suzerainydays.com

I’d intended to leave La Palma for Cape Verde on 4 January, after sorting out a few essential boat jobs. One of these, the attachment of a new moulding to the gas kicker, required the riveting services of a local rigger, Raul. I also asked him to look at the boom, as it was corroded and a bit loose around the moulding at the forward end by the mast:

I’d known about this issue for a while but naively thought it could be sorted out easily the day before I left. Unfortunately it turned out to be a bigger problem than I realised, so much so that I’ve had to ship the boom back to my riggers Nordest in Tenerife, as Raul couldn’t fix it here. So my boat is currently in two places. The repair has now been done, in very quick time, and the boom should hopefully be on its way back to me tomorrow or the next day.

Although this is quite frustrating, Raul’s general argument that I wouldn’t want a boom flapping about my ears in a storm clearly had merit. And it has given me a bit more time for such fun tasks as replacing the engine compartment lining, installing a new gas regulator and, of course, yet more interior varnishing. I felt a little down coming back to the boat after seeing family and friends at Christmas, but keeping busy has certainly helped and I’m looking forward to moving on.

Unfortunately it looks like some very strong wind is headed our way, and as I don’t fancy sailing to Cape Verde in a gale, I will be waiting for it to pass before setting off some time next week. I’ll probably just stay long enough in Cape Verde to catch up on sleep, stock up on fresh food and buy anything I’ve forgotten, so maybe a couple of days if the weather looks good. Then it will be D-day for the great pond-hop, probably to Antigua I think.

The centre of La Palma is a huge crater, Caldera de Taburiente. The highest point on the rim is the Roque de los Muchachos, over 2,400 metres high. This is home to a large international observatory complex. A week ago, I attempted to cycle to the top, up a long road that snakes up the side of the mountain. I got about 22km along it, roughly three quarters of the way, and gave up due to exhaustion and cold. Today I went up with a coach tour company, Natour, who were great. It was a good bit easier. I’ve added a few photos here; this one is probably my favourite:

You can see the west coast of the island in the distance, and a little bit of El Hierro above the clouds to the left. We also had a really good view of El Teide on Tenerife, the highest mountain in Spain.

On Saturday and Monday we’re touring the north of the island, which is meant to be the prettiest part, so I will add more photos then.

This should have been my easiest trip. Unfortunately, I didn’t pay enough attention to the weather, or rather I didn’t think enough about the likely effect of Spain’s highest mountain on a south wind. South winds are unusual here, and the pilot book warns that they can bring unsettled weather.

Expecting the 100 mile trip to take around 20 hours, I left Santa Cruz de Tenerife at around 1pm on Friday 24 November. My friends took a photo of me leaving:

I had always planned to go around the north coast of Tenerife, and didn’t change my plan despite the unusual weather conditions. For the run up to the north east corner of the island, I had fairly steady winds from the south west. Here are some nice photos:

After rounding the headland to head west, I got becalmed. Thinking this should be short-lived, I decided to motor through it. However I ended up motoring for a good four or five hours in total, as the island was obviously completely shadowing me, even five to ten miles off shore. With a cruising speed of not much over three knots, progress was slow. I’m also not too keen on motoring long distances, as the engine is elderly and I’d rather just use it for entering and leaving ports and not risk wearing it out.

There was a warning of things to come before dawn on the 25th. I could see dark clouds building in the west, and regular flashes of lightning. The wind started to blow from the west so I started tacking, aiming to make enough ground westward to clear the western point of Tenerife on a long tack towards Gomera and, hopefully, more favourable winds.

Unfortunately the wind built further and further, and then I was hit by a full squall. I tried to heave-to (essentially stopping the boat and holding her balanced in the water), but I’d lost steerage way from the force of the wind, so I dropped the mainsail and ran under genoa alone, reefed down to a scrap by this point. As dawn broke, I was faced with very strong winds from the west and pretty rough seas, with 50 miles between me and La Palma. I tried tacking into the wind but it was pretty hopeless. There are no suitable ports that I know of on the north coast of Tenerife, so I ultimately decided to run back east. In retrospect I should perhaps have tried again to heave-to so as to lose less ground, but for all I knew the wind could have been set like that for days, and running back towards Santa Cruz seemed like the best option at the time.

As it turned out, I got to virtually the same spot that I had been becalmed in previously, and got becalmed again. This was in the afternoon of the 25th, so I had effectively lost near enough a day by this point. I didn’t want to motor back to Santa Cruz, so I just took the sails down and drifted for a while. I took the opportunity to siphon some diesel out of my big gerry can and fill the tank, which I accomplished with surprisingly little fouling of the ocean.

After an hour or two, the wind finally started to blow, and from a more favourable direction, allowing me to run down towards Gomera. After a pretty unpleasant experience, this was a great relief, particularly when I cleared the western point of Tenerife, by quite a distance in the end, into open ocean. After a very brief calm spell, I was finally able to set a direct course for La Palma, probably around midnight.

The wind was quite weak at first, so I took the mainsail down as it was constantly backing and filling, which gets the boom swinging. I also had a few short snoozes. Reducing sail turned out to be fortuitous later as the wind started to build again, gusting to 25 knots or so, from roughly the south west. In the approach to La Palma I was again sailing under a tiny scrap of genoa, with fairly rough seas running more from the south. But this final part was actually pretty uneventful. The approach to the harbour and marina was straightforward, and I got settled quickly into one of many available berths. The marina isn’t particularly well-sheltered in these conditions, so the boat moves around a fair bit in the berth, but they are currently in the process of installing a surge barrier in the entrance, which should improve things a lot. This feat of engineering may happen while I am here; they are just waiting for the gate to be shipped from mainland Spain.

I should almost certainly have sailed around Tenerife to the south instead. It would have taken me further, but would have been a lot quicker. I ended up wandering all over the place to the north of the island. Some of this will be evident from the blog map, but because the tracker only sends a satellite ping every three hours, the map doesn’t really show the full extent of my wanderings. I’ll try to get an image of my track from the chartplotter at some point and add it below if I can.

La Palma is very steep, and much greener than the other islands. I’m really looking forward to getting into some forest for a change, although I’ll have to cycle up some very steep hills to get to it. I didn’t manage to get out on the bike at all in Tenerife, as I had too many boat jobs to do, but I’ll definitely be getting out on the roads here and should get some nice pictures.

I’m going to be flying back to the UK on the 12th. I should be in London at some point that week also, so I should be able to catch up with lots of folk, which I am looking forward to. Get in touch if you want to meet up.

Greetings. I am now in Santa Cruz in Tenerife, after a pretty lively sail of 150 nautical miles or so. It was very windy and pretty rough most of the way, but at least that meant I made it in very good time. I left Lanzarote at 6.30 am on Thursday and, even though the wind didn’t really start blowing until lunchtime, arrived in Marina Santa Cruz mid-morning on Friday.

The new sails and rigging held up fine. Very occasionally, maybe four times, the swell caught the boat and nudged her off course a little, but she righted herself easily. I never felt over-pressed or in danger, even though the wind must have been gusting over 30 knots.

I steered a course slightly to the north of Tenerife to avoid a traffic separation scheme in the busy shipping lane between Tenerife and Gran Canaria. There were lots of cruise ships, tankers and the like in this area, which I reached in the small hours, but I managed to sail through a gap in the queue before heading south west. The view coming down towards the Anaga mountain range on Tenerife at dawn was very dramatic.

The marina is large and basic, which suits me fine, and it’s in the middle of Santa Cruz, which is convenient. Waking up to the sound of church bells was nice, and reminiscent of home. Quite a few people I met in Arrecife are also here. I have a number of jobs to do – stripping more old varnish, putting new varnish and paint on, buying a new outboard, buying a new VHF, and changing the gearbox oil among other things. A nice Raymarine guru, Pepe, has come to work his magic on my electronics, which are now mostly functioning.

I’m also hoping to get out for a few bike rides and will take plenty of photos. I went for a walk around the city centre yesterday, visiting the Auditorio de Tenerife, a particularly photogenic, gravity-defying modernist building, and Mercado de Nuestra Senora de Africa, a really cool food market that I will definitely be visiting again. It seems like a really nice town; I wish I could stay for longer, but I’ll have as much fun as I can!

I’ve put a few photos on the photo page. More to follow.

I’ve spent the last week or so anchored off a beach on the south coast of Lanzarote. After a long time being a slave to the boat task list, it’s been nice to spend some time doing nothing but lying around, swimming, reading and being lazy; all things which come pretty naturally to me. Here are some photos:

I met a nice couple in Arrecife, Rich and Trish. They bought a ferro cement boat in the UK and completely rebuilt her before sailing to the Med and down here. She’s very cool. Here is their blog. They briefly put in an appearance in the anchorage, although I didn’t end up saying hello or goodbye (Hello! Goodbye!). They are heading to the Gambia, and probably the Caribbean. Here’s a photo of them leaving:

Anchoring by the beach was fun. The water was really clear, and there were tons of fish, including a big stingray and a two foot giant mackerel on the last day that cruised in and terrified all the little fish. But it was exposed and quite rolly at times, and there was basically nothing but desert on shore. The weather forecast said that the wind would be picking up quite a bit, so I decided to move to Marina Rubicon before leaving for Tenerife next week. This will give me a few days to fix a few bits without being chucked around too much, and catch up on sleep. I will also watch the Sunday football matches in the pub.

Based on my limited experience, marinas in the UK seem to mainly be places to keep a boat, with some chandlery on the side. Marinas in Lanzarote charge a lot less, but are much keener to sell you stuff, particularly clothes. This one is pretty extreme. It’s like mooring in a Westfield.

The marina staff, as always, are very nice. Thankfully they took one look at Suzerain and decided to hide me with the local boats, as happened in Marina Lanzarote. This means that I shouldn’t wake too many people up if I need to make a late night or early morning getaway in order to reach Santa Cruz at a godly hour.

My Spanish is still sadly weak. However I did manage a conversation of sorts earlier tonight with the chap next door, who turned up to do some maintenance. He said something heartfelt that I didn’t entirely follow, involving ‘barco’ and ‘problemas’. I was on the point of responding with my standard line of ‘no hablo espanol’. But his general meaning was clear, and mindful of Ted Heath’s (I think) line about yachting being akin to standing under a cold shower ripping up fivers (fifties in today’s money, at least), I responded with an equally heartfelt ‘Si!’

At some point in the next few days I’m planning to catch up with my record of spending on Suzerain, which will no doubt be sobering. I’ll be parting company with a fair bit more cash in this marina, which seems to have a well-stocked chandlery, and in Santa Cruz, which I fully expect to be a block and tackle Mecca.

My 130 mile journey to Tenerife will either be a one-nighter or a two-nighter, depending on the wind. My friends Mattis and Mo went for a two-nighter, although there are two of them, which makes that easier to manage. Forecasts are pretty variable at the moment, so we will see. In any case, my next update should be from Santa Cruz. Love to all.

It’s time for a boat update. I’ve had a fun few days getting my standing rigging replaced by a nice man called Henning of Waterline Yacht Service. The mast needed to be craned out of the boat; here are some photos:

That’s Henning dangling from the crane, looking cool. Here’s one of Suzerain, looking sad without her mast:

I had a lot of help moving the boat back and forth from my nice neighbours Mattis and Mo. Thankfully I managed not to put any dents in their boat, or anyone else’s. While this was going on, a beautiful wooden motor yacht that Mattis had been working on was finally being put back in the water, using the yard’s larger travel lift. It has a capacity of 820 tons, and is apparently the biggest in southern Europe:

Must be one of the largest radio-controlled vehicles in the world I should think. I’ve also had the extremely good fortune to make friends with Adrian, a former Royal Navy electrical engineer, and his wife Sam, owners of a beautiful boat called Neva. They replaced the mast electrical cable, masthead light and steaming light for me, and are coming over tomorrow to sort out the connections. This is a big deal for me, as electrical stuff is currently one of my many blind spots. And all for the price of a few drinks, which are fairly cheap in these parts!

In addition to the above, I have replaced the main and genoa halyards with cruising dyneema, washed the main and genoa sheets, and stripped, sanded and varnished the exterior woodwork. I have also fixed the engine gearbox connection that previously caused me to lose reverse gear and have rebuilt the steelwork holding up my solar panels.

Best of all, my new sails have finally been delivered, so I now have brand new main, genoa and storm sails, courtesy of Jeckells and the magnanimity of Canarian customs, who only saw fit to slap 70 euros import tax on them after a week’s delay. I don’t understand the calculations, or why I was required to pay at all, but I’ve decided to let it go for fear of the bill growing. I just need to reattach the boom and gas kicker, with a few repairs, and I can put everything back together hopefully. Henning is also fixing my outboard, which seems not to have been used for two years or so.

I believe the only remaining major jobs for me to do are resealing the portholes and hatches, touch wood (of which there is no shortage, sadly). I should be able to do all of this during the next week, allowing me to move south on Friday after doing a massive food shop. I’m planning to head to Playa Blanca for a week or so and, weather permitting, anchor by the beach at night and sail / snorkel / take it easy during the day. Should be lovely.

After that, I’m either going to head straight to Santa Cruz de Tenerife, or possibly explore Fuerteventura a bit before heading to Tenerife, where I am hoping to get Old Stinky serviced by a Beta engineer. And after that I am booked in to the marina in Santa Cruz de La Palma from late November to early January, during which time my dad will be visiting.

To finish, here’s a nice photo of a french couple sailing off the pontoon in their old school wooden boat Thalia, which looked a little like my old boat Quest, if a little bigger and with a few additional interesting features:

They will go far I think. Love to all and see you soon.

Yesterday I cycled about 50 miles in a circuit round the north east of the island, via San Bartolome, Teguise, Haria, Mirador del Rio and Arrieta. This looked straightforward on the tourist map I’m using, but turned out to be the latter, more challenging section of the Lanzarote Ironman course. I realised this when reading encouraging messages scrawled on an interminable uphill climb between Teguise and Haria. Obviously I took it much slower than those guys, with regular stops for photos, food and oxygen. And I didn’t swim 4km or run 40km either. I have much newfound respect for their abilities…

This seems to be the prettier, more old-timey part of the island. Teguise was beautiful, and Haria also. And the view from Mirador del Rio was amazing. Or rather the view from the hillside beside Mirador del Rio, as they charge entry and I don’t believe in paying for a view, however dramatic. It was interesting to look down on Graciosa and, just visible in the haze, Allegranza; islands that I sailed past in the dark on my way down. I’ve added some photos.

In the evening I had a tasty dinner on my nice neighbours Mattis and Mo’s beautiful Contessa 32 Jingo. Here is their blog.

Today I cycled about 40 miles; up through wine country around Montana Blanca, then through the Timanfaya volcano national park south west to Yaiza, then back through more wine country. I’ve added some photos. It was fun and pretty impressive, but hard work at times due to fitness levels. I am rehydrating with some Dorada Especial. I couldn’t find any of the wine made at the bodegas I passed, but will definitely keep looking, as I imagine wine grown in such unusual and harsh conditions must be pretty unique. They didn’t have any in Hyperdino, so I guess I need to go more upmarket…

Here’s my new conveyance:

She’s a Bottecchia touring bike made of aluminium, apparently one year old, sold to me by Fliston’s in Matagorda for 200 euro. They also gave her a service, and she felt pretty good on the ride up here. Assuming she doesn’t get pinched, she’ll see a fair bit of usage in the next few months, so I hope she’s up to it. Seems a pretty good bike to me.

It’s REALLY windy here at the moment, but once it calms down I’ll see about taking her further afield. I should be able to cover most of the island in theory.

I’m not sure exactly how I’ll fit her onto the boat when I move from here, but both the front and rear wheels have quick release, so I should be able to pack her up fairly small pretty easily.

Are bikes female? I don’t know. Perhaps she’s an it. Anyhow, I’m off to ride along the coast northwards, then tonight there’s a free music festival in town, if the stages don’t blow away. X

I’ve had a fun few days with friends from the UK who came out for a diving holiday. Here are some photos of us acting like / being idiots:

And a more normal one, with a random old dude:

Thanks to Matt, Dean, Alex and Maud for the photos and company. We had some good meals around the harbour in Arrecife, which is quite pretty. Special mention to the ‘black rice’, which was a paella with squid and squid ink. Very tasty.

They hired a car, so I’ve seen a bit more of the island. Puerto del Carmen and Playa Blanca seemed to have been largely designed to make Brits feel at home, so were not very appealing to this intrepid explorer. Although I find the barren countryside a bit oppressive and am hankering after grass and trees, so it’s occurred to me that I might be guilty of similar attachment to the familiar, albeit to green and pleasant land rather than naff Irish bars and fast food restaurants. From what I’ve seen, Lanzarote is mostly rubble, and the scale of human population doesn’t feel very natural or sustainable to me. The interior does look impressive though; there’s a real live volcano with the very cool name Timanfaya.

We also went to Playa Papagayo, a nice beach on the south coast down a dirt track from Playa Blanca. Here it is:

It was very busy but a nice spot. I’m planning to anchor near there on my way west, weather permitting. It’s fairly sheltered and the water looked extremely inviting.

I’ve bought a bike so I can explore further afield. I’m picking it up tomorrow and will post photos like a proud parent.

The company that gave me a quote for rigging work has gone quiet on me. This seems to be a common feature of the boating industry – quite a few companies have either not responded at all to my emails, or gone quiet after initial interest in taking my money. Very strange. However, the yard here is well equipped and I’m told there is a resident rigger, so once my sails arrive (hopefully unburdened by importation tax) I should be able to set it all up. Suzerain may need to come out of the water for a day or two, but I am allowed to live on her while she’s in the yard, and it shouldn’t be too grim as long as it’s only for a short time. I’m now off to change the hose line to the fuel tank, which I’m sure will be as fun as it sounds. Hasta luego.