La Gomera 28:05.1N 17:06.5W
Lotus
Sun 8 Nov 2009 12:07
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Next morning we made our way round the coast to Los
Cristianos, where we'd hoped to find a place to anchor. The usual Canarian
welcome was waiting for us and once more there was no room at the inn. The
bay itself would have made a beaytiful anchorage but a huge area, up to 200
meters offshore had been buoyed for swimmers. Everything inside this was
for 'local boats' only. We anchored in a nearby bay, had a snorkel
then some lunch and decided that it was too rolly so we set off for La
Gomera. Light variable winds meant that progress was initially slow, we
tried some fishing yet again unsuccessfully, but there was the added advantage
that the smooth seas made whale and dolphin watching easier; we were soon joined
by three short finned pilot whales. We had great view and
Jo was so excited that she declared that she might just 'wet her knickers' (we
have evidence of this on video, so don't deny it Jo
    True to form the winds increased and kept doing so
all the way to La Gomera, with 35knots our close hauled course gave us
another drenching. We reached La Gomera early evening and
helpful marina staff guided us into a very tight berth. La
Gomera has a very nice feel, not as tourist based as the other islands, but with
a nice square with bars and trees. We spent a day at the beach snorkelling
and were rewarded with sightings of thong wearing brown bottomed man
as well as scorpion fish, trumpet fish and other brightly coloured fishes.
Still no lobsters! A relaxed second evening was spent on the boat
and we rounded the night off watching one of our 300 videos supplied by James,
John's nephew. Unfortunately, the sun and the fresh air had taken its toll
and all four of us were snoring in our seats before the end of the
film.
The next morning we sailed back over to Los
Cristianos and our original anchorage there. People that we'd met in La
Gomera who had stayed there some days previously gave us new intelligence, that
the rocks above the bay formed an amphitheatre of many lewd gay
performances. On arrival we got the binoculars out and spotted many
men lurking around for hours at a time, eyeing each other up before pairing off
and heading into the rocks.
After a night at anchor here, Jim a little worried
that we were about to be boarded at any time by marauding gay pirates, we
motored round the coast to Las Galletas where we bade a sad farewell to Jim and
Jo, there week had passed all too quickly.
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