I am writing this, sitting on the boat at 2100 New Year’s Eve, whilst waiting for the Spanish Latin band to start up in the town square, 100m from us!

The sound checks sounded excellent with sax, trumpet, guitar drums, bongos and voices. There is one thing that we know for certain – the Spanish love to party and from previous experience, the band will still be going strong at 0500. So we plan to party too. If you can’t beat them…….

    In the end we didn’t move on for Christmas and although we had had enough of busy Las Palmas, had a lovely time. We had become friendly with a number of people and everyone was busy doing the social rounds. On Christmas Eve we checked out the time of Midnight Mass in the Cathedral and popped over to our Faroese/Bulgarian friends to let them know. They insisted that we join them for their festive feast there and then. We had a lovely evening, experiencing Christmas Faroese and Bulgarian style, Afterwards we all walked the 3 miles to the Cathedral for the Mass which was accompanied by a full chamber orchestra and an excellent choir.

 

 

After Midnight Mass

 

    The following morning we joined in cricket, swimming and socialising on the beach and then cooked a traditional English Christmas meal for our friends in return for their hospitality. We could not find cranberries, sprouts, chestnuts or parsnips but had, on board a Christmas pud which was eaten with brandy butter. Our guests were impressed with stuffing and the pud!

 

 

Derrick, Randi, Durita, Stamen

 

    We set sail for La Gomera, 25M west of Tenerife at 1000 on Boxing Day. The distance was 130NM so once again it was a full day and night. It was difficult to decide on the route in order to avoid acceleration zones of wind, or the calms created by the wind shadows of the high islands. In the end we decided to go south of Gran Canaria and Tenerife. We had a fabulous sail, only losing the wind completely for approx 5 hours in 26. We arrived at the lovely harbour of San Sebastian at approx 1100 the following day.

 

 

Almost there

 

 

The Marina

 

    La Gomera is noted for it’s peace and quiet and for miles of superb mountain walking. That suits us! We have had three beautiful walks so far in slightly different areas, once again served by a good bus service and friendly drivers. Yesterday’s was quite strenuous with a steep zig zagging climb from 100m to 800m.We could look steeply down and up at the layers of path above and below. Once reaching the top of the ridge, the path wound around valley after valley with gorgeous views to the sea and beyond to Mt Teide on Tenerife, Spain’s highest mountain. 15 miles later we were very pleased to reach Green Flash and her store of cold beers.

 

 

A narrow ridge

 

 

Looking back to the inhabited valley where we started, and along our winding route below.

 

    Today has been spent catching up on jobs including the shopping which is quite time consuming. After the actual shopping, including the walk to and fro, all cardboard has to be disposed of before entering the boat and all fruit and veg has to be washed. This is to prevent an infestation of cockroaches. We have had enough of uninvited guests!

     It is almost 2300 now and the music is yet to begin. We hope that you all have a good evening and a very Happy New Year!

 

 

!!!!!