Ok sorry for the outbreak and double sorry since those aren’t even Canarian dishes. I get a little crazy these days, so much to do!! Apart from editing videos (and organizing all the footage I’m given from all family members and various devices) there’s boat school, boat keeping, boat repairs and of course my job. I’m about to re-design my business to be more location independent right now, so instead of flying back and forth for workshops and trainings (which is also very environmentally unfriendly) I’d prefer to coach and consult from afar.
We are now back in Las Palmas after a fantastic week of sailing, snorkeling and anchoring in El Hierro, the westernmost island of the archipelago. But since we tried – AGAIN – to sail back to Las Palmas through Tenerife and Gran Canaria we encountered – AGAIN – the very strong and annoying acceleration zone with its nasty waves. PONYO did a great job but things inside broke, our main sail ripped and now the other railing broke, daaaaaaahhhhhh! So – AGAIN – instead of taking care of improvements we have to fix old things.
To give you an idea, this is our most recent to do list!
stuff we have to get done before we can go sailing again:
- fix main sail
- fix railing (ripped)
- fix solar panel (cable ripped off)
- fix stove (broke off for the umpteenth time)
- fix table (broke off after Ric fell onto it when a biggy of a wave hit us)
- make something to prevent stuff from falling around every which way and hitting people on the head
- fix the outboard engine (so that we can actually use our dinghy again when anchoring)
- make lee sails to prevent crew from falling out of their berths when heeling to starboard. It’s getting ridiculous.
stuff we have to get done before we ever leave the Canaries
- get a new radar
- install our wind vane that we have been chauffeuring around on our deck for 10 months now
- new plugs and sockets
- get wind generator (for our insatiable appetite for electricity to charge cameras, laptops and phones!!)
- fix stairs (so no one breaks his/her rib again)
- replace all lights with LEDs to save electricity
- get wire baskets for our fridge so we don’t have to dig through a pile of food every time we want to get something out
- …
And so that you have something to look at, here are a couple of photos of our trip to El Hierro! And before I forget: PONYO made up to 13,7 knots on our way from Gran Canaria to El Hierro!!!!! She’s a rocket!!!
El Hierro really looks a bit like one of these new fidget spinner thingies… Here you can see our passage from the South to the North of El Hierro. Bad idea, duly noted. These acceleration zones are no joke, these lame 15nm took us 7 hours!!!!!!!!
It’s a T-Rex! Or a velociraptor? The anchoring spot in the Mar de las Calmas in the South of the island is truly pristine
This is the remaining half of El Hierro’s big crater. The other half broke off thousands of years ago and caused a gigantic tsunami!
Yannick loves to P.O.S.E. This was in the North East of El Hierro, at the beach of Tamaduste, definitely one of our favourite spots!
We finally caught a tuna!! And this is Giorgos in the back, our boat wizard from Thessaloniki who had taken such good care of PONYO. He joined us for sailing to Hierro and lashed her to her new record: 13.7 knots!!!
And that tuna ended up in this delicious Japanese Sashimi salad, yummy!
Oh right, I almost forgot: our latest video about our Mallorca adventure, don’t miss it!