La Gomera

Ben woke us early and he and David had a quick breakfast. They then took a taxi to the airport to get morning flights home. Mark and I were sorry to see them go and it had been great to get the four of us together again. It seemed quite a lot quieter without them once they had gone.

 Mark and I prepared the boat for our departure to La Gomera some 25 nm away. It was a lovely day again with little wind. We went into town to get some bread and other provisions, had a coffee and left the marina about 11.00am.

 Once out past the end of Tenerife marked by a red and white lighthouse at the end of the Punta Rasca, we saw quite a few boats ahead. There was little wind so we were motoring and thought they may be diving boats but there were also some larger tourist boats. We soon realised why as it was not long before we saw quite a few dorsal fins and we wondered were they Orcas? However, the dorsal fin was not as big as an Orca and there was no black and white on their bodies. We quickly consulted our Cetacean (made up of whales, dolphins and porpoises) chart and it became clear that they were short- finned pilot whales and there were lots of them swimming together slowly and so gracefully a bit like a dolphin.  They grow to about 5.5m and the dorsal fin curves backwards. This was obviously a good spot for whales.

 The wind came up a bit and we sailed slowly for some time seeing another group of pilot whales and then two large whales swimming on the surface and moving quite fast. We thought they were fin whales. We had some lunch but by then the wind was too low, so we started to motor. Although we saw La Gomera in the distance it was now closer and its contours becoming clearer.

 La Gomera lies close to Tenerife and it is just 17nm from its North and 25 from its south - Marina del Sur, where we were moored. The Island is extremely mountainous and roughly circular (about 22km or 14 miles in diameter) around its highest peak Alto de Garajonay which stands at 1,487m (4,879 ft. There are high ridges and deep ravines (barrancos – which were channelled by lava flow and erosion) which the roads use and there is no going anywhere as the crow flies and you seem to have to go up to the top to get to the next ravine and then down. It is the second smallest of the main 7 Islands and a surface area of 370km and a population of sone 22,000.  The Island was one of the last to be conquered by the Spanish and it remained isolated until the 1950’s when a pier was built at San Sebastian the main port to which we are headed.  

The guidebooks say it is very beautiful and it is worth exploring. Christopher Columbus made several stop overs here not least because he had a special relationship with the governor’s wife!! Some Gomeros, as they are called, still communicate across the deep ravines using “Silbo” a whistled language that can be heard up to 5km away. This unusual method contains two vowels and four consonants and which is indigenous to the Island and apparently can be used to communicate any message. As usual you have to watch out for the acceleration zones down the sides of the Island and particularly the southwest which is the direction we were going in.

As we approached, we could see more white horses and about 8-10 miles out the wind increased to about 15-19 kts and this time from the Northeast – whereas earlier it had been from the south. We therefore put the sail up and off we went about -8-9 kts on a close reach and Stormbird was cracking along with spray coming over the bows from the waves. It was good to end the journey this way and before long we were approaching the long breakwater. We had seen a ferry go past us doing about 32 kts and we saw it enter the harbour ahead of us.

 You have to ask permission to enter the port due to commercial traffic and once granted you enter a short channel of buoys which is for non-commercial traffic and which passes the beach of the town. The ferry terminal was on the right and goes right back to the other side of the marina. We called the marina and they said wait in the channel, but no-one came so we edged forward to the marina which has a narrow entrance and man directed us to a long pontoon opposite the lifeboat which was a good position for us. We moored up and headed into town.

The marina which was quite large had a large rock on one side and you could see the rising ravines and cliffs beyond the town. The streets were charming with a few wooded buildings with balconies and an old 18 century church. There were a few souvenir shops for those who come by ferry and lots of little bars and cafes. The houses were painted different colours and it had a peaceful slow pace of life feel. We had a good meander and then had a beer in the square on the front. When they bought the beer, the glass had ice on the outside and it must have been kept in a freezer before use. The beer was beautifully cold.

We returned to the boat and Mark cooked a great chicken curry which had just the right spice and a great taste. Whilst the marina was quite protected every now and then a gust would come down the ravine and give us a good blow to remind us that the wind was still there.

It was great to be somewhere new and on a small, less populated Island.   We decided to hire a car and explore for a couple of days before moving on to La Palma.

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions – do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com