-watch person with major sail changes or temporary repairs to equipment. But in rough weather sleep can be difficult and the best
berth is on the saloon seat being held snugly in with the lee-cloth. On watch,
a lot of reading is done, or listening to music with headphones as long as we
refrain from singing along and disturbing the other!
The account of our crossing is related elsewhere.
Porto Santo
Porto Santo is a small volcanic island about 30 miles
northeast of Madeira. Much of the island is steeply rising rock with little
habitation or roads on the north side. On the south side is a sandy bay over 3
miles long with the harbour at one end and the main town of Porto Santo about a
mile along the bay. The town has most facilities and, a bonus for us, an
interesting triangular ‘square’ which is advertised as a free wifi
hotspot. In the evenings especially, several people would be seated around the
low walls crouching over their laptops. Obviously the idea is that one will sit
at one of the many surrounding bars and drink at inflated prices while using the service, but it is not
mandatory.
On first sight the steep rock face looked like bare sandy
coloured rock, but actually was covered by dead grass. There were many fissures
in which the odd eucalyptus tree grew and there were a few crops of cacti, but
I found the rock very interesting. There were so many different types and
colours, yellow, red, black, brown, although I think the predominant variety
was sandstone. This had weathered into some fascinating shapes. There
was a stretch of shallower land across the middle of the island on which there
was an airstrip and a golf course. Here too was a little farmland, but theisland is too dry to support serious agriculture. Older terraces looked abandoned. The main industry is tourism. Many
people visit from Madeira for the beach and the tranquillity. Every day there
was a two-hour bus trip all around the island, stopping at various viewpoints
for people to get out and take photos.
There has been a lot of new development lately, perhaps EU
funded; some housing estates of holiday homes, which rather spoil the
view, and an area beyond the marina of half a dozen restaurant and bars with their
tables and chairs stacked inside and never opened while we were there.
Beyond this was a specially constructed sand-covered 5-aside football pitch
surrounded by stone seating with sunshades above, and changing facilities, and
next to this, a course laid out for motorbike/quad-bike/go-kart racing. Again it all seemed underused and had a strangely abandoned air. The road along the
beach from Porto Santo was led past the marina to a car park by this new
complex, at the end of which lay one of the floodlight lampposts which
apparently never got erected. A track continued from here round the foot of the
mountain, through a short tunnel cut through the rock to the other side of the
island. We enjoyed a walk along this, walking for about an hour until we
reached a tiny, remote bar providing much needed refreshment
before the return trip. This track will no doubt be made into a road when more EU funds permit.
The weather was really odd at this time. How's this for an unusual weather warning, received on our Navtex from Las Palmas?
COASTAL WARNING NR/2478/2005. CANARY ISLANDS, SPAIN SOUTH COAST. RISK OF LOCUST PLAGUE MOROCCO, MAURITANIA, ALGERIA. ALL SHIPS IN MARITIME AREA, SHARP LOOK OUT FOR LOCUST PLAGUE.
Then, as we felt ready to leave, a huge depression formed off Madeira. The winds switched to the southwest, direct from Madeira instead
of towards it, and gradually increased to storm force. This was was Hurricane Vince, the first hurricane ever to form in the eastern Atlantic. For a couple of days we
had terrific lightening and thunder, and then very strong winds with
showers of rain. Andrew developed a sore throat and headache, and the next day he was sick. At least he didn’t
feel he was holding us up as we weren’t able to go anywhere. We fixed
one or two little things on the boat and cleaned and painted a few more rust
spots. We took the spinnaker pole apart to free the pin which had stuck at
one end, and ease the stiffness of the telescopic action. The maintenance guys
at the marina hadn’t any pop rivets of the correct size to refix it, the best they could do was secure the end fittings by tapping in some bolts. So our stay in Porto Santo became much longer than expected.
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We looked over the "Nun’s Valley", though swirling mist rather obscured this famous view. Houses were perched on
the edges of the ravines with terraces of farmland joined by narrow paths,
copious steps, and a few tracks. The Madeiran red
grapes were grown like a canopy a few feet above the ground, creating their own
eco-system, but the white grapes were in rows as in France. In a short distance
we saw cherry trees, apple trees, cabbages, sweetcorn and grapes, in close
proximity, each variety occupying a quite small area. There were a few crops of sugar
cane here and there. As the bananas and sugar cane are now less in demand, some of
this farmland has been given over to tourism and covered in new hotels and
apartments, although we have heard that the number of tourists allowed on the
island is capped. The Land-Rover trip was a good way to see this stunning
scenery. Alternatively, there are many walking routes laid out through the hills. Some of
these follow the old irrigation canals, called ‘levadas’, which still collect
the spring water and lead it to the water treatment plants. There is no
desalination plant on Madeira as there is enough fresh hill water.
We also took a cable car from Funchal, way up over another
ravine, to the Monte Palace and tropical gardens. Here paths criss-cross down
part of the ravine through themed gardens with ponds and waterfalls, with the
addition of picture-tile murals, depicting the history of Portugal, and various
objects of art to enjoy along the way. From here one could return down the steep hill to Funchal in
the traditional way in a wicker sleigh, steered down by two men at the
back. Unfortunately, with the arrival of a cruise
ship, there was too long a queue for the sleighs, so we returned on the cable car.
Sunday was still rather wet in the morning and the winds
were still southerly, so we took the cable car again only this time walked
down. The walk took us along narrow tracks and steps through the forest on the
edge of the ravine. Much of the time we were alongside a sheer drop. Part way,
we came to a very pretty spot with a waterfall. Andrew said the water tasted
very good and was almost tempted to take a swim in the pool at the foot of the
waterfall, even though it looked very brown. After a while we met up with a
levada which we then followed until it brought us back down into the town.
Following the levada was the scariest part of the walk as it was less than a meter wide with the channel for the water in the middle covered by over by flat
stones, and at times went over stone viaducts with nothing to hold on to and a long drop underneath. At other times the levada was pinned onto a rock face,
with a sheer mountainous drop along its edge. It took
us two and a half hours to make the descent back to Funchal town centre with the
last bit down an incredibly steep road. We enjoyed it but it was good to be
back on flat ground.
While making use of the free wifi in the marina, we took the
opportunity to download the "Skype" software which will enable us to make phone calls home via the internet for around a penny a minute.
Passage To Tenerife
We waited in Madeira for the good weather due by Monday 17th
October and duly set off in the morning, but five miles out we had only a very
light wind on the nose. We hung around for an hour or so and then decided we
might as well return to the harbour for some sleep and try again later. By
6 p.m. it was blowing quite nicely and we set off again and continued. There
were times when we touched 5 knots, but mostly it was nearer 3. I expect we motored
for around 3 hours in total and averaged three and a half knots for the trip. It was about
80 miles to the Salvage Islands and another 80 to Tenerife. We passed the
Salvages between midnight and 3 a.m. Wednesday, only able to make out their shapes
in the moonlight, and arrived at Tenerife at midnight Thursday. At least the nights were lit by a full moon. We had dolphins with us at various
times, the last lot, just before Tenerife, were lit up by phosphorescence as they
swam close to the yacht. I read another whole book!
Tenerife
Just round the extreme
north-eastern point of Tenerife and before reaching Santa Cruz, the island's chief port, is an open anchorage between two high rocky
points where we managed to anchor as described in our old pilot book. It was
just as well, as when we tried to get the mainsail down it wouldn’t budge. We
thought the halyard had jammed but it hadn’t. The top metal lug, with two
shackles on it to the head of the mainsail, had half pulled out of the track. I
think the shackles had been rubbing on the edges of the track, perhaps wearing
them thin, and the lug had burred over the edge of the track as it had pulled
out. The next morning we motored into Santa Cruz and phoned someone who took a
look at it and decided that the mast would have to come out in order to make a welded repair to the track. He would report back to his boss with whom I had already
been able to explain the problem in English, and he would phone us Monday as it
was then Saturday morning.
Hong Kong Sailmakers who already had our cruising chute
at their premises in Plymouth, agreed to send it out by TNT Express to Santa
Cruz, on a 5-day special delivery. We had been warned that normal parcels
take around 6-8 weeks. That’s how long people in Santa Cruz were
waiting for post.
We heard no more from the people who looked at the mast
except the word ‘impossible’. Although there were several places with travel hoists,
nowhere in Santa Cruz was there a crane high enough to lift our mast. So we started to search for somewhere we could get this done. With the help of a marina assistant we discovered that a small private marina at Radazul might be able to do it. So with
them expecting us, we sailed the five miles down the coast Radazul and at low
water the next day, a crane arrived and got the mast off. The next day the
crane driver, who claimed to be also a welder, tried to make our repair, but
it was evident he was not making a good job. The marina chief sacked him and then found us another aluminium welder to come the next day, who did an
excellent job. The following day at low water the crane returned and the
mast was put back. All very efficiently handled! We were glad the marina chief spoke English and was so
willing to put himself out to be helpful. He even let us look at our emails on
his computer one evening.
Radazul is a large collection of slab-fronted apartment blocks
fronting of an extremely high cliff with a road running zig-zag from top to
bottom. It is a long and tiresome walk to reach the main road and mini-market at the top. But
there were bars and restaurants around the marina and a beach of black stones from which we
swam one evening. It took a day to sort out the rigging, reconnect the
wiring and put back the sails. This meant several trips up the mast to rewire
the radar and tape over the ends of the crosstrees. Having sorted one problem the fates decided we needed another and we found we could no longer use the cooker taps were jammed and the grill unusable. (see Lyn’s
Cooker Rant).
Then it was sailing to Los
Gigantes to meet our friends Linda and Norman Hart who were holidaying in Tenerife. The first day we only got to Los Cristianos an hour
before dark and anchored in the bay, leaving first thing in the morning. We arrived at Los Gigantes around midday and found it not
very comfortable, quite dilapidated and the power supply too feeble to keep our batteries charging – therefore no fridge. But we met up with Linda and
Norman, and their friends Janet and Peter, in an apartment. Linda
brought out our electric bilge pump we needed to comply with the new insurance
regulations, and a few other goodies from England. We took Linda and Norman out
along the foot of the very high cliffs of Los Gigantes and saw some dolphins,
had lunch and then swam off the beach. It was great to meet up a few times and
have lots to talk about. Andrew and I took a taxi to Masca village high in the
mountains and walked down the ravine by the stream for three hours to its end
at the foot of the Gigantes cliffs, where walkers are picked up by boat and
returned to the marina. It felt like a mini holiday while in Los Gigantes, but
after three days we left and made our way back to Los Cristianos. This time we
went five miles out from the shore and found lots of pilot whales. They were a
magnificent sight. and were very close to the yacht, lazily arching through the
water’s surface and loudly blowing out their smelly breath!
Back at Los Cristianos we met up with David and Hazel of Ros Ailither, who we last saw in Cascais, and got lifted out on the hard for a several days. We
have the boat out of the water to sort the rudder
post and fit the new propeller we have been carrying around. I antifouled
the bottom in just 2 hours, put the rubber fendering around the dinghy that we had bought in La Coruna, restuffed both the stern and rudder glands, and fitted the electric bilge pump
in position.
The new sail was delivered by TNT to Santa Cruz who refused to accept
it because we were not there, and then it was supposed to be redirected to the yard in Los Cristianos.
A package came to Los Cristianos. The delivery man had a
wedge of papers in his hand and the top sheet had my name, boat name etc but
underneath was a different name and boat, the name that was actually on the
label stuck to the package. It was quite clearly not mine and I refused it. Every time I
phoned TNT and gave them my tracking number they told me the correct name and
confirmed Los Cristianos address, but also various things such as hadn’t I just received it, sorry it had been refused in Santa Cruz and sent back to England, it would be delivered tomorrow, it had just been released from customs, or it was still in England and hadn't arrived. We believed none of it. With a great deal of reluctance eventually I was told the address of the TNT depot in Tenerife and got them to give me their address.
This was not easy to understand over the phone but nevertheless, we hired a car and drove to the town we believed it to be in. Here we asked
‘Tourist Information’ where this address was. No-one knew. Maybe just outside the town near the Civil Guardia barracks. Off we went again and found the barracks but still
could not locate the address until I asked a policeman, who in turn asked someone
else, and finally found the depot up a narrow alley. I produced my tracking number and was
immediately shown our parcel lying on the floor still with the Santa Cruz
address and no mention of Los Cristianos. It would be there to this day if we hadn't hunted it down. Then we found we
had to pay two airport charges of around €50 and also the local VAT of 5%
as the package had not been marked for ‘yacht in transit’, also around €50. So with about €30 worth of phone calls plus the hire car the sail had got quite a bit more expensive. TNT’s 5-day express delivery (costing £115) took just under 3 weeks and then only because we didn’t wait any longer for them to fail to deliver it.
The temperature here is around 29 during the day and 24 at
night. Any exertion makes the sweat pour, but in the afternoon we can just walk
out of the yard and into the sea for a swim and shower off under one of the
showers dotted around the edge of the beach. We have hired a few DVD films to
entertain us a few evenings and have fresh milk to make decent tea and coffee.
While we had the hire car we decided to see more of the island: Mount Teide, the
Orotova valley and Puerto de la Cruz. So life was not too bad!
The landscape around Mount Teide where the road goes, makes one think of the
moon – in fact some of Star Wars was filmed there. This time we were able to
take the cable car to the top, walking around the rocky lava, looking over the
top of the clouds and over another volcano crater. The air was a bit thin and
at first we had to keep stopping breathless until we got acclimatised.
La Gomera
We sailed over to La Gomera not long after returning to the
water in strong winds and the large swells which were uncomfortable for a while. La Gomera is a fabulous island. It is mostly undeveloped and tourism is low key while there are large expanses of awe-inspiring scenery. We hired a car for a
day to see the island. There is hardly a length of road
anywhere that does not wind up or down the hills. The ravines and rocky outcrops are breath-taking. There are bananas
at the bottoms of the valleys, and abandoned terraces can be seen a long way up
the sides of the hills. Mostly they are covered in cacti, palms and scrub. There are
small villages here and there, connected to a road somewhere by a
track and a network of paths and steps. There are many well-marked walks for
the energetic, making this an excellent place for a
walking holiday.
We have managed to dismantle the windlass and stick a loose magnet back in place in its motor, which hadn't been pullling very well. Also we took the cooker taps apart and get them working again by
straightening out the ends and adding some grease where it leaked gas. So
periodically we will be able to service them and hopefully keep the cooker
working. We are now ready for the off!
Cape Verde Islands
We set off from La Gomera on 25th November passing quite close to the island
of Hierro with the hope of seeing something of it. It would have been nice to
have stopped a night or two to visit the small, apparently green,
island, once the last outpost of known land, but the weather fax had shown that there was some very nasty weather behind us and we needed to get as far south as possible to avoid it. We
passed the island in the night. Progress was slow but the seas were getting rough. By the third day we were
more than 200 miles south and were feeling the effects of what we now knew to
be tropical storm Delta which was passing through the Canaries. The
winds went up to a force 9 for a while and the seas were big. Towing the water
generator helped stop the stern from slewing across with the breaking waves and
with the sail reduced to the triple reefed main and the storm jib, we let
Sentinel drift generally in the right direction without the aid of the Aries
self-steering. The control rope had parted on the Aries again and we were pleased
how well Sentinel could steer herself until we retied it.
It took seven days for the seas to calm down, in which time
Andrew lived day and night in the same clothes. The skies had been
cloudy as well, making the nights pitch black and not sunny enough by day to
entice him to take a shower. I have to admit that the buckets of seawater
tipped over me during this time did feel very cold, and the short cold rinsing
shower was even colder! On the eighth day it was calm and sunny so we not only
showered but did a large bucket of washing (in boiling seawater). I was allowed a gallon of fresh water for the final rinse. Everything
dried quite quickly on a line in the breeze and the sun. To help us conserve
our fresh water we refitted our foot pump tap in the galley to the seawater cock
which had been blocked off for some years. The washing up can then be done in
seawater as well.
The bottom of the cooker started catching as it swung as a heat-shield had bent, and we
took it off its gimbals to sort it out. While standing on the floor the rocking
of the yacht knocked it over, smashing the fancy glass oven door. The last two days
of this trip would have to be breadless.
On the ninth day the winds dropped and the sea was flat. We
were barely making 3 knots, so in the morning we thought to raise the new
cruising chute. All prepared, I pulled out the spinnaker pole and one of the
newly fitted bolts holding the end on, plopped off into the sea. Another was
loose and would not tighten any further. We had no other bolts to fit so the
pole is as yet unusable, and the chute stowed below again. Sailing slowly, I
decided to fish again with the small rubber squid on the hook, and in an hour
caught a good sized dorade fish, enough to make a meal for the both of us.
After Andrew had killed and gutted it, I
put a piece of the fin onto the hook and tried again. Before long I
had another similar fish. Time to stop. Fish for two days is as much as we can
keep. My claim to being the world’s worst fisherperson is over.
While fishing, we saw in the distance what had to be a huge
whale. Something rose out of the water like a tree and then sank sending a
tremendous splash up in the air. Earlier in the day we saw a large number
(flock?) of silvery flying fish skimming over the surface of the sea together,
and later, a dolphin fin.
With all the blood and scales etc. from the fishing cleared
away, we had just a few hours of daylight left and a little over 20 miles to
go. By motoring flat out with a favourable current we just made Porto Grande as
darkness fell. We had arrived off the town of Mindelo on San Vicente island.
On passage I made a Cape Verde courtesy flag and read nearly
two books, but spent most of the off-watch time trying to catch up on sleep. We
had swapped several books with Hazel before leaving Los Cristianos, and here in
the anchorage we swapped some more with an English couple who had to return to
work back home sooner than planned, as well as with a German who came rowing around
the English yachts with his collection of books for swapping. We have no more
books to swap for a few days.
In the excellent anchorage of Porto Grande, we met a lovely
Dutch couple on the yacht behind us, who have been sailing around for some
years. They had a guide on Brazil which we borrowed and photographed the
pages we might find useful. They also talked a lot
about Cuba and got me really looking forward to visiting there. This is the first time we thought of photographing unobtainable pilot books and charts, which then can be read quite easily on the laptop.
I got an email informing me that my father, living on
Vancouver Island, had passed away. So now we have no pressure to hurry
to Canada, and with the extra information on Brazil, it looks like we shall be
going from the Cape Verdes to Salvador, take
in the Carnival, then work our way northwards, perhaps going up the Amazon.
On Tuesday 13th December we sailed from San
Vicente to the island of San Nicolau, around 45 miles to the east. There were half a dozen yachts anchored in the bay. We completed the arrival formalities in the morning at the
maritime office, paying the 500 escudos, and went into the one bank for some
more cash. There was no ATM and we were charged around £6 for a
phone call to Portugal on top of the bank commission for
a double currency exchange via Euros! We hoped to get a Cape Verdean ‘bus’ to the main town in the centre of
the island as it is said to be a very scenic trip, but no-one would give us information about how to find one, and the only taxi driver wanted an absurd price. All in all, people here were quite unfriendly, so after a walk round the village we returned to the yacht rather depressed. Andrew cut my hair, I washed off in the warm sea, and prepared to set off in the morning to the island of Santiago, around 90 miles away.
Friday morning we came into the bay at Tarrafal in the north
of Santiago where there were two Dutch yachts and one English which we had seen
before but until then had not met. It is rather a pretty bay and is the
holiday resort of the island.
Saturday we hope to get some water and fresh fruit, do the
washing and walk out to the lighthouse. Monday or Tuesday we should sail to
Porto Da Praia, the Capital, on the southern point of Santiago to check out
with immigration (it will take a day to get there) and then on Wednesday or
Thursday set out for Brazil, unless it looks like we could join in some
Christmas celebrations in Praia. We will have three celebrations on route:
Christmas, New Year and crossing the equator. |
The marina at Gijon.