The first LBS Alumni Sailing Club "Canaries Cruising Weekend" took off from a snowy Gatwick Airport on Wednesday 4th of February. With London cut off from the world on Monday 2nd, it was a miracle we got away at all.
The plan: Charter a 46ft Bavaria in Tenerife, fill it with nine sailors desperate to escape the cold and dark of the British Winter, and to feel a boat under their feet after the long winter break. Arrive Wednesday, Put the boat through it's paces on Thursday, An exhilerating crossing to La Gomera, through the "Wind Acceleration Zone", some gentle cruising and then a return.
The Reality: The weather systems that had dumped inches of snow onto the South of England and made Short's home in Marbella as cold as his his native Britain had also pushed the famous Canaries North- Easterly Trade Winds out of the way and replaced them with a Westerly. A Westerly that was forecast to blow above 50knots - Storm Force 10.
And it blew. And we added lines to the boat to stop it being blown sideways onto the next boat, and backwards onto the dock. And we decided to give it a few hours before we set out. And we welcomed Anna and Cate to the crew at Lunchtime, and we gave it another three hours, and we
recorded the gusts - 56knots - Violent storm force 11, and we hoped our lines, and those of the boats to windward of us would not snap. And we read books, talked, checked emails. And we gave it another three hours. And it got dark, and we we welcomed Shamik in time for dinner - a massive platter of locally caught seafood - having not moved an inch from the dockside!
So Friday dawned, with reasonably calm 20 knot winds; With bright sunshine. And the dilemma was whether to brave the crossing to La Gomera or to stick close to Tenerife. The seas were still big and untidy after Thursday's storms, and seemed just as bad up the coast of tenerife, so drugged up on seasickness patches we set out. It was an incredible crossing: 4 metre waves, needing great concentration from those at the helm to avoid the boat slamming down the far side or dousing the crew in seawater. In the end we had five out of the nine crew get sick, with Shamik's long, sad endurance crouched next to the pushpit, and Guillaume's sudden dive to empty his guts the highlights?!
Once behind the mass of La Gomera, the seas calmed and we began to feel human again, sailing all the way to the West-most end of the Island
and over- nighting at the small resort of Puerto Valle Gran Rey, and braving the dinghy- trips over to the dockside.
Saturday was as advertised in the brochure: getting up late, steady breeze, steady seas, lunch in a secluded bay and staying the night in our own berth in a modern marina in San Sebastian, from where a certain Mr Columbus set out to see if he could find a route to the Indies in 1492...
Sunday: up early for the return crossing to Tenerife: all sorts of wind, from 40- knot gusts to nothing at all. We finally had a visit from the local Dolphins: seems we had the right sort of bow wave to play in. We reached land near the towering cliffs of Los Gigantes, to be confronted by the towering timeshares of Tenerife's South-West coast - each witha view of the Ocean,
meaning that we had to see every one of their painted concrete facades... Lunch in an unsecluded bay, looking at the hoardes of North European bodies sunbathing on the beach, before tieing up on a Fishermen's wharf in Los Christianos to say goodbye to those returning on the Sunday night flight to Gatwick. Those of us who remained continued down the coast to a lovely marina at Las Galletas and celebrated the last night of the trip - probably a bit too hard judging by my head the next morning, as we completed the last couple of miles back to the starting point. Nothing Broken. No water in the diesel.
Wonderful to get back onto the water in warm climes at this time of year. A really lovely crew - see you next year!
The Crew:
Rob Cotterill
Colette Morris
"Short" Allerton
Laura McCracken
Ramsay Frasier
Anna Smee
Cate Arrenberg
Guillaume Gingembre
Shamik Narotam
The plan: Charter a 46ft Bavaria in Tenerife, fill it with nine sailors desperate to escape the cold and dark of the British Winter, and to feel a boat under their feet after the long winter break. Arrive Wednesday, Put the boat through it's paces on Thursday, An exhilerating crossing to La Gomera, through the "Wind Acceleration Zone", some gentle cruising and then a return.
The Reality: The weather systems that had dumped inches of snow onto the South of England and made Short's home in Marbella as cold as his his native Britain had also pushed the famous Canaries North- Easterly Trade Winds out of the way and replaced them with a Westerly. A Westerly that was forecast to blow above 50knots - Storm Force 10.
And it blew. And we added lines to the boat to stop it being blown sideways onto the next boat, and backwards onto the dock. And we decided to give it a few hours before we set out. And we welcomed Anna and Cate to the crew at Lunchtime, and we gave it another three hours, and we
recorded the gusts - 56knots - Violent storm force 11, and we hoped our lines, and those of the boats to windward of us would not snap. And we read books, talked, checked emails. And we gave it another three hours. And it got dark, and we we welcomed Shamik in time for dinner - a massive platter of locally caught seafood - having not moved an inch from the dockside!So Friday dawned, with reasonably calm 20 knot winds; With bright sunshine. And the dilemma was whether to brave the crossing to La Gomera or to stick close to Tenerife. The seas were still big and untidy after Thursday's storms, and seemed just as bad up the coast of tenerife, so drugged up on seasickness patches we set out. It was an incredible crossing: 4 metre waves, needing great concentration from those at the helm to avoid the boat slamming down the far side or dousing the crew in seawater. In the end we had five out of the nine crew get sick, with Shamik's long, sad endurance crouched next to the pushpit, and Guillaume's sudden dive to empty his guts the highlights?!
Once behind the mass of La Gomera, the seas calmed and we began to feel human again, sailing all the way to the West-most end of the Island
and over- nighting at the small resort of Puerto Valle Gran Rey, and braving the dinghy- trips over to the dockside.Saturday was as advertised in the brochure: getting up late, steady breeze, steady seas, lunch in a secluded bay and staying the night in our own berth in a modern marina in San Sebastian, from where a certain Mr Columbus set out to see if he could find a route to the Indies in 1492...
Sunday: up early for the return crossing to Tenerife: all sorts of wind, from 40- knot gusts to nothing at all. We finally had a visit from the local Dolphins: seems we had the right sort of bow wave to play in. We reached land near the towering cliffs of Los Gigantes, to be confronted by the towering timeshares of Tenerife's South-West coast - each witha view of the Ocean,
meaning that we had to see every one of their painted concrete facades... Lunch in an unsecluded bay, looking at the hoardes of North European bodies sunbathing on the beach, before tieing up on a Fishermen's wharf in Los Christianos to say goodbye to those returning on the Sunday night flight to Gatwick. Those of us who remained continued down the coast to a lovely marina at Las Galletas and celebrated the last night of the trip - probably a bit too hard judging by my head the next morning, as we completed the last couple of miles back to the starting point. Nothing Broken. No water in the diesel.Wonderful to get back onto the water in warm climes at this time of year. A really lovely crew - see you next year!
The Crew:
Rob Cotterill
Colette Morris
"Short" Allerton
Laura McCracken
Ramsay Frasier
Anna Smee
Cate Arrenberg
Guillaume Gingembre
Shamik Narotam
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