From Tim on Wild Goose:
So I was a late arrival, flying in on Wednesday 1st to meet the boat in Las Palmas. My skipper had arrived a few days before….
We left England in the face of a terrible forecast so expected rough flight. In fact it was not bad at all. A bit bumpy as we climbed through the clouds over Gatwick, then brief sightings of Chichester, Southampton and the Island, Newtown and Yarmouth and even the Needles clearly visible. A lot of white water on the beaches and over the Shingles, I think I saw a glimpse of France and one of the Chanel Islands but then nothing. We flew over some awesome looking clouds stretching to the horizon which I guess was the storm, but about an hour ago the sky started to clear revealing a bit of Spain and now I can look down to the sea and little puffy white clouds. The sea looks blue and pretty calm with some swell from the north west….cant wait to get out onto it! Can’t yet see the island but we are descending fast and my ears are popping…
Taxi to the marina was uneventful along a rather desolate looking coast covered in industrial looking polly tunnels, not sure what they are growing! Then Las Palmas appears and is entirely modern concrete tower blocks, the harbour is huge and dozens of cargo ships anchored off awaiting their turn in the docks. The marina is also huge but luckily the taxi can drive in and along to the end of K pontoon where Wild Goose awaits. Great welcome from James and Simon who have been hard at work buying shopping and stowing everything we need for a month at sea. Lucky there are a lot of lockers. Drinks in the cockpit then James set to to cook a huge piece of fish for each of us. No idea what sort of fish it was but white, meaty and delicious…and so to bed.
Thursday 2nd
Awoke early and finished my first kindle book. It is pitch dark at 0630, but bright daytime by 0730. Temperature is just lovely in the high 20’s, but not too hot to sleep…at least if you have had a couple of glasses of wine! Lots still to do and spent the day working out how we will set the sails and getting salt out of the spinnaker poles and rigging up all the lines we might need to control them. The chandleries here have absolutely everything and there are riggers and sailmakers so that anyone who has the slightest problem can get them sorted. It’s a real hive of yachting activity. Weather is puffy clouds and gentle breezes with the very occasional shower, although to be honest we have had nothing but the odd drip! Nice little coffee bar just at the head of the pontoon for breakfast and tapas type lunch in the cockpit under the very welcome Bimini. You would be nuts not to have one here. Decided that we are nearly ready, so going to rent a car tomorrow and see if there is anything here that is not made of concrete…also we will do final supermarket shop whilst we have the car. Joined in with the sundowner drinks this evening. Lovely lot of people and all very friendly. Quite a few families like our friends Dave and Em and kids (who might join the rally next year) clearly loving the ocean life. Then on to dinner in a swanky marina side restaurant- grilled fish again with local island wine which was very good. It’s a tough life!
Friday 3rd
A voyage into the Interior! Collected rental car and the three of us jumped in armed with a free map, and Google Maps. We decided to head in land and up to the town of Tajeda. The first few miles are on a brand new motorway but very soon the road narrows and starts to wind. Seriously windy. Makes the Alps look tame! The rocks are mainly volcanic and extremely rough, barren and steep. As we climbed the temperature dropped, but none of us had thought to bring coats. The clouds hing about the rocky peaks, creating rainbows, and light drizzle. Finally stopped to look at Roque Bentayga.
Thinking it was time for coffee break, we dropped down into the little town of Tejeda. This turned out to be a great decision, fabulous little place with breath taking views and excellent coffee, and warmer than it had been at the top in the cloud. Great to see terraces carved into the hillside, ancient cisterns of water to irrigate them, and all sorts growing in profusion.
Our adventures continued as we drove on down to La Aldea De San Nichols, another very smart looking town almost back down at sea level, where they have huge polly tunnels full of banana plants and evidence of industry. We found a parking space in the town centre hoping to get some lunch in a cute little restaurant, but we were to be sadly disappointed. The whole place was deserted, the only cafe with just one other couple seated. It was like a ghost town! We can only assume that everyone was having a siesta, or at work. Ordering blind from a Spanish menu we ended up with three plates of different deep fried fish….nothing like the delicious tapas we had hoped for. Never mind the cold beer was good. We then followed the coast road north back towards Las Palmas, and Carrefour hypermarket. The coast road is being turned into a motorway and at every turn we saw huge tunnels being driven through the sides of mountains. Will be much quicker but nothing like as spectacular as the old road.
Eventually arriving at the Hypermarket we managed to buy all the fresh food we needed using James and Jane’s incredibly detailed shopping list, which links seamlessly with the menu plan for each day and the detailed recipes housed in the laminated master folder. I am in awe of the organisation! The main challenge was finding the car on return to the underground car park…but that is a story for another day..
The unloading and putting everything away on the boat was fun, but it is done, and certain corners of the saloon have taken on the feeling of a colourful street market.
I think we are ready!
Tomorrow we are off….