Las Palmas, Gran Canaria

January – 22 February 2010

We found that in Spain Christmas Day is not very important. The coming of the Three Wise Kings is the big event here as the children write their present lists to them rather than Father Christmas and receive their presents on the 12th day of Christmas. The Kings arrived by boat across the harbour to an enormous and excited welcoming crowd in the morning of the 11th day. Later on a group of us went to watch the procession through the town with loads of decorated floats and costumed participants all throwing sweets to the huge crowds of onlookers. At the end of the procession rode the Kings on camels, each with their own large entourage, all throwing sweets and receiving present lists from the very excited children who were held up by their parents. It was great fun and an absolutely marvellous atmosphere. After this we had a meal then wandered around the crowded older parts of town, where the craft fair and the shops were all still open, and on to the concert in front of the Cathedral which started at midnight. It was all still very busy when we left at 1am but we had had a marvellous evening and were tired. 

Click for video of the Three Kings procession

By 6 January we had prepared for the Atlantic crossing, we had provisioned and were ready to leave, intending to stop in the Cape Verde Islands for a week or two before crossing to the Caribbean. Jim switched the engine on for a final check – a worrying clunk and a few minutes later we found we had water coming into the boat; the shaft seal was damaged!! We could only obtain the spare part from England; it arrived about 10 days later so we had the boat hauled out on shore, made the repair and sorted out one or two other problems which we subsequently found, antifouled the hull and returned to the marina.

We then had to wait for reasonable weather to start the crossing.  So far this year there had been an unusually high proportion of south-westerly winds and high swells caused by the same bad weather that northern Europe was experiencing.  Whilst waiting we hired a car and spent 3 days visiting different parts of the island - the beaches and sand dunes in the south and some of the interior including a cave village and La Roche Nuebe, the highest point on the island. We were lucky to have bright sunshine for this and had the most fantastic views across the island and to Tenerife.

We also ended up staying in Las Palmas for Carnival – a fantastic month-long festival of parades, competitions and parties. Not only the participants in the parades, but many (perhaps half) of the onlookers, were in fancy dress – in particular, the men here love to cross dress for Carnival, the the most popular competition being for the Drag Queen with totally outrageous costumes. The parties didn’t seriously get going until around 1am and continued for the rest of the night – great for the younger ones around, but we just wanted our bed by midnight!

Click for video of the main Carnival parade

Unfortunately we were unable to recover the photos which we lost when the hard drive failed, but the video was still on DV tape. For some poor quality stills from video please click here

 

Canaries

February 2010 - Currently in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. 
Unfortunately the hard drive failed on our computer a few days ago and we lost all the photos and blog entries written for the Canaries before we could post them. Hopefully we'll be able to get the data recovered from the old drive once we get to the Caribbean or the USA and be able to update the blog.
We were ready to set off across the Atlantic early in January but damaged our shaft seal the day before departure.  Having obtained the spare part from England and made the repair, we have since been waiting for reasonable weather to start the crossing.  So far this year there has been an unusually high proportion of south-westerly winds and high swells. Tuesday 23 February is now looking good for departure. Hopefully the next update will be from the Caribbean.

Canary Islands

29 October – 31 December 2010

We left Funchal on the 29 October and, apart from 12 hours motoring when there was little wind, had a good sail to the Canaries.  We arrived at Isla Graciosa – a tiny island just off the northern point of Lanzarote - on on the 31st and had intended going into the small marina at Caleta del Sabo, but there was a very strong cross wind and little room to manoeuvre so we thought better of it and anchored off for the night.

The next morning the wind had abated a little so we moved into the marina and moored in difficult conditions, but were most thankful for the assistance from other cruisers already in there. That morning we were told about a (not unexpected) death in the family and decided this was a good place to leave the boat whilst we returned to England a week later for the funeral.

The island is very barren and Caleta del Sabo is a very pretty place with low-rise buildings, mainly white with the details picked out in bright colours. From the marina to get to the main part of the village we walked along the beach when the tide was out, but the streets are also sandy, the only paving being around the waterfront where the ferries dock. There are 3 mini supermarkets, a small butcher, a baker, a pharmacy, a surprising good hardware store, and a few restaurants and bars. Very quiet, very relaxed and completely charming.
By contrast, when we arrived in England it was cold, grey, wet and miserable, and midway through the week Anne developed what we thought was a bad cold.  On our return to Isla Graciosa she went to bed for the next few days – turned out to be a bad dose of Bronchitis. It was a couple of weeks before she was well enough to sail.

We eventually sailed on the 27th November, but once clear of the channel between Graciosa and Lanzarote the wind died and we had to motor the rest of the way to Las Palmas on Gran Canaria.

We anchored for a couple of nights before going into the marina as we wanted to have our rigging replaced before the long trip across the Atlantic.

We enjoyed being in the marina at Las Palmas – there are lots of cruisers, some long-term residents and others, like us, just passing through.  It’s very friendly, sociable and everyone helps each other when needed. Las Palmas is a busy, commercial city with lots going on in the time we were there.

Jim’s sister, Margaret, came out to stay with us for 10 days in December. It was great fun having her around and we took the opportunity to visit the Vegueta area (old town) of Las Palmas around the Cathedral and the Triana area with its Art Nouveau buildings and very large Christmas crib arranged as a circle around a tree, and stayed to see the lovely Christmas lights in the evening. We also enjoyed an excellent folk singing/dancing display, click here for video, had a day out by bus visiting an attractive village in the north-west part of the island, and Anne and Margaret had some fun shopping trips together.

At Christmas the cruisers organised a gathering for the evening - bring-a-dish to share and your own BBQ meat and drink. About 50 people turned up of all nationalities – it was a really nice Christmas. At New Year’s Eve our pontoon had a bring-a-dish pontoon party, we provided the music with our Ipod and mini speakers, and people wandered in and out – again, great fun.

For more photos please click here

Ribadeo to Ria de Arosa

10 May – end June 2009

For the remainder of May we made our way slowly along the north coast of Spain. The weather has been generally quite bad this year with a lot of rain, strong winds and high swell, interspersed with short periods of good weather when we took the opportunity to sail on to our next port of call. We had some excellent sails, but also some long periods of motoring due to a lack of wind.

The coast in this part of Spain is incredibly beautiful – tree covered mountains with flooded river valleys between (rias). It’s marvellous to be able to anchor in the rias as it is so beautiful and peaceful.

There are many English people sailing in this area – everyone is very friendly, we invite each other for coffee, drinks etc on each other’s boats, and we all help each other out with advice, jobs and passing on information.

We have also found that the Spanish people we meet are very friendly and helpful – even the woman in the bread shop tries to teach us the names of the different Spanish loaves!

Ports of call:

Ribadeo – a small town on a hill with some interesting buildings.

Viveiro – very attractive old town with many narrow streets where we first saw the enclosed balconies which were fashionable in the 18th-19th centuries and are very common in this region.

Cedeira – at the top of the ria, the old town built on the side of a hill.

Sada marina – from here we had an interesting visit to La Coruna on a grey day, and the historic town of Betanzos which also has an amazing garden, built by a Victorian philanthropist for education and entertainment with grottos, statues, winding flights of steps, and features such as historic scenes on painted panels, scenes from different countries in relief, clock faces with times from around the World, etc.

Corme – a convenient stop to break up a long journey where we anchored for a couple of nights.

Ria de Camerinas – particularly beautiful scenery where we had a lovely walk in the woods.

We rounded Finisterre in a flat calm on 1 July and arrived in the Rias Baixos; there are 4 main rias here with only very short distances between them – a marvellous cruising ground where we intend to stay until the end of August.

Ria de Muros – anchored off Muros then visited Portosin marina briefly to fill up with water, anchored off Punta Aguieria for lunch then returned to Muros for a few days which is a very charming small town with lots of old stone buildings arcaded streets and narrow alleys.

Ria de Arosa – the largest ria in Spain with large areas of mussel farms between which you sail. We caught up with most of our friends from La Rochelle here and have been enjoying their company again. We have been anchored off the beaches at Pobra de Caraminal and Rianxo and were delighted that our new anchor held firm even in a gale.

We’ve now spent a couple of weeks in the marina at Vilagarcia, initially to celebrate a friend’s birthday and our wedding anniversary with a meal out with our friends from La Rochelle. We then stayed for a fiesta; a group of us went out and had a marvellous evening which ended with a bonfire and fireworks. We also decided to take advantage of a friend’s welding skill to have a modification made to the solar panel fixing so that both panels could be permanently mounted above the bimini. This has now been done and we are about to sail around to the next ria for a week or so.

For more photos click here

Isle d’Oleron, Gijon

2 – 8 May

We finally left La Rochelle on the 2nd May for a short motor (no wind) over to St Denis on the Isle d’Oleron. On the trip over we tested out the steering, checked the compass and generally checked over the boat, ensuring everything was ready for the long trip to Spain the next day.

Departed from France on Sunday 3rd May and set sail for Spain. The first half of the trip was fairly windy and we had a good sail, although Anne especially was suffering from nausea and lack of sleep. We had to motor for around 9 hours when the wind dropped, but sailed for the last few hours, arriving in Gijon around 11.00 am on 5th May – a trip of 46 hours.

Gijon is a large town, mostly having been rebuilt having been destroyed in the Spanish civil war, much of it in the original early 20th century style, with only a small older area remaining from before that time.

First impressions - the Spanish are generally very friendly and helpful. We are only just beginning to learn the language, but many speak some English and those that don’t are tolerant of our lack of Spanish and help us with attempts at speaking it and the pronunciation. Also, Spanish women are generally dressed very stylishly – Anne definitely feels she needs new clothes!!

Whilst in Gijon we had a very enjoyable day out to Oviedo, the capital of Asturias. A lovely city with much early 20th century architecture in the new town and an old quarter full of historic and attractive buildings as well as a large and bustling market.

For more photos please click here