La Gomera

Log #38G La Gomera

The 22 mile sail from Los Cristianos on Gran Canaria was a quiet motor trip, a contrast to the heavy winds of last night. After sighting a pod of four pilot whales, we were able to motorsail for an hour before the winds shifted again to the SW. (We were heading west.) We called ahead to ensure there was space in the marina, and proceeded to the reception pontoon at the entrance to the inner breakwater of the marina. A half hour later when the main office opened, we were directed into a berth down a long narrow channel to secure to a finger dock with power and water available (28 05.33N, 017 06.58W).

The town of San Sebastian is a pleasant local town with little tourism, and only a few resorts on the outskirts. It is a comfortable small town with a couple of black sand beaches, narrow cobblestone streets, houses and stores fronting directly onto the streets or very narrow sidewalks. The marina is located right down town, across from the town plaza. The market is well equipped with stalls for local produce, several butcher shops, a large supermarket, and the bus terminal behind it. We found a Kilo fabric store at which we bought some yellow canvas material for a new laundry bag and new cushion covers, as well as some rubberized matting to serve as a protection for the upper deck when we store the dinghy and outboard for our crossing. We have decided to take Sprite off the Dinghy Tow for our crossing due to some of the very heavy weather we have encountered. There is also a DVD rental store where I took out a membership, and thus we enjoyed a variety of movies while alongside. We found an electronics shop where we tried to get our VHF radio fixed. It seems to have died. He said the radio itself was OK, only the speaker was broken, but he had no replacement for that. We still had our hand held VHF available.

At the far end of the marina is the catamaran high speed ferry dock. When the ferry started up we could hear and feel the powerful engines throbbing, and when it departed there was often a spray across the end of the marina. Across from the ferry dock is a tunnel through the rocky escarpment which opens up onto a lovely sandy beach, with a rocky promontory extending 100 metres or more out into the ocean, serving as a natural breakwater, and providing a lovely walk out to a craggy observation platform overlooking the beach on one side and the marina on the other. The tourist office is located in an old cinderblock house that contains a fountain in its courtyard. Beside the fountain is a notice that this fountain “Christened the New World”, as Columbus stopped here for his final taking on of water before continuing his voyage in 1492. The natural water on the island is excellent due to the moisture deposited on the windward side of the mountains keeping the aquifers replenished. We enjoy small towns like this more than big cities or tourist resorts.

When Judy wandered over the docks to find English speaking boats to trade books with she met Sue and David, an English couple on board Suerte, a green hulled 38 foot sloop. We suggested the possibility of renting a car with them for a day’s touring of the island. However the next day we had torrential rains that had some of the streets flooded.


La Gomera mountains			La Gomera anchorage

The day after was nice and so for 30 Euros we rented a car for the day and went up into the mountains. Our pilot book gave a good succinct description of the island with its 18,000 population on a spherical shaped volcanic island “with deep ravines, fertile green valleys with steeply terraced slopes and dense dark forests lead up to the almost central peak of Montana Garanjay (1497m), surrounded by Garanjay National Park.” The differing levels of vegetation were quite impressive, with scrub brush and fertile valleys at the lower levels, giving way to more dense laurasilva forests higher up, merging into pine forests at the higher elevations, especially on the northern and eastern sides of the island which get more moisture and rain from the deposits of the NE trade winds. As we went down the southern slopes, they were barren and arid in stark contrast to the other sides. We wandered down a few miles of local roads searching for the Dragon Tree which was on the barren side of the mountain. David went further down the slope on foot than we were willing to go and got in sight of this fabled tree. Judy and I had seen several of them on Tenerife. This island compares favourably with Madeira which is our favourite island so far.

We initially planned to go over to La Palma by ferry to go to the world’s largest caldera, but at the marina office we got a brochure on a Christmas Tall Ships Rendezvous over on La Palma. We called the organizer, Connie, on La Palma, and found out there was dockage for yachts which our pilot did not mention. She indicated we would be welcome to participate in the rendezvous as it was for tall ships and not-so-tall ships, like us. So we thought that would be a great place to spend Christmas, as the rendezvous went from Dec. 24 to 31st. We left San Sebastian on Dec. 22nd and went down to anchor off Playa de Argaya at Valle Gran Rey (28 04.70N, 017 19.46W) beneath a monstrous granite cliff at the end of the Valley Gran Rey (see attached pictures), coming down from the central mountain Garanjay of La Gomera near Puerto de Vueltas. This small port on the west coast of La Gomera has an outer breakwater still under construction, anchoring prohibited, and the inner breakwater still has no pontoons for yachts. There were a few desolate yachts tied on long lines to the town wall, but the location was not very inviting for visiting yachts; thus we anchored SE at Playa de Argaya. The ferries still go alongside the inner breakwater. It was good holding and an adequate anchorage, but a bit rolly.

We left at 0730 next morning for a quiet motorsail in light northerly winds with a few hours sailing in NNE breezes the 44 miles to Santa Cruz de La Palma. Remember the island is La Palma, but a major city in the Canaries is Las Palmas on Gran Canaria. I had them confused for a while. The pilot was in error, indicating the entrance to the marina under construction to be at the eastern side of the inner breakwater. As we approached, there was no entrance on the eastern side of that inner breakwater. The small opening into the inner harbour was now on the western side of that breakwater, complicated by a yellow buoy with a cross topmark, and several yellow floats strewn across the small entrance area. We carefully wended our way in, avoiding the yellow floats, including one that was submerged, to go bows to on a floating pontoon dock, availing ourselves of the lazy line at the inner part of the pontoon. No one was around to help us, but we managed. Apparently the pontoon is not a marina or even a marina under construction; but is a private pontoon for the La Palma Yacht Club. Oh well, we were here (28 40.70N, 017 46.08W), and would await any official who wished to ask us to move or to pay.

Next day, December 24, 2005, we went over and were welcomed to raft alongside the tall ship Lord Nelson from the Jubilee Trust Foundation of England, as part of the Tall Ships Rendezvous. More about this enjoyable experience beside the Lord Nelson for Christmas and our tours of La Palma in my next log.

Next log shortly