Monday 7th December: Playa de Hermigua, Gomera
Awelina of Sweden
James Collier
Mon 7 Dec 2015 19:55
Our slight apprehension about the weather turned out to be justified and we were woken at 01:47 by the boat pitching and noises of wind. The wind had increased to F6 and come round to due S so on-shore (the forecast was for F3 from the east, but as we said we don't trust the forecasts here at all for anything local as the high ground bends the wind in strange ways). We decided to keep anchor watch, taking it in turns to do 1 1/2 hr stints until around 06:30 it abated and we hoped to be able to stay to meet Steve and Toni at around midday as arranged.
But by 11:30 it had come back to the south and increased again to F6 and we were pitching the bows into the big seas and had to abort our planned lunch and trip inland and clear out in a hurry. Because the two ports with yacht berths on the W side of Tenerife don't accept visitors (and are described in the pilot book as 'hostile') we elected to go to Gomera which is only 20 miles away and anchor in a bay on the north side. We had quite a fast and pleasant sail across and found the bay ok. It has a village a little way inland but nothing at the shore but was peaceful enough. We had an early night after the short one on Saturday and the very broken one last night.