Route: San Miguel-La Gomera-Santa Cruz de La Palma-Santa Cruz de Tenerife-Las Palmas
Dates: 25.11 – 4.12.2022
Miles/ hours: 273Mm/64h
24-11-2022 Thursday
In the afternoon, part of the crew arrives in a rental car. In the evening we go shopping to HiperDino. We buy almost everything except vegetables and bread.
25-11-2022 Friday
In the morning we try to do some shopping at the market, but it turns out that the market is open only on Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays. At other fish markets there are no such fish as we would like. We’ll decide to buy something the next day. It’s getting late so we decide to go straight for a trip to the Guimar Pyramids – it’s an ethnographic museum with pyramids from the old days. There are replicas of Hayerdal’s boats (Kontiki, Ra II and Tiger), it turns out that the pyramids were discovered by Heyerdlal, hence various exhibits from his expeditions. We return along the scenic old road to the yacht and by the way we avoid the traffic jam on the highway. The rest of the crew arrives in the afternoon. We pick them up from the airport by car.
26-11-2022 Saturday
The crew goes on a trip to the volcano, they stop by the market on the way, and we stay on the yacht and finish various jobs.
27-11-2022 Sunday
In the morning we go out and sail to see the cliffs of Los Gigantes, they are really impressive. After seeing the cliffs, we head to La Gomera. The wind is weak, so we’re sailing on the engine. In the afternoon it clears up a bit, so we set up the mainsail and the jib. We reach the San Sebastian marina on La Gomera, but when reporting entry, it turns out that there are no places, so we sail to the nearby anchorage. There we meet another Polish yacht (La Perla Negra). We put out anchor watches – it dissipates at night, so we move deeper into the bay.
28-11-2022 Monday La Gomera
We leave in the morning, we see yachts leaving, so we ask about places in the marina – they say that they don’t have places, because they have a lot of reservations for today. As long as we are within range of the Internet, I am booking a place in the Santa Cruz de La Palma marina for 2 nights. It blows quite well, we sail half-wind on a reefed mainsail and a jib 6-7kn. We enter the marina after 8 pm, it is already dark. First, we report to Port Control on channel 06, if they allow, then after reaching the heads we report to the marina on channel 09. There is a 24/7 marinero service. In front of the entrance to the marina, a gate is lifted to reduce waves in the marina. The closing of the gate is signaled by three red lights. It takes about 5 minutes to open the gate and we have to wait that long. After entering the marina, we moor at the gas station and register, and the marinero shows us where to stop. I also take 2 shower cards (deposit 10€/pcs). The catamaran is coming in behind us, so we have to wait with the transition. The staff is obliged to collect the mooring lines from us (such a procedure). We moor with the stern in the Y boom next to the second yacht. In the evening, Piotrek’s birthday party.
29-11-2022 Tuesday La Palma
In the morning, Jurek goes to get fresh rolls for breakfast. After breakfast, part of the crew goes to the market and buys fish and meat, and after their return we go to explore the city. The city – the capital of the island is clean, the houses are repainted, it has a few monuments (houses with typical balconies, a church, 2 castles and pretty streets). The whole tour takes us about 2.5 hours, coming back we go for ice cream. Tuna cutlets for dinner. I am booking a place in Santa Cruz Tenerife for 1 night. In the evening we go for sangria – delicious with fresh fruit.
30-11-2022 Wednesday
In the morning, shopping at the market and at 11 o’clock we leave – the procedure is reversed in this direction – first, we report to the marina to open the gate, and then to Port Control, if we can sail through the port. The weather is rather cloudy, but it is quite warm and it does not rain.
01-12-2022 Thursday Santa Cruz de Tenerife
We sail all night. and around 12 noon we enter Santa Cruz de Tenerife. We moor the boat, have lunch and go to visit the Palmiarium – a botanical garden with palm trees from around the world.
On the way back, we see the market (most of the stalls are closed) and the old town. We stop by the shop for meat and return to the yacht.
02-12-2022 Friday
We leave in the morning just after 7. It’s still gray. The weather is bad, it’s raining a bit, but the wind is quite good, although very uneven, both in terms of strength and direction. We often change sails, and in the evening we enter Las Palmas – unfortunately, there are no places in the marina, so we anchor.
03-12-2022 Saturday
After breakfast, the crew goes to explore the city, and I go to the marina office to complete the formalities. The queue has 3 people, but it goes slowly, in total everything takes me over 1.5 hours. You have to pay for anchoring (about 4€) and you need to buy a card for the shower (5€ net) and some other things from the service.
We stay at anchor and wait for a place in the marina. There are about 30 yachts ahead of us.