Log #38d Tenerife and Storm Delta

Written at: Palmeira, Isola de Sal, Cape Verde Jan. 8, 2006

Hi Folks,

Happy New Year!

We are now down in the Cape Verde Islands after a fantastically fast heavy 780 mile sail averaging 150 miles a day in 25 to 35 knot winds and 3 to 5 metre quartering seas for five days straight. More about this heavy sail in the relevant log. The last half of this log consists of the log I sent after Storm Delta the end of November. I include four photos: of the overturned finger docks after the storm, the Enchanted forest, the sea of clouds, and volcanic pinnacles near El Tiede.

We are fine, here in the Cape Verdes, and will be here for a few weeks before heading across the pond. While here I hope to get caught up on my logs.

All the best for 2006,

Aubrey


Log #38d Tenerife and Storm Delta


Tenerife, with a population of about 680,000, is the largest of the volcanic Canary Islands, about 50 miles in length, 25 miles in width, with Pico de Teide the highest mountain, not only in the Canaries, but in all of Spain, at 3717 metres (12,266 feet or 2.3 miles). Santa Cruz de Tenerife is one of our favourite cities in the Canaries. Although the marina leaves much to be desired, it is reasonably economical (for Veleda at 9.75m by 3.3m it was 14.60 Euros per night plus electricity and water for a daily total of 16.69 Euros), centrally located, and with many English and French speaking boats preparing for their Atlantic crossing.

Rod and Susie from Glenlyon and Judy and I rented a car for three days to tour Tenerife. Our first day was up to Pico de Teide National Park area – fantastic! After motoring south through the sparsely vegetated lower inclines, we emerged into an expansive lunar landscape nether region of volcanic plains, jagged lava fields, and desolate expanses in the central part of the island as we worked our way up to El Tiede.

We passed the poorly marked visitor’s centre and had to retrace a few kilometres to wedge our way in to a small overcrowded parking strip under construction. The centre gave a good multimedia presentation on the volcanic nature of the National Park area. More construction was underway to develop the centre, including a botanical garden to display the vegetation that is characteristic of this higher area. Up we went to the base of the peak, only to find out the cable car going to the upper region was closed because of strong winds. Just as well, as the cost of 30.00 Euros per person was too steep for our budget for the final ascent.

Beyond this area we stopped at some fantastic scenery of tortured rock formations, jagged phallic symbols (ouch!) overlooking lava valleys. We wended our way down to the southern part of the island along mountain crests where we saw the field of clouds in the valley below us, on down to where we caught the major north-south four lane highway back to Santa Cruz.

Rock formations	Enchanted forest	Sea of clouds

Next day we went to the north part of the island, a lesser developed rural mountainous area with winding roads steeply ascending into laurel forests with many walking trails through this verdant region, a great contrast to the southern El Tiede area of the previous day. One area was so lush, it was called the Enchanted Forest. We didn’t take time to hike any of the trails, only walking a few hundred metres along two or three of them.

The contrast of this northern vegetation of laurasilva forests with the starkness of the desolate volcanic central region, and with the pastoral farming in the south, is quite remarkable. This area gets the moisture from the NE trades which is deposited on the northern slopes creating a verdant forest of bay trees, myrtles, tree heather, all draped with moss and lichen. We went over the mountains to the northwest coast, along crashing black sand beaches tucked into the chasms and valleys exposed to the Atlantic swells.

The third day we went to the southern area to a banana plantation and mixed farming centre, Bananera Jardins del Atlantico, to see the tropical crops of bananas, aloe vera plants, papaya, mango, orange and lemon trees, and cactus to raise cochineal insects for dyes and cosmetics. Many of the farms have their crops growing inside acre-large nylon netted greenhouse-like enclosures which allow sunlight and water to enter, but reduce evaporation, wind effects, and insect infestations.

We also went to Piramides de Guimar, an ethnographical park centred on the mysterious step pyramids of Tenerife, with an information display focused on the work of Thor Hyerdahl who retired to this area to summarize his life’s investigations of ancient cultures and their modes of transportation. This is one of the reasons he explored the world’s oceans in reed ships; to establish that communication, if not culture and commerce, were possible between these ancient lands. There was an excellent display of models and life-sized replicas of the reed boats used in the Kon Tiki, Ra, Ra II, Tigris, Uru, and Mata Rangi expeditions across thousands of miles of the world’s oceans, demonstrating such ancient voyages possible. There was also an interesting audio-visual presentation of his explorations and discoveries, inviting the audience to assess how diverse ancient cultures had such common aspects of step pyramids, various forms of pottery, and belief systems thousands of years ago. It is an intriguing “Adventure Through Time”.

The southern part of Tenerife is a monstrous tourist development around Playa (beach) de Los Cristianos, Playa de Las Americas, and Costa Adje, the Miami beach of the Canaries! I don’t like such commercial touristy crowded areas, but we went down there to check out advertised Broadway type shows, including one with excerpts from Cabaret, Chicago, and Riverdance. However the show that interested me was a Flamenco ballet of Romeo and Juliet. I would have loved to have seen it, but the price tag of about $50.00 Canadian each was again, beyond our budget. In retrospect, I regret that we (or I) didn’t, as we will be this way only once, and especially at our age, life is to be enjoyed each day as it comes. Many boats have the name Carpe Diem, “seize the day” as we should. I might learn this lesson yet.

As mentioned in my previous log, we replaced our golf cart batteries, but were also pleased to find a couple of well stocked chandleries where we bought several other items for Veleda. We bought plastic sleeves for our shrouds so they would protect our mainsail for our anticipated downwind sailing across the Atlantic. Judy would have like to have had proper baggywrinkle, but this was not available, and we did not want to be shredding hemp rope to make our own.

Another device we bought was a special chain shackle to fit over our anchor cable from a snubber line. We have found that the chain hooks on the snubber line were too persnickety when paying out the snubber or retrieving it; whereas this shackle just has a pin which is easily attached or removed from the chain to set or release it.

We loved the well-established market open each day with a wide variety of local produce. There was also a good internet café where we were able to hook our laptop into its system for E-mail and to update our Norton’s AntiVirus protection. A major pedestrian mall was also nearby with a wide variety of shops, restaurants, outdoor cafes, and grocery stores. The location of the marina is very convenient, although its facilities are only adequate.

Storm Delta

I wrote of the storm earlier. The newspapers next day were full of the problems caused. A boatload of 28 refugees from Africa was lost, and a man was killed in Santa Cruz by the heavy winds blowing him off a ladder. Schools were closed early and remained closed next day as did most of the establishments in the city because of the power failures. The top floors of the hospital were evacuated due to flying debris crashing through the upper windows.

he eye of the storm went right over Santa Cruz and many of the finger docks were destroyed. Several boats at finger docks were damaged as the docks gave way, and the boats crushed down away from the direction of the wind crashing on each other like falling dominos. The porta-cabin housing the men’s washroom and showers was blown off its foundation and wound up 40 metres along the dock.

One of the two catamarans that were circling in the camber because their finger docks gave way crashed into a lovely 60 foot newly painted blue-hulled yacht, scratching its topsides and gunwales. The other catamaran was able to get alongside with the help of several of us on shore. Several of the boats washed down on each other had minor damage and scratches from the sideways collisions as the finger docks gave way.

Boats on the leeward side of the docks were OK, but those on the windward side had the problems … the luck of the draw. We were fine, in spite of the two of us being moored on one stern line. We had no finger docks and were secured to a floating dock attached to the main, solid dock wall. We had doubled up our lines, and had stern lines going over to the dock, as well as another stern line going 75 metres across the camber to a finger dock in case our shared stern line gave way. As it was that finger dock was one that collapsed and we had a difficult time reaching under it next day to release the line.

Two boats near us had a problem in that their upper masts and spreaders were hooked on each other. There were no serious injuries, other than a few jammed fingers from people handling lines and one person had an eye patch due to flying debris. Several other islands were hit as well, and when we were touring some of the forested areas of La Palma we saw many trees damaged and uprooted in the mountainous regions. A few days later when we were anchored in Los Cristianos, we saw a yacht that had dragged its anchor and was wrecked, high and dry on the rocky shore … a sad sight. Fortunately we were just spectators to this unusual tropical storm Delta.

We were to leave Santa Cruz de Tenerife a few days later, as described in my next log.


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