La Palma
We woke early and prepared the boat. It was a lovely calm morning and the clearest sky we have had at La Gomera. We were off to La Palma for three nights and it was about 50 nm to Marina La Palma next to the capital Santa Cruz.
La Palma (historical name San Miguel de La Palma) is the most Northwest of the Canary Islands and as yet not really tarnished by tourism. It is also called la Isla Verde and Las Isla Bonita – the pretty Island. It is the most mountainous of the Islands, shaped like an Almond and it has a total area of 708 km and it is the steepest Island in the world rising to 2,400 meters in the space of just 10km. Its skyline is topped by the Roque de los Muchachos (The Boys) that rises to 2,426 meters (7,959ft) above from its base 4,000m below. There is an enormous volcanic crater called la Caldera de Taburiente which was hollowed out by erosion. The crater is 27km in circumference and 8 km wide and drops 763m from the rim top. The last eruption was 1971- so not that long ago and pressure is apparently rising!!
It has dense jungle like forests, volcanoes, black sand beaches and star-filled night skies unblemished by light pollution and is apparently the best place to see stars in Europe. It has the Roque de los Muchachos observatory, which is one of the world’s most important astronomical observatories in the world.
La Palma has more water than all the Islands making it the greenest (it has abundant and rich plant life) thanks to the banks of clouds which swirl moisture from the Atlantic. In addition to its annual rainfall, it also obtains much of its water from the trade winds This condenses on the trees and vegetation and filters through water tunnels. This results in excellent drinking water and many yachts come here to fill their water tanks as a result. The Islands income is mainly from tourism and bananas. It has a population of 86,000 most of which live near the capital Santa Cruz. There are only 2 marinas -one on the east which is where we are headed and one on the west.
We set off about 9.00am and there was about 11-15 kts but from the northwest which is the direction we wanted to head. We therefore set sail towards Tenerife (almost in the opposite direction) and hoped the wind would come round or we would tack (put the boat through the wind to sail on the other side). It was a lovely day and the views of La Gomera were stunning and clear with only a bit of cloud on the top. In addition, El Tiede the top of the mountain on Tenerife was clear of cloud and it was very clear.
We sailed gently across but on this course, we were not getting closer to our destination. We therefore tacked and headed back towards the North of La Gomera which we had to pass on the way to La Palma. Our course meant that once we got closer, we were not going to clear the top of the Island, so we put the engine on to clear the Island. Whilst sailing Mark had noticed that a wheel on the port car sheet had broken so we had to change it with one from the staysail car. I must get some spares and I suppose the sun and use weakens the plastic and they go. In addition, we were having a little difficulty in getting our backstay tension on. The backstay is the rod line that comes from the top of the mast to the bottom back of the boat. When you are beating (sailing to windward or close to the wind you need backstay tension and with it on it pulls the mast back a bit so that the tension on the genoa halyard is strong. When you are sailing downwind (i.e., Wind behind) you do not want backstay tension. This issue is annoying as it was all serviced before I left. I will have to get them to look at it when in Passito Blanco.
The wind died further so we continued to motor. It was very quiet and there were no other boats apart from the odd ferry. There were no whales or dolphins sadly and very little wildlife apart from the odd bird. This continued until about 9 miles out from La Palma when the wind got up as part of the acceleration zone. We sailed for 30 minutes and then it died again.
As we approached the port, we asked for permission to enter as required. This was a busy commercial port, so we had to keep to the west and called the marina who told us to proceed and to moor on the reception pontoon where 2 guys took our lines. Once formalities were dealt with, we had 3 options to moor and I decided on a hammerhead as the other options were near a restaurant which has a disco at weekends. However, as we moored it started to rain which we have not seen for a long time! What is this wet stuff. We sorted out our lines and sat in the cockpit for a beer – in the dry and watching the rain on the water. On a positive note, the deck etc needs a good washing with fresh water so this will help.
Mark cooked a chicken curry which was delicious and we sat eating it in the rain. It is not known as the wettest Island for no good reason. We look forward to exploring the Isla Bonita tomorrow. We travelled 60 nm to get here. We are sure it will be worth it.
If you have any questions, comments, suggestions – do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com