Gran Canaria and El Hierro

Kathy at El Golfo

The first job ashore at Las Palmas, Gran Canaria was to visit a chandlery. This was quickly achieved without leaving the marina. Next was to search for a new pressure cooker and visit a supermarket. We were surprised to find ourselves in Marks and Spencer looking at socks and underwear! Focusing on the task again, we entered the huge department store called El Corte Ingles. Here we found a good choice of pressure cookers and bought a 6 litre one made by BRA.

 

The long and winding road: eat your heart out Dervaig

On Tuesday 25^th January we caught the numero uno bus to the old town and had a look at Christopher Columbus’s house, Casa Colon. After a hearty lunch at El Herreno, we caught a different bus to the old port, where we had to get an exit certificate from the Policia Frontera. Unfortunately, we got off too early and had a 2-3 kilometre walk through the port. We had no problems getting our exit clearance once we found the right office.

 

Famous sculpted tree

We had a passage of 144 miles ahead of us from Gran Canaria to El Hierro. We left soon after mid-day on 26^th January, motoring round the north end of the island in calm, sunny weather. Two hours later a short, uncomfortable swell started and the 5 knot wind accelerated to 22 knots. These acceleration zones are common in the Canary Islands, but not expected on what was such a calm day! We altered our course and sailed towards Tenerife. Five hours later, the wind returned to 5 knots and we motored the rest of the way to El Hierro, arriving at the new marina just before dark on 27^th January.

 

Drove my Chevy to the leve

Jeremy checked in with the harbour master the next morning paying the very reasonable 13 euros a night fee, which included electricity and showers. We were at the bus stop in good time to catch the 1100 bus to Valverde, the main town on El Hierro. We don’t know how we missed the bus, but the harbour master came to our rescue and said one of the port staff would take us in his car. That was how we found ourselves with Jose, who spoke no English, driving to Valverde and trying to explain that we wanted to hire a car. Jose stopped at a petrol filling station and called to a friend, who telephoned someone, who said we would have to go to Frontera for a hire car, a twenty minute drive away. We wondered what we had let ourselves in for and how we would get to Frontera, when Jose said, “No problem,” followed by some Spanish, which we thought meant he was going there anyway. Off we went to Frontera, where we parked in front of a house and waited for Roger and the hire car. The back shelf of the hire was car was Roger’s office and he filled in a form and charged us 46 euros for two days. Jeremy asked about insurance and Roger said it was included. Once again, we have been touched by the generosity of local people towards complete strangers.

We were back in Valverde for lunch, picking up two hitch-hikers on the way. We met up with Bob and Liz, friends from our last visit to El Hierro. They took us to their house, which has a fabulous view out over the sea to La Gomera and Tenerife. We spent the afternoon with them drinking coffee and admiring their house and extensive gardens.

Kathy, Bob and Liz

The next day, with a map borrowed from Bob and Liz, we drove round the whole island in our Chevrolet. El Hierro is a beautiful island of contrasts which include stunning sea views, high mountain passes, pine forests and bleak, lava fields. On our return to Valverde, we stopped at the filling station and filled two large containers of diesel, ready for our next passage to the Cape Verdes.

 

Our magic carpet in Estaca

Monday 30^th January consisted of doing jobs during the day. Jeremy donned his wetsuit and spent an hour and a half scrubbing SD’s bottom. His hard work paid off later, giving us an extra half knot of speed. In the evening, Bob and Liz came to SD to collect us and take us to a restaurant for dinner. We saw the last of the sunset at a miradore, before having a lovely supper in a restaurant nearby. Soon it was time to say goodbye to our friends and thank them for their hospitality. We shall think of you, Bob and Liz, every time we spread homemade plum jam on our bread. Thank you for the gift and for all the information you gave us about El Hierro. We had a lovely time.

 

OAP birthday boy/old man

Yesterday, Monday 6^th February, we arrived safely in Sal, Cape Verde. The five and a half day passage was fast in the strong, trade winds, with SD covering 135 nm on three days. The sea was rough at times and we flew twin headsails – no.2 jib to port and a well-reefed genoa to starboard. Our trusty Hydrovane wind pilot steered the whole way. Jeremy celebrated his 65^th birthday at sea and is looking forward to his first state pension cheque in three weeks’ time.