The harbour of San Sebastian in La Gomera is a lovely little port, and was the jumping-off place for Christopher Columbus to cross the Atlantic. (Figs. 1, 2)
Emily joined us for a week over Christmas. She flew to the Island of Tenerife and we sailed over to La Coleta, a small harbour in the south of the island not far from the airport. We hired a car to collect her but did not want to stay in Tenerife because we had not yet explored La Gomera, so next morning we set sail back to San Sebastian. We cleared the harbour under motor (Fig. 4)
and were just hoisting the sails in a gentle breeze when the engine suddenly stopped dead and would not restart. (Expletive deleted.) Oh, well, it was a perfectly lovely day and we had an idyllic six-hour sail back into San Sebastian, where somebody from the marina towed us into a mooring slip. So here we all are. (Fig. 3)
Our neighbour at the left of the picture is the mother of a Belgian family, (Fig. 4b). Very nice people, and, as usually seems to be the case among the Belgians, we meet, friends of Marie´s family.
Very cute kids.Next morning we had a mechanic aboard. He was able to determine what the problem was not, that is to say, nothing simple or cheap,(Fig. 4)
but more than that would have to wait until the new year. It´s no fun to have the engine apart in the boat you are living in. It´s like having to maintain the car in your livingroom.Well, so much for Emily´s sailing holiday. But all was not lost. La Gomera is a gorgeous island with spectacular views everywhere you look. We hired a car to tour the island and did some long walks. One day we took a bus up into the mountains and followed a hiking trail back to the harbour. (Figs. 6, 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d)
That was hard going for unseasoned hikers like us and we were pretty footsore and weary by the time we got home. We spent a couple
of days just lazing around, recov
ering from our exertions and just enjoying being the three of us together again. Although we have seen her often enough, Emily has effectively left home. We were delighted to discover her as a grownup.The island lives off agriculture and tourism, the two being mutually conflicting. The amazingly rugged terrain is wonderful to look at, (Figs.5,7,8,9,10,11)
but if you want a bit of flat land to grow something, you have to make it laboriously. The labour to do all that terracing is mind-boggling. (Figs. 12, 13, 14)
And if you need a garage, it is sometimes easier to dig one. (Fig. 15)
The trouble with the engine turned out to be the gearbox. A bearing had broken up and jammed the works. All it needed was two new bearings and it was as good as new, but all that still entailed removing the engine. It took about three weeks, most of that time being the wait for parts.Normally we would have been terribly impatient to move on, but after Emily left, Marie´s parents, Ghislaine and Philippe came to visit the Canaries while we were here. They stayed in a very pleasant little hotel on the sea. We had planned to stay on the boat in Tenerife but unable to sail, settled for a hotel nearby.
Tenerife is just as spectacular as the other islands. We toured all over the island by car and walked some of the more scenic parts. Everybody had a very good time.
I am not going to attempt to caption the rest of these pictures. There are far too many of them and we intend to set sail tomorrow for Barbados and time is running out. The last few days have been a whirl of activity--provisioning for the three or four week passage, ordering and mounting new equipment (the remaining mast steps, a radar detector to warn of nearby ships, a solar panel to keep the vital functions going in the event of an engine failure and software to enable e-mail and weather information via the satellite phone while on the high seas. Now we just have to top off our water tanks, finish this newsletter and we´re off.
One or two pictures need an explanation: the orange s
eagoing rowing boat is one of a fleet that set out from here bound for the Caribbean. Some people think we´re a bit crazy, but these are really crazy! One broke the record for the crossing, 39 days.There is a picture of a prickly pear cactus with a white insect infestation. This is the cochineel insect, which, when crushed, releases a red dye. Before the invention of modern chemical dyes this was an important export from these islands.
We always seem to include a picture of what we´ve been eating. In this case the food was not notable, but the view from the top of a high cliff on which the restaurant is perched, is breathtaking.
Once a decorative painter, always a decorative painter, it seems. There is a picture of an Arabian Nights fantasy. This was the backdrop for part of the Carnival celebrations. Marie happened past and found a man painting it. "Do you need any help?"
s"I´m a muralist." So the two of them spent the next couple of days painting.That´s it for now. Stay tuned for the next edition from the Caribbean.
