We are still in Gomera , and the harbour is gradually returning to its normal state. The dark chocolate brown water ( due to the run off from the land in the recent storms) is returning to its normal clear state and the sun is shining. The land however is transformed. This end of the […]
The good news: We´re allowed to stay in La Gomera, by sweet-talking and doing everything short of outright bribery of the marina officials. We´ve spent the past day or so walking up in the clouds and sheltering aboard Festina from the frequent torrential rainfall. Once we´d got past the disappointment, one unforseen aspect of the […]
Ben and Bryony arrived at Las Palmas and the weather looked grim – SW winds until South and East of the Cap Verdes 800 miles to windward and a huge detour to boot! There was just a chance with a Westerly interlude after 24 hours so we set of so as to be further down […]
It seems impossible but I have now been in Las Palmas for 10 days , and have scarcely been outside the marina. Lynda has flown home ,spent a manic 5 days gathering various spare parts , gourmet titbits and essential publications , and returned with a bag that must have seriously compromised the aircrafts chances […]
It would be foolish to underestimate the sailing conditions in these islands as the massive volcanic mountains funnel the winds in so called acceleration zones at both windward and leeward ends of the islands. Most of these are quite local but the channel between Gran Canaria and Tennerife gives you 50 miles of hard going […]
Our week on the island of La Palma has flown by. The overall impression I have is of colour . First of all by Canarian standards it is gloriously green as it has plenty of rainfall , but inland the volcanic cliffs and canyons are a riot of reds and ochres , umber and purple […]
Christmas comes but once a year – but this year might see us mid Atlantic with no freezer and far from the usual source of Christmas goodies. Thus the skipper (known now as Tufty since the infamous haircut) and the mate (aka Ms S Todd, ditto) have been putting much thought and research into what […]