Weatherly Sailing Adventures
We were ambitious to sail the next morning after a late night imbibing numerous bottles of plonk with our French friends in Essouira. After clearing all the formalities I checked with the meteorological office and he advised we didn't go down to Canaries for another 4 days as some strong winds and sea was coming.
Too late, we'd checked out and my other forecasts were benign. So we set sail in freshening winds and Cris fed the fish just outside the port in a heavy swell. He still maintains it was the coffee.
After a brisk 2 days sail, with wind and waves from behind, we passed through a picturesque channel between Graciosa and Lanzarote. Steep, rugged black cliffs on our port (left) and volcanic, rounded hills and scrub to starboard. The swell reduced as we continued through the channel, and we anchored in a perfectly sheltered cove on the lee of Graciosa, enjoying a refreshing sleep and later, sunset on the mountains around.
We took a walk the next day and met up with another French couple we knew from Essouira, but they had worse conditions, leaving a day after us. Graciosa is one of the more natural islands in the Canaries, and the walks took us through windswept scrubby bush, over shallow dunes and along deserted beaches with clear, blue water. The mountainous backdrop of Lanzarote and the volcanoes on Graciosa was stunning.
We sailed around the rocky southern peninsula of Lanzarote, and entered the little harbour of Arricife, with a historic fort at the entrance that has been converted into a charming art gallery and bar. The modern architecture was typical of the town, designed by a local personality. After I checked us back into Spain through immigration, we spent several days enjoying the place walking around and finding some friendly bars to have a drink at in the evening. The black stones are tastefully outlined with white cement which bonds together and also gives an artistic effect to the buildings.
Further south, we called in at a marina in Playa Blanca, a plush tourist resort with bars and restaurants, and rented a car to explore the island. The whole island has unusual volcanic formations and we took a special tour in the volcano national park in the middle of the island. A man poured water into special tubes into the ground and the geothermal temperatures cause the water to vaporise rapidly, forming a geyser, water spraying up several metres high. The restaurant had a grill installed over another part of the volcano, to BBQ chickens over the rocky inferno below.
Sailing on, we rounded Fuertaventura one moonlit night, in lumpy seas and good winds. I anchored right at the very southern tip of the island, Punta Jandia, where the winds funnel strongest and windsurfers come for exhilarating rides. I had a drink in a clifftop bar overlooking my yacht and finding peace from yet another remote paradise my yacht has brought me to discover.
We anchored in Los Palmas, in Gran Canaria. It is a huge shipping port, the main one for the archipelago, and a fully protected anchorage off a beach inside the harbour breakwalls. It was here Chris introduced the idea of creating future reality, something like 'Law of Attraction'. It begins with a thought, asking for a reality, then writing it down and believing it is going to be created.
Ok, I've been sceptical about such things, thinking it is a random universe, that there is absolutely no connection to anything else via my thoughts. Coming from a Physics background, I did not perceive the energy from thoughts were anything transmittable so could not have power outside my own mind/body. He had a tenuous argument that Quantum Mechanics supports it. I do recall some bizarre ideas from that branch of science, that our own electron fields have finite probabilities of passing through any point in the universe, including every other person's electron fields. Could information flow from thoughts in this way ?
I listened to him patiently, to understand this philosophy he has picked up. We were both single guys, and I thought it might be fun to test the theory by deciding to create a reality, that we meet 2 women with all the desirable attributes we thought important. ie... easy going, healthy, beautiful, attractive, desirable, compassionate and passionate, intelligent, clever, positive, articulate, open minded, adaptable, loving, a sense of humour, sensitive, creative, peaceful ... etc and we wrote down our lists on paper. I thought it was a fun experiment but didn't really expect this idealistic reality to evolve. Chris had strong belief in this philosophy and put thought energy into creating it for us, telling me to picture it coming true.
We enjoyed the town, it was warmer than in peninsula Spain and Morocco, I took a photo of the temperature guage showing 25degrees. Not bad for winter in Europe. No wonder the place is a haven here for Germans and Brits during the season, when it is raining, snowing and cold back in their northern countries.
The Sailors Bar was packed with yachties from the anchorage and staying in the marina, and a good meeting place for similar people doing similar things, ie about to cross the Atlantic. The bar had entertainers juggling and putting on magic shows and the like. We befriended a few Swiss guys from a sailing yacht, and I found a fun Cuban bar where the music and dancing was great. So I put my dancing shoes into action again after a long break, and had a great night dancing salsa.
While sailing to Gran Canaria the genoa got damaged and a tear in this sail needed repairing.
We anchored at Los Cristianos, which is an open anchorage and very rolly with the swell. The port was closed for yachts to anchor, so it was our only choice. While I looked around for a sailmaker, Chris located some timber to cut another windvane blade, which had snapped in the wind.
I took a taxi and bus with my huge sail and waited around all afternoon till the job was finished, just making the bus schedule to go back to Los Cristianos. I dumped my big santa sack containing the sail, inside the luggage compartment and found the bus quite full. I'd forgotten all about our call the universe to meet a desirable woman...
Well, there was a vacant seat next to an attractive Spanish woman and I sat beside her, feeling a nervous excitement from her proximity. Fumbling for something to say, I asked if the bus stopped near the beach where my yacht was anchored. I was impressed when she replied fluently in English (from her Law degree she had to study English and French) and the conversation took off. I found she had a warm, positive energy and was excited that I was from Australia because she'd read a life-changing book for her on Aboriginal culture, 'Voices of the Desert' (Marlo Morgan). She was friendly and interesting and I didn't want the bus ride to finish because we were having a real nice time talking.
When the bus ride ended, I thought that was it, but was overjoyed when she offered me a lift with my sail to the beach. On the dashboard of her car were 2 humorous animals she made from paper machieh and painted herself. I found them so adorable and she offered me to keep one, but thought I shouldn't accept.
Well, Tes (pronounced 'Tez') walked with me down the beach and we talked more about what our situations were. I knew she was special but we both had some obstacles in our paths to begin something together. Anyway, some magic had been cast, and the next day, after sending a text message, we met again and a passionate romance developed.
Another amazing thing is, Chris met a wonderful woman on the same evening, and we calculated it to be within the same hour, but in two separate locations and unknown to each other. Our relationships with the women progressed and we had some interesting discussions about what happened and why, and uncannily, how the personalities fit our 'lists'.
All three of them are spiritual kind of people, seemingly more 'evolved' than I with their ideas, such as souls being connected with the universe, etc. What log had I been hiding under to miss all that stuff? I was wondering why they are all in agreement on these theories and I am so sceptic and outside their belief system, but wanting to understand. To reject it would seem unromantic, so I bit my tongue and just listened to them chattering away about how things were meant to be and how our life's decisions brought us to together at this point 'for a reason', possibly a higher reason for our souls. I wanted to believe that this new relationship would be substantial, that it had been waiting for me all along to happen, that my accumulated past had been preparing me to meet Tes.
Anyway, I fell in love with her and it grows stronger every day. Tes shares the same feelings towards me, and life is wonderful, living in this present!
She took me to a scenic beach, and it felt so natural walking hand in hand, into the water nude, swimming, then lying on a beach towel together... This was bliss, and I indulged in the time we were sharing.
We also visited some national parks, one with a lunar landscape of wind-carved rocky features. Another she calls 'planet of the Apes' due to the strange eroded formations. Tenerife's (and Spain's) highest mountain, Mt Teide was just above us, but the cable car was closed. So we'll just have to return to the Canary Islands another day to have a look up there.
The dinghy ride ashore occasionally became a challenging experience and a surf break sometimes soaked my companions when we beached it. So later we moved onto a marina and it was easier for us to embark and meet, with four people to consider.
Tes took me to a new years eve party. She designed and makes some of her clothes and wore a spacy blue outfit and I was mesmerised as we danced to energetic techno music. I was getting into new areas of experience. I know traditional dances such as Latin and Jive steps and even tried flamenco, but techno is unrestrained and wild. It was such a fun, energetic time with her dancing and we emerged from the nightclub into broad daylight exhausted and happy.
The marina staff saw us walking by, smiling and talking, and generously gave us a bottle of champagne to celebrate. So thats how we saw in the new year, and we woke my crewmate from his bunk to join us for a good luck drink.
Happily, Tes decided to join me on my sailing venture, to continue being together. So she cancelled the vocational course she was studying, got a passport, packed up belongings from her caravan, sold clothes and items she didn't need at a market, then advertised and later sold her car. We stowed her drums and a few things aboard. We envisaged Tes joining Weatherly, starting with a week's sail to Cape Verde islands. But it wasn't quite so straight forward, as I also had my other crewmate to consider. So she adapted her plans, arranging to visit her parents in Gallacia (north-West Spain), while my crew and I sail Weatherly across the Atlantic. We bought a plane ticket for Tes to Barbados, which Cris kindly offered to contribute toward when she arrives.
We spent the last few days in Tererife scurrying around for food at markets and supermarkets, and getting the boat in order for the sail. We found time to visit a dramatic, rocky coast at Gigantes and had a swim at the beach, below towering cliffs. I caught a few waves bodysurfing there.
The three of us sailed from Tenerife to Gomera, a day hop in sunny weather and a good breeze. It was also another chance for Tes to experience sailing on Weatherly, between islands on the Atlantic ocean.
We stayed a few days in the charming port of San Sebastian, where I had more repairs carried out on the sails. Tes rented a car and drove us to Valle Gran Rey, a popular town on the other side of the island. A group of very good drummers were playing on the rocky beach at sunset. She was a street busker in Barcelona at one stage and plays drums very well herself, so was readily accepted when she joined in sync with the drum group, and introduced her own rhythms. When it started raining, the drummers and throng of spectators dispersed, and we played her drum a little more in the car. It was fun and challenging for me to learn a new instrument with her. We found a place to stay the night and enjoyed dinner and wine near the small port at Trigo.
The next day we lay on the black volcanic sands at a romantic beach, looking across at Tenerife with snow capped Mt Teide. It had been a momentous six weeks stay in the Canary islands, far exceeding my expectations - more to do with the experiences with people I met, than the beauty of the islands themselves.
Alas, the time came to start the Atlantic crossing, and after the great times we had together, I felt a loss separating from Tes. She would be joining me in five weeks time, in the Caribbean, and we both looked forward to meeting each other over there.
Atlantic sunset
