24th October-7th December 2024
After a few sunny days in Garachico which Niels made a badass new anchor out of some pieces of a steel bridge, Atlanta was filled with suitcases and rucksacks and fruit and beans and we took my Papa on the sail from north to west of the island to pick up the girls that evening.
It was quite the introduction to sailing for him as we had to navigate those big waves at the entrance to the harbour which had been waiting for us all this time. It’s always much more rolley there in the north because of the almost constant trade winds.
The morning was humid, a soft mist hanging from an invisible washing line between the mountains along the coast. , and a huge bright rainbow led us out of the harbour and away from the rocky outcrops of the shore. Rain clouds came and went. The boat rocked and I hid indoors writing. It was the right decision not to have taken the others, the waves were about 2.6 meters tall and 11s apart.
In the west however it was totally different. Bright hot sunshine, calm seas and a happy crew who we collected in the golden evening. Unfortunately our dingy engine cut out right in the harbour entrance whilst a huge fake pirate ship full of tourists was trying to enter. A good first impression for everyone. Eventually we got to our first anchorage where we would sleep before crossing to La Gomera.
A rocky nights sleep and 6 bowls of muesli later we motored out to find wind, which came eventually.
It took 8.5 hours to sail the 35 miles to Valle Gran Rey, and the weather was perfect. Sun shining, everyone in good spirits, no one got seasick and we caught 3 beautiful fish. Tres ‘Bonitos’.
Maia and Ella watched me de-gut them with interest and disgust, and we tried guessing which organ was which until I accidentally got some stomach on Ella’s foot and then that game was over.
That night was our first with all sleeping on the boat (as Papa and Odi slept in a cave the previous one) and it was rocky and hard to sleep! The walk to town from the nearest beach was via a an ‘Osho’ commune who’s road access had been cut off by a huge landslide in 2020, and sometimes you would see visitors walking the path with helmets.
The anchorage was relatively protected and full of boats, but the constant swell of the Canaries was unescapable. At night the glowing of anchor lights swung like stars on huge pendulums, warm and cold whites colliding and contunueing.
My family rented a tiny little place up in the valley with its own avocado tree and everyday we’d hitch up and down the main road to get to the boat or the beach or the town. It was through our journeys up and down the valley that we met many many Germans, lost and re-found our skateboard, and met a man called Manfred. White haired and completely deaf, he drove barefoot and took us several times when he told us about his “brand new sails” he was looking to sell. This sounded like a dream come true, but after searching for his home for ages and eventually finding him asleep outside and unable to wake up, he was deaf after all.
The island is full of abundance, huge papayas, bananas and avocados hanging heavy in the trees, sometimes falling and rolling down the footpaths where we woud gather them, slightly broken but perfectly ripe and make big guacamoles.
My family was always busy, cooking gorgeous big meals, reading Maia’s story she’s writing, going hiking up and around the steep green valleys, finding fallen fruits, celebrating Halloween, playing cards, singing, sailing and skating along the smooth and not so smooth roads to the harbour and back.
It’s the greenest and probably friendliest of all the Canary Islands we visited, but also full of Germans which gave it a strange atmosphere.
Papa and Odi took me and Niels into the forest and held a solo medicine walk- a part of their work -which was very touching for us to be able to do together there in that soft lichen woodland so different from home.
When we hoisted the anchor after almost 2 weeks, we hoiked up an identifiable piece of metal with it which needed levering up onto land first, and when we loaded everything on the boat I was told about a man feeding some stingrays on the steps by the harbour. This whole time id been hoping to see one so I ran with the camera, to find a huge black slug like mass snorting on the steps, the gentleman feeding him chunks of fish was stroking its ‘air holes’ affectionately. I found it a bit gross to be honest.
We spent 2 more nights on the island sleeping in caves and swimming and enjoying the sun before returning to Tenerife for the family to fly home. The return sail was super calm and slow with very little wind. Just as we were motoring away from land we saw the first fin. Dark and curved and slow, very different to a dolphin.
Pilot whales!
Accompanied always by a small bird flying just a little above the water, there were two, a mother and a calf, and we kept seeing more appearing all over the place and turning off the engine to float with them.
They were very beautiful and some swam under us, but never altered their course to go with us or show any signs of interest unlike the group of huge dolphins that then turned up and splashed around the bow bringing so much joy to the kids and everyone onboard.
After a further few days in the south of the island with all of us sleeping onboard again and snorkelling at the most amazing spots with the craziest fish, Maia and Ella and Papa and Odi got dropped back to land with suitcases full of avocados bound for Germany and ‘normal’ life again, and Niels and I were on our own for the first time since July.
But not for long!! After a few days, Bella was back of course! But only for a week this time.
It was great fun being the three of us again. Bella and I sang the whole time, and Niels got the equipment out to take some amazing recordings for us. It was an interesting bay, a small town at either end and access to a bus line. A complete yet abandoned ‘leper village’ from the 70s but was never used, lay to the right down a dirt path, slowly crumbling down and addorned by layers and layers of graffiti from the last 40 years. To the left a small town with a beach with some surprises under the water. One, was a pipeline that was shown somewhere completely different on the map and the other was several huge rusty anchors, which we of course anchored in.
Aldi Mercadona or Lidl?
Whoever can guess me this riddle?
Comparing the isles, Niels searches and smiles
Our favourite is the right of the middle
We refilled our gas bottle and stocked up massively on food for the coming crossings, packing every cupboard every corner and every bit of bilge with pasta, rice, lentils, beans, cans, soups, tea and coffee.Bella left on the night of the 25th after a disastrous anchoring situation where we got a rope in our propella.
Now it was up to me and Niels to get the boat ready to leave. The next sail would be our longest again, and we finally installed a salt water tap to save on tank water which has been one of my favourite additions to the boat ever. We did a mega shop for around 6 hours going from Lidl to Aldi to Mercadona to find the best deals.
The wind turned N/E and we finally went further west to Los Cristianos for protection and to wait for good weather for crossing. Here we spontaneously spotted the boat of an old friend of Niels’s also from the north, and we had time to sort out the wind steering and an unfortunate kidney infection…
On the evening of the 7th we finally sent the last postcards from Europe and after a very public shower on the beach, and sailed slowly out into the evening sky towards Africa.
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