La Gomera

Serenity of Swanwick
Phil and Sarah Tadd
Tue 24 Nov 2015 19:53
There are three smaller islands to the west of Tenerife, La Palma in the north, La Gomera in the middle and El Hierro to the south. We are unlikely now to visit La Palma as its too far out of our way and to windward but we have sailed over to La Gomera today and may just visit El Hierro on our way to Cape Verde.
The forecast today was for the strong winds to start to ease down and Passage Weather showed La Gomera to be in the wind shadow of Tenerife so that once we cleared the acceleration zone the winds would be light most of the way across. We sailed along the coast from San Miguel with a scrap of headsail, making 6 knots and as we came clear of the island so the wind dropped away to nothing and we motored only for it to pick up again, as expected, as we approached La Gomera, and we had a great sail for the last hour of the trip. 
Entering the harbour at San Sebastian we came into shelter and made our way to the marina to be directed into a space too narrow for us to get into, sandwiched between the finger pontoon and a powerboat.  Eventually the mariniero accepted that the space was too small and we moved to one marginally wider. Alongside us are a Swiss couple who were opposite to us in Santa Cruz and who we thought had rushed off to get south before these winds arrived, we have yet to hear their story.
The town of San Sebastian is built up the hillside beside the harbour, with multi-coloured buildings that almost look like cardboard cutouts, and the mountains come down steeply to the water.
Tonight the wind is howling down off the mountains and it feels quite cold.
Photos: leaving Tenerife and approaching San Sebastian.
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