Timespinner en los Açores donde paro durante su viage de EU a espana en Julio 07.
Escale aux Azores jullet 07. Peter traverse l Atlantique avec Ellen Berry et Raphael de Looz.
had many wonderful adventures before selling the yacht and settling down in Marbella. Throughout the years "on the beach", as the old sailors used to say when they had no ship, we promised ourselves that one day we would do it again. Now, at last, retired, our daughter grown up, and business sold, we were ready to set sail again.
After much searching, we finally found our dream boat in the USA. She is a Cape Dory 40, a very classic design, solid, seaworthy and comfortable to live in. Peter brought her over to Spain with two friends in July, with a stop in the Azores.
For the next two months we did nothing but get the boat ready for serious cruising and turn her into a comfortable home. At last we were ready to go, but first, a party on board in Marbella to say goodbye to all our friends from Spain. This lasted three consecutive evenings and was at times quite riotous, at others, rather decorous.
We did not go far the first leg of our voyage, only to Gibraltar, where we took delivery of a new galley stove. The Strait of Gibraltar can be difficult with the strong winds and tidal currents, but we studied the tide tables carefully and were virtually flushed down the strait, even though there was no wind.
Leaving Gibraltar, we set sail for Madeira, a four-day trip. We had a strong breeze behind us, bowling us along at a good 6 knots with two reefs in the mainsail. The sea was a bit lumpy and uncomfortable and Marie felt a bit seasick, but we were happy to be really on our way.
We made landfall on Porto Santo, a small dry island with spectacular cliffs a day´s sail from the main island. (2186)
Llegada a Porto Santo despues de 5 dias de traversia con vientos E,NE de 15 a 20 nudos.
La spectaculaire geographie de PS, premiere des 4 iles de l archipel de Madeire. Seulement 2 sont habitees.
There is a small artificial harbour and a good, if rolly, anchorage outside it, where we dropped our hook.(2218)
El puerto de PS. Madeira tiene que tener politicos muy habiles porque cada pueblo perdido tiene puerto moderno con marina, varadero y alta tecnologia. PS. goza de playas estupendas de arena blanquita.
Vue du nouveau port et de la superbe plage de PS
The town is pretty, although small and modern. There remain some of the original houses, mostly abandoned—tiny, one-room affairs. Life up to a few decades ago must have been primitive indeed.(2193)
El adorable pueblo se “desarrolla” a una velocidad alarmante.
La ville est charmante mais, helas l avenir est tourne vers un tourisme portuguais de type moyen.
The main island is very different. It is high, very green and, on the southern coast, tremendously built up. (2308)
La isla principal. Vista del aeropuerto de M. Una obra de ingenieria impresionante. Se complica porque se a quedado pequeno y hay que ampliar.
Les cotes de M et son aeroport sur pilotis avec croisee d autoroutes. A vous couper le souffle.
Sailing long that coast we were amazed at the amazing (and expensive) engineering employed to make modern life in impossible terrain. How do you build an airport in a place where there is no flat land anywhere? You build it on stilts!
There is a superhighway which tunnels through the ridges and bridges all the valleys. There is a farm at the foot of a high cliff, accessible by a cable car to the top of the cliff.(2311) (2313)
Nada impide la llegada a la orilla del mar. Se puede ir en cabina teleferica o en ascensor aun que se trate del segundo acantilado mas alto de Europa.
Ce peuple determine trouve moyen de construire telepheriques et ascenseurs vertigineux pour acceder aux rives et cultiver de minuscules mais tres fertils champs.
Funchal, the capital city, is old and evidently has been prosperous for a long time. The streets are paved in small pebbles and mosaics, sometimes in nice patterns.(2249) (2292)
Funchal es una ciudad antigua con una bonita arquitectura y artes decorativas por todos lados.
La jolie Funchal, riche en arts decoratifs…
There are lovely public gardens full of exotic (to us) plants, including the Dragon Tree (2256)
from which the Romans extracted a red sap used in dyeing and medicines.
(2267) (2268)
La ciudad esta salpicada de planta exoticas y de jardines botanicos.
…et en jardins botaniques.
Funchal
(2301)
Al entrar en el puerto de F, un recordatorio del viage de Herve y sus amigos a bordo del yate Ulises hace 2 anos.
Tradition dans les iles de l Atlantique: peinture de fresques sur les quais des ports pour commemorer les passages de yachts venus du monde entier. Celui ci a ete laisse par Herve il y a 2 ans.
We were amused to find painted in the harbour a memorial of the visit of Marie´s brother Hervé and friends in 2005.
(2227)
The town has an old fort, now a museum, painted in a shocking yellow.(2270) (2272)
Descanso durante la visita del museo de arte moderno. El fuerte esta bien conservado pero la coleccion no vale nada.
Repos dans le fort de F, maintenant musee.
Peter has long been a fan of Madeira wine, so a visit to Blandy´s bodega was something in the nature of a pilgrimage. The disappointment was that he had hoped to buy a quantity at an affordable price. Sadly, it´s not affordable any more. A good bottle costs €26, while for vintage Madeira, the sky´s the limit. It was not always so.(2274) (2286)
AHHHH!
Obligada visita de bodega. Buenas explicaciones y buen vino.
La tres interressante visite des “caves” suivie par l a degustation de vieux vins. A ne pas manquer.
We hired a car for a day to tour the island. The scenery is incredible and there was this old lady baking and selling fresh bread on the side of the road. (2340)
Paysage de l interieur. (2350)
Pan de batata cocido con lena. El no va mas.
Dans un village, cette femme vend du pain de patate douce, etonament peu sucre et qui reste frais une bonne semaine.
From Madeira we sailed to the Canary island La Graciosa, which took us two very uncomfortable days. The wind was quite strong and the seas from two directions at once. Not dangerous in the slightest, but even Peter was feeling a bit queasy. The wind quieted as we approached the Canaries and the landfall was spectacular. (2359)
En vista de Las Islas Canarias tras 2 dias de mar.
En vue des Canaries. Ilot Alegranza, au N de La Graciosa. Il est inhabite.
La Graciosa is very volcanic and very dry, almost desert. A few diehard farmers raise meagre vegetables in impossible conditions. The one village is all blue and white and very pretty. We were astonished to find real estate prices higher than Marbella, as a lot of mainland Spaniards have bought the little houses as holiday homes.
We did a five-hour walk across the island. The views are amazing and the beach on the north coast superb. We swam, picnicked and limped back home. (2398)
Vista de Lanzarote desde La Graciosa.
Detroit entre La Graciosa et Lanzarote (2414)
Calles de Caleta del Sebo, Isla Graciosa.
Les rues sabloneuses et les basses habitations construites autour d un patio central. (2428) (2430)
El Picon (grava de piedra volcanica)retiene el rocio y permite una miserable agricultura en estas islas sin una gota de agua.
Grace a un ingenieux systeme de retention de la rosee, il est possible de faire pousser tomates et oignons sur cette terre volcanique, fouettee des vents et sans une goutte d eau. (Depus 10 ans ils recoivent de l eau dedesalinee de Lanzarote.)(2435) (2445) (2450)
Les montes del interior
Excursion de 11km por la isla.
Excursion a La plage des Conchas a 2:30h de marche depuis Caleta de sebo.
Peter has been taking advantage of the quiet harbour to install steps up the mast. (2413)
Peter al curro. Instalando escalones para poder subir al palo con mas seguridad.
Peter au travail. Il instale les marches en alu faites pour nous a Jerez.
Our next destination will be Arrecife in Lanzarote Island, a nice day´s sail from here .
Manana salimos para Arrecife.(Es solo un dia de navigacion). Hasta la semana proxima!
CHAPTER 2 25/11/2007
Still in Isla Graciosa, we liked the little fishing village church, in which the altar is a boat with Christ crucified to the mast. (Fig.1)
Caleta de Sebo. Ils sont tous pêcheurs et quand il s’agit de décorer l’eglise ils pensent évidemment bateaux.
La iglesia de Caleta de Cebo. Aqui todos van al mar, incluido Jesucristo.
Before leaving this delightful little island we treated ourselves to a meal ashore. Marie said her wriggly dinner was delicious, and amazingly tender. The cook has a secret that we would like to know: how to get the chewiness out. My fish was superb--and would have fed us both! (Fig.3)
Le poulpe le plus tendre! Ramène le matin même et Grille par la femme du pêcheur. Peter avait un “Bocinegro à la espada” d’égale fraîcheur. Ils servent ca accompagné de pommes de terres couvertes d’une croûte de sel et de “mojo”, emulsion d huile d’olive, ail, coriande, cumin et poivron. Un délice!
Pulpo y bocinegro a la plancha con papas arrugadas y mojo verde.
This is the cook cleaning fish on the rocks for the restaurant. (Fig.4)
La patronne prépare. le produit de la pêche du mari sur les rochers équipés à cet effet: surface de travail à bonne hauteur, robinet d’eau fraîche et quand elle termine, c’est la marée qui fait le nettoyage
En este pueblo hay 3 restaurantes que emplean cada uno toda la familia. El hombre pesca de madrugada y atiende la barra por la noche. La mujer prepara el producto de la pesca en este hermoso lugar, acomodado con agua dulce y encimera de piedra (La marea limpia). Madre e hija cocinan y el cunado es camarero.
They eat a lot of dried fish in the Canaries. We don´t understand why, with the amount of wonderful fresh fish available. We suppose they just like the taste, as we like salted and smoked fish. They open the fish flat, dip it in seawater and spread it out to dry. It doesn´t smell much. (Fig.5)
A Madère comme ici, il y a une grande culture de poisson salé et séché. Contrairement a la redoutable morue des souvenirs de beaucoup d’entre nous, ce poisson est beaucoup moin salé et légèrement séché. Il ne se conserve pas indefiniment. Il se frit directement sans trempage et se sert accompagné de “mojo”.
Dada la abundancia de peces de roca, muchas de sus capturas se convierten en jareas, simplemente saladas con agua de mar y puestas a orear al sol.
Goodbye to Isla Graciosa. We enjoyed our stay. There´s not much there, but what there is, is lovely. (Fig.6)
Next stop, Lanzarote Island.
Regardez bien ce que tire le bateau…c’est un camion qu’il remorque depuis un port de l’ile d’a coté.
Al salir del puerto, nos cruzamos con este inabitual convoy.
In this view of the harbour of Tenerife, capital of Lanzarote TIMESPINNER can just be discerned at the far end on the right, against a beige building. (Fig.7)
Port de Arrecife. Autrefois, il fallait esquiver les recifs qui parsemaient son entrée!
El puerto de Naos en Arrecife. Al primer plano se ven embarcaciones Senegalesas y Mauritanas cojidas faneando en aguas espanolas. Se venderan a subasta.
Arrecife has a pretty little lagoon, right in town, where the fishermen keep their boats. It is accessible via low bridges and it is not very deep. Small boats only.
(Figs.8 & 9)
Vue de Arrecife et le petit lagon qui permet aux pecheurs de ramener leur barques en plein centre de la ville.
La laguna en el centro de Arrecife. Tiene acseso al mar por un pequeno canal.
They probably wouldn´t be pleased by the comparison, but they do look like the three wise monkeys! Marie befriended them. The conversation turned to the massive changes that have taken place in the last couple of decades. When she asked them whether life was better now or back then, all three scewed up their faces in an expression of concentrated thought. “We eat better now”, one said. (Fig. 10)
Ces 3 compères passent tous les après-midis de la semaine à contempler la mer. Une mer qu’ils connaissent bien puisqu’ils ont passé leur vie le long des côtes
d’afrique, dans les eaux d’abord espagnoles (Sahara) puis marocaines et mauritaniennes. Maintenant retraités, ils ont droit a 4kg de poisson par jour dans les eaux de la Réserve Nationale de Lanzarote. Le matin, ils sont donc dans leur barque.
Estos 3 amigos nos contaron como empesaron sus vidas de marineros con barcos de vela en los anos 50. En esos tiempos pasaban 5 o 6 meses en el mar sin tocar tierra en otro puerto que Cisneros, donde no habia ni agua. La Marina la trahia de la peninsula! A pesar de esto, cuando les pregunte si se vive mejor hoy, contestaron despues de consultarse: bueno, hoy se come mejor…
Suppose you need to make salt. Easy if you have tidal flats, but what if you have just a lava flow high above sea level? Well, there´s always lots of wind. You build terraces and pump seawater up to flood them. The salt was for the fishing fleet, who used to bring their catch to a port in Southern Morocco to be salted and exported.
Sailing schooners used to bring salt from Lanzarote to Morocco until the 1950´s. The old men told us that. Fig.11)
Avant la refrigeration, les poissons se conservaient dans le sel et il en fallait donc de grandes quantités a bord des chalutiers. Ne pouvant profiter des marées pour faire des marais salant, ils utilisaient le vent pour actionner des moulins qui par un système de canneaux menaient l’eau sur des terraces d’ou elle pouvait
s’évaporer.
Hasta los anos 60 tenian que cargar grandes cantidades de sal a bordo para conservar el pescado. Por eso se hicieron estas salinas en bancales, activadas por un laborioso sistema de molinos de viento y canales de irrigacion.
Arrecife is an attractive old town, (Fig.12)
La belle petite ville de Arrecife. Bien que le tourisme soit la principale source de revenus, il n’pas tout détruit. Il y a de fortes pressions politiques pour proteger l’ile du développement incontrolé.
Arrecife a mantenido su personalidad a pesar de que su economia pasa por el turismo.
With a pair of old forts for defence against pirates from the African mainland) (Fig.12)
The cannons are more modern, breech-loading and rifled, although made of bronze. Here is a bullet´s-eye view. (Fig. 13)
Jusqu au XVIIIeme Siècle il fallait se proteger des pirates berbères qui volaient, brulaient, violaient et repartaient pour revenir 2 ou 3 ans plus tard et recommencer.
Castillo de San Jose construido en 1771 para protejerse de los constantes ataques de piratas. La historia de estas aguas es un largo va y ven entre las costas africanas y las islas. Desafortunadamente este trafico esta lejos de acabar.
The last eruption on the island was in the 1700´s. Here, high-temperature, fluid lava came blasting through an older lava flow, creating this cave, which is kilometers long. (Figs.14, 15 & 16) (We have to behave like tourists
Occasionally.)
Les “Conejeros” ou habitants de Lanzarote, comme ils aiment s’appeler, devaient ce refugier dans ces grotes pour échapper aux pirates. Celle-ci a 7km de galeries et est due au vide laissé par la fonte de l’ancienne lave, atrappée sous une coulée plus récente.
Esta cueva volcanica tiene 7km de galerias y una de las grandes cavernas se ha habilitado como auditorio. Es tal la superficie de las cuevas que en 1618 se refujiaron en su interior mas de 1000 Lanzarotenos huyendo de los piratas que asolaban la isla. Es uno de los lugares mas sobrecojedores que haya visitado.
We said farewell to Isla Graciosa but here it is again, seen from a high point of Lanzarote. You can see the little port where we stayed. (Figs. 18 & 19)
Surprise: Du haut de la falaise , plongée sur La Graciosa.
El mirador del rio de donde se ve el brazo de mar que separa a lanzarote de La Graciosa. Se ve claramente el puerto donde etuvimos la semana anterior.
After driving through kilometers of grey, volcanic landscape, we came upon this little town like an oasis.
Here we found a little bar-restaurant with an inspired cook, who gave us a delicious lunch of various tapas.
(Figs. 20, 21)
Tinajo et sa vallée parsemée de 8000 palmiers.
Haria y Tinajo. Gastronomia dicha “de cuchara” donde lo probamos casi todo mediante tapas. Puchero canario, adobo de cabrita y otras delicias cuyos nombres he olvidado.
The town lies at the end of a fertile valley. No, really, I´m not joking, this really is a fertile valley where a wide variety of crops are grown, including grapes for a well-known wine culture. (Fig. 22)
Autre village de l’interieur. C’est blanc, c’est propre, c’est sec.
The whole end of the island used to be productive farming country dotted with villages until that eruption in 1730, after which it looked like this. Volcanoes do make a mess! The dragon looks quite at home, doesn´t he? (Figs. 24, 25 & 26)
La dernière éruption volcanique a eu lieu en 1730. Plusieurs villages ont été encevelis ainsi qu’un tiers de l’île. Tout est a recommencer. Il faudra des millenaires pour que les vies vegetale et animale reprennent et, en attendant, c’est le Parc National de Montañas de Fuego.
Parque Nacional de Timanfaya y Las Montanas de Fuego. Una inmensa colada de lava que cae desde los crateres del interior hacia el mar. Todo el sector oriental de la isla era una fertil vega hasta un dia de septiembre 1730, y a lo largo de las 6 semanas siguientes, que la tierra se abrio y escupio lava y cenizas que hoy cubren lo que fue una zona altamente poblada.
Fairly quickly this impossibly rugged terrain weathers down, breaking into small pieces that form a smooth blanket over the terrain. Very suitable for camel trekking!) Figs. 27, 28 & 29)
Plus bas, le terrain “s’adoucit” et il est possible de suivre des sentiers a pied ou à dos de chameau.
Il est interdit de sortir des chemins car une trace de chaussure metterait 10 ans a disparaître.
Aqui esta terminantemente prohibido abandonar les caminos y penetrar a pie (humano o de dromedario) en los campos de lava, donde las huellas permanecerian durante decadas.
This fine material, known locally as picon, in texture between fine gravel and coarse sand, is the key to agriculture on these dry islands. It is very porous and has the ability to capture the tiny amount of moisture that falls, as much dew as actual rainfall, releasing it slowly along with dissolved minerals. Still, agriculture cannot be easy. Locally-grown fruits and vegetables are remarkably flavourful. (Figs. 30, 31 & 32)
Et voilà, on casse la lave pour acceder au sol anterieur et avec la rosée pour toute humidité et les qualités du “picon” on arrive à tout faire pousser. Le vin de malvasia , fruits et légumes de grande qualité mais inévitablement très chers en sont le produit.
Los cultivos de la Geria en donde se aprovecha la capacidad de este picon para captar el agua y mantener la humedad. Los muros de piedra protegen de los vientos.
On the north side of the island there are no harbours, yet against all odds they manage to go fishing. Each boat owner has a carriage and a length of chain attached to the wall with a pulley block on the end. There is a communal winch. There is no room for the boats to stay in the water, so they are put in and out of the water each time. But that isn´t all. Look carefully at Fig. 33. There is a reef at the entrance. You can see the narrow gap where the waves don´t break. That is the gap they have to negotiate before making a hairpin turn to starboard to avoid the rocky beach and then enter the harbour.
I wouldn´t want to try it, even on a calm day!
La côte nord de l’île est très exposée et n’a pas de port. Ici ces pauvres gens doivent sortir leurs bateaux de l’eau et, s’ils ont réussit à le mèner sur la rampe sans se fracasser sur les rochers que vous voyez dans le fond, derrière le quais.
Las costas del norte, muy expuestas al temporal. Al pesar de esto se consigue salir a pescar. Fijaros en la peligrosa entrada del “puerto”.
At anchor at Punta Papagayo, on the south end of the island. The sunset makes a nice closing note. More soon.
(Figs. 34, 35 & 36)
La côte sud de l’île avec ses superbes plages de sable blanc. Prochaine étape Fuerteventura.Fondeo delante de las espectaculares playas de Punta de Papagayo.
Proxima parada: Fuerteventura.
Bon, voila, c est bon pour cette fois. A la semaine prochaine.
Ciao everybody, we hope to have more news for you next week.
PETER & MARIE
