sailing - Isla Grasiosa, Canary Islands

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Sailing to Canary Islands

We left Rabat on Oct 14, 2011 and sailed south-southwest to Canary Islands. It took 4 days. The moon was bright every night so I quite enjoyed night sailing. We saw smaller, dark grey dolphins. We anchored at Grasiosa island on Oct 18. The area where boats anchor is just off a beach about 2.5 to 3 km south of the main village. It is also where good surfing is found when conditions are right. At the south end of the village is a building with public toilets and outdoor showers, and just outside of this is a campground as we saw many tents. Public shower and toilet facilities can also be found on the right side of the port in the village. Neither shower has hot water. In the same building a few doors down from the toilets is the port office. When it’s open, ask for Elena if you need laundry done and she will take you to her house as she has a washer. She will hang your clothes up to dry at her house as well (so do this only when the weather is nice). Her machine is a 10-kilo load and she charged us €6 per load.

We snorkeled around the boat and saw barracudas and beautiful fish. We also saw sand bubbling up on the bottom of the ocean floor. I guess the volcanoes that make up Canary Islands are still active and the vents are everywhere. Just beside the anchorage is a small hill which is the remnant of an old volcano. We hiked up that hill many times just for exercise. I jogged around the island as there were many paths. We also rented bikes (€8 per bike for the whole day + €20 deposit) and biked to the very northwest of the island. From the bike path, walk 5 minutes west and you’ll see Los Arcos, spectacular rock formations created by crashing waves. Then we biked to Pedro Barba village where there were only residential dwellings but well maintained and quite beautiful.

Rosie’s in the village had great hamburgers for €3 and wifi as well as computers with internet access. There is an ATM at the bank in the centre of the village. I learned eventually that in all of the Canaries, I could only withdraw money from my VISA and not my regular bank account (debit). When we asked about the water, people advised us not to drink the tap water and everyone buys bottled water. I found out later in Lanzarote that tap water will not make you sick but because it’s too processed, there is nothing in the water and long term usage is not advised. People drink bottled water because it has minerals in it.

<strong id="docs-internal-guid-7116748f-f17f-4618-4d0d-9a951ea4cf7e" style="font-weight: normal;">With Tim, one of the sailors we hung out with, we talked about Canarian origins. He said that the Phoenicians were in North Africa some years BC, and when the Romans came, a number of them must have fled to the Canaries (as they were seafaring) and brought their Berber slaves with them which explains why the original Canarian language is related to Berber and why Canarians practiced mummification like the Phoenicians. I think they were probably already in the Canaries before the Romans. He went on to say that it was very likely then that they continued on to the Americas since it only takes 3 weeks to cross the Atlantic with the trade winds which would also explain why the Mayans and Aztecs built pyramids. Again, I think they were there well before the Roman era as there is evidence that plants native to the Americas were used on this side of the Atlantic as far back as 1000 BC, but I’m digressing. Tim is also a paragliding and parasailing instructor. He has parasailed down the volcano on Tenerife from 3500 m high. He said it takes about an hour to glide down. Apparently, Tenerife has the largest volcanic crater in the world.

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