La Palma Volcano by Oli

La Palma volcano

Yesterday we went to some volcanoes. We found a volcano visitor centre.

 

We watched a short dvd then went on to the museum. It showed the history of all the eruptions.

 

Then we went up the volcano which was massive. It last erupted in 1677. My brother was scared but I wasn’t, so I just took in the nice view from 500m up. At one point I was on a narrow 30cm wide path with no hand rails. The view was spectacular.

 

After this narrow path I just sat on the edge of the volcano where behind was a steep hill almost straight down to the bottom of the volcano. The volcano didn’t have a laver lake, just ferns which are the first thing to grow after an eruption. They like the soil which is one of the best in the world. When we walked back we saw some camels but didn’t ride them.

 

 

Then it was back to the hire car and we drove to the 1971 volcano (Teneguia) which we could see from the top of the first volcano.

 

 

When we arrived we walked up to the volcano past a vent (which is like a mini volcano this erupted at the same time.) We found interesting rocks on the way; we looked at where the laver would have run back in 1971. Then we walked back but stopped on the way at the vent. We stood in the middle of the vent where laver had been spurting out. It was cool! Then we walked around the crater, then a trudge back the hire car. 

I think this looks like a T rex.

The rocks are quite light because they have lots of air bubbles in them. They are quite sharp, so difficult to lift.

 

 

 

 

Madeira to La Palma

MADEIRA TO LA PALMA 15^TH October to 17^th October

 

It is 250 miles to La Palma, one of the 7 Canary Islands and the one furthest west.  To ensure we arrived in daylight we left at 7pm which gave us 2 night passages.

It was a very uneventful trip. No dolphins, no ships, boats or anything really. It is hard to imagine when used to sailing in the solent an AIS screen that shows nothing for nearly 36 hours.

The skies devoid of a moon were filled with stars. I wish I could take a photo and share it with you. It is one if the good things about night sailing. It is truly mesmerising.

The wind in the words of our Swedish friend Staffan from Salsa "is a fickle bitch". She was well behaved for the first 24 hours where we had the opportunity to sail on a reach at a steady 6 to 7 knots. Nice and peaceful with a calm sea, either that or we are getting used to the sensation of swell. In the last 12 hours the wind has developed PMT and is sulking. She can't make up her mind which way to blow what little wind she can be bothered to. The engine has therefor been on for the last 12 hours and I suspect as our destination is only 4 hours away that it will be our mode of propulsion for the remainder of the trip. The main sail flaps annoyingly with no pressure and diesel fumes tend to linger. The boys also complain because they can't hear the DVD properly in their cabins. We are hoping that she will behave herself on our Atlantic crossing as we only have so much fuel and motoring will be a luxury.

We are now 1600 miles from Hythe knock buoy. We are around 150 miles from Gran Canaria.  All our sails will now be short hops between the islands. The longest a mere 60 miles. This is equivalent to a channel crossing which we would have had to psyche up to do, now it is just a day sail.

Today we made bread and biscuits. Ethan kneaded the dough. The recipe had a single proving but I think I prefer the recipe with 2. The bread was very dense, needed more air bubbles. Oli said its texture resembled cake. It tasted ok but we can do better. The biscuits went down well.

I started my watch at 5 am and land is clearly visible as a mass of lights. We were 35 miles away so I am not sure at what distance Russ picked it up. The visibility is amazing and rumoured to be at least 45 miles. This means that when you have seen land it takes a long time to get to it. I can clearly see the arc of a lighthouse sending the beam in a great sweeping motion. It is 6 am and it will not get light until 8am which seems quite late. I guess it is only a few weeks until the clocks change. It is now getting dark at about 8pm. The weather is definitely warmer as I have not needed to dig out my socks or thermals for a watch, just trousers and a fleece.

We have chosen to go a different route to Gran Canaria than the most popular east to west. Ours is probably the less favourable due to prevailing winds, but as the trades are not yet established properly and the distances are short if we need to motor into a light headwind so be it. If we do this again we felt it would be nice to have a different route. We also thought it might be nice to re-establish our routine away from distractions of other arc boats that we will be spending 2 weeks with soon. The boys need to do some solid school work and the inside of the boat could do with a good clean.

In the final moments of our trip we had some excitement. Russell spotted a man overboard. It was a teddy bear bobbing about in the sea. We decided to test our man overboard skills and rescue the teddy. It was not easy and we managed to lose our small fishing net trying to retrieve it. If it had been a person they would probably have died from being poked in the head with a boathook and being run over a few times. Finally I decided to stand on the bathing platform and in the swell I managed to grab the bear. I also got very wet doing it as the bathing platform was going underwater in the swell.

It wasn’t long until we were safely tied up in the marina. First impressions very empty and very nice, with a small Spar shop that sold the basics including cold bear. Brilliant!

Madeira Video

 

Unable to upload - please view on Mad Fish facebook page.

 

Madeira Photos

 

 

 

 

Treasure hunt.

 

 

View from hill. We are on second pontoon with a 2 vacant berths next to us.

 

The boys enjoying catchng lizards.

 

 

The roads clng to the side of the mountan. We will be travellng on that road soon...

 

The tunnels can be really long.

 

At least they build a barrier.

 

Insde the Sao Vicentee Lava Tubes. These are left when the Volcano erupts. They create a maze of caves. The photos do not do it justice. Amazing.

 

A waterfall.

 

What a view.

 

Butter wouldn't melt now but moments before they were throwing stones and couting how long to reach the bottom. So far down you could not hear.

 

Litterally above the clouds.

 

Banana plantations.

 

Madeira

MADEIRA – 12^th to 16^th October

 

We left Porto Santo after 9 days and made the 32 mile trip to Madeira itself. We stayed in Quinta do Lorde on the north east tip. There was not much there other than a housing development and five star hotel due to open in December. When it does I am sure that it will make anyone's stay more attractive as visitors will be able to use the hotel facilities and have the benefit of a shop on site, rather than having to rely on the marina courtesy bus into Machio to go shopping at Pingo Dolce (Portuguese equivalent to Tesco).  We were able to spend a couple of hours in Machio . On Monday we went to a sandy beach there and did some shopping. The sand I think is imported from Mexico.

The marina itself is quite tight to get into and expensive. Even with our 30 % arc discount it still cost €30 per night. We had expected 50% discount so were glad we only stated for 4 nights rather than our original intention if 7. We also wish we had spent the first couple of days in the nearby anchorage, although people came into the marina saying it was quite rolly. The marina itself suffered from surge so not altogether the best night’s sleep.

We met up with Alex the French boy and were invited to do a treasure hunt using a website and gps co-ordinates. You find a plastic box and have to take treasure out and put something back in. You write your names and date in a note book and put it back for the next person to find. It encouraged the boys to go on a spectacular walk over the cliffs.

The island is volcanic and we hired a car to go and visit the lava caves at Sao Vicente . These were spectacular and well worth the entrance fee of €8 for adults and 6 for children. We paid €49 inc insurance to hire a car. It was a Chevy Matiz and it had done 137,000km. It was gutless and struggled on the steep and winding mountains that we made it go up. It did add to the day as we pretended we were on Top Gear. We were glad it was a Sunday so the roads were quiet as they were not very wide with lots of blind bends. It was scary in many places and I have captured this on a video.

We continued around the whole of the island stopping for tea on the south west tip. It would have been a lovely place to stop and have a leisurely lunch.  We enjoyed some lovely homemade cake. I tried the tea of the house which was a mixture of lemon grass, zest , mint. It smelled a lot like a mojito but tasted of hot water. I am sure it was excellent for detoxifying.

We set off again in search of a petrol station, the car used €30 of fuel as we had to rev the nuts off it often needing 1st gear. Petrol is also expensive at €1.75 do we used about 17 litres . We think the tank only held 20 litres in total.  Helpfully the tank was on a quarter when we got it so nothing as simple as filling it back up at the end of the day.

The south of the islands roads cut through the hill using tunnels rather than clinging to the mountain side which is a lot less heart stopping to drive on. The land is also lower and the hillsides are full of banana plantations. The bananas here are smaller and fatter and ripen very quickly. They are pretty straight and they do not have much of a stalk so are prone to splitting. The fruit and veg generally has a short shelf life, I am not sure if it is the heat or lack of pesticides. You can also only buy things that are in season, or grown locally, no baby corn or sugar snap peas here. They are also sold in kilos so it can be a bit of a lottery as to how much things will cost. We paid €2 for a chilli as it was €11 a kilo. There are very little processed foods and Russell made the mistake if buying pot noodles at €3 each.

We went to Funchal itself which is the capital. We walked around the marina and saw our Swedish friends on Salsa. It is difficult to get into the marina and it had taken them 3 days to get a spot. We didn't want to spend another 3 days trying to get in and also strong winds were being forecast for the end of the week. We had decided to leave on Monday for the 250 mile trip to La Palma the western most Canary Island.

The boys spotted a MacDonald’s so we had dinner there . It seems a waste of a meal out but to have a meal out would cost at least €80 and MacDonald’s is €20.

We had a walk around an open air market and then went back to the car park. Our hearts started jumping when the shutters were down on the entrance and we feared we were locked in or out, whichever way you looked at it, it wasn't good. I thought it had a closing time of 2200 and Oli thought 2100. As it was 2000 we both thought we were ok. Starting to panic a bit, a security guard above said we needed to come up and hope of escape was restored. We managed to pay for parking which for 3 hours seemed to be 45 cents and then set about getting out. We had a debate about which way to go confused by the way out sign being next to one saying private parking. We found a machine to slot the token in and voila a roller shutter lifted and we were free.

The next exciting bit was driving in the dark and trying to find the marina. The map we were given was a tourist map of the island and the road signs often gave place names not on it. But we managed and Ethan had a good idea of heading for the red light on the hill above the marina.

The airport is on the south side of the island and to get a piece of land long and flat enough it is built up on big stone pillars which hold it high above ground below.  Underneath is a boatyard where you can keep your boat out of the water under the runway. Nice and dry but I am guessing a bit noisy. The road goes under the run way too which feels a bit odd. When we left we could also see the runway and some planes coming into land. I am guessing it is a bit scary as it is not very long and has a cliff at one end.

Porto Santo - Photographs

Oliver with Erika his Sweedish friend from the boat Salsa

Lysander (German), Alex (French), Oliver, Erika (Sweedish) & Ethan

 Ethan and Lysander from Morning Haze

The Open Top bus. Ethan and Erika

 View down to the Marina.

 The amazing Beach - and it is real not man made. The water was also a staggering 30 degrees which was abnormal - it is normally max 24. A hurrican in the canaries pushed up the warm seas along with an unseasonal southerly breeze.

The marina from the view point. We are on the middle pontoon. The 3rd boat in on the north of the pontoon. We have our navy bimni up.

Porto Santo

Porto Santo - 3rd October to 11th October.

This place is really something. Fantastic beach next to the marina. We did lots of surfing and the waves ate Ethans goggles and my sun glasses. We are still finding the sand even now.

The marina had a really good spirit, so much so that we arranged a beach BBQ one night and people delayed leaving until the next day to come.

There was lots of children of different nationalities, French, German, Sweedish, Norweigan and Irish.

The wall was covered with pictures so we had to do ours too. Ethan designed this one and Olivers design will be completed in Gran Canaria.

We were treated to a night out just Russ and I thanks to a lovely dutch lady called Hanneka on Nelly Rose, offering to babysit. It was a real treat. Her duaghter had spent 3 years circumnavigating with 2 small children and said the thing she most missed was going out just the 2 of them. We were so appreciative, it was nice to get dressed up and go out, even if it did seem a bit weird as we have been inseperable as a family for 2 months solid. We ate limpits which i can definetly say i will not be eating again, but we were curious to what they tasted like.

We took a 2 hour bus tour of the island and that was about it. There was not really much to do but chill out. Pure bliss.....