28.10.
.27:49.01N 15:45.93W
Our
last few days at La Gomera were nice and quiet. Why? Well, Chris has discovered Harry Potter
(Again) for a start, and I’ve heard hardly a peep out of him since. But also San Sebastian is such a placid kind of place; it is a proper town, with real people
doing their thing. It’s noisy with
traffic and kids and dogs, but in a delightfully ordinary kind of way: no Police
sirens, no dreadful Karaoke, no flashing neon lights, no ghastly English
football supporters, no tourist hype.
I don’t think either of us really wanted to leave, but then we’d never
get across the Atlantic…
If he's
not careful he'll finish them all before we get to the
Atlantic!
We
stopped briefly at San Miguel, to say hello to Nina and the cats, and headed on
to Puerto de Mogan on Gran Canaria.
On the way there we passed through the worst of the Canaries’
‘acceleration zones’ where the wind can, and pretty much did, pick up from 5 kts
to 25+ in the space of a few minutes.
But we were prepared this time, and rolled away most of the head sail,
and then put another reef in the main just before we hit it. It did
unfortunately claim our lunch, as we were just about to start eating when Chris
decided that he didn’t want to get a wave landing in his couscous, so he handed
it back to me downstairs. Before I
had a chance to organise some sink space to rest the bowl in, the boat healed
sharply and lunch scattered it’s self across the entire galley floor…
Puerto
de Mogan is quite a treat. It’s
completely fake: the front is purpose built for the tourists, and the beach
looks distinctly Saharan, but they have done a really tasteful job of the whole
thing. Yes there are Irish Bars
advertising sky sports and all day breakfasts, but when it is in a beautify
white mock colonial low rise building with pretty green and red windows and
bright climbing flowers, it doesn’t look nearly so tacky.
Nice little
buildings and trees that look like
they have been
Full moon rising over the mountain
there for a
while.
Bougainvilleas
everywhere
Looks a bit better than
Villamoura More
flowers
We are
however beginning to get cockroach-paranoia. The other night we were eating (well
just finished actually) at a bar and this thing flew in and landed on our
table. I almost screamed and leapt
out of my seat, pointing at it and saying ‘cucaracha’ to the waitress, who
patiently explained that actually it was a cricket. It flew off, so I sat back down. But then the next day, Chris did find
something wandering around in the cockpit which could well have been a small
cockroach – they do start off small don’t they? – so we blitzed it with
cockroach killer and threw it overboard. Then last night, what actually
definitely WAS a big cockroach flew onto the boat, Chris flicked it
overboard, but we are not sure where it went… So we have been to the supermarket
and got several years worth of cockroach traps and poison, and have covered the
entire boat in little piles of organophosphates. So there.
