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La Gomera is a beautiful island. According to many, the most beautiful island in the Canary Islands (together with La Palma, where we unfortunately did not visit). It is much greener than Tenerife, less densely populated, and seems to have an even more pleasant climate. It is even claimed that La Gomera has the most pleasant climate in the world! Surrounded by the ocean it never gets cold nor too hot; the temperature does not drop below 20 degrees or higher than 30 degrees all year round.
It doesn't rain often, but when it rains enough falls at once. We happen to witness such a tropical rain shower. You don't see the locals on the street anymore, but we real Dutch don't let ourselves be put off by a tender shower, especially when the hot water is coming down and you were actually ready for a non-salty shower anyway. So we brave the pouring rain and go into town to eat a pizza.
Ilona writes: "Indeed, we are from the Netherlands and are used to some rain and we are very hungry and very much in the mood for pizza. It was hilarious. It was raining so hard that half a meter of high water gushed up from the small holes in the manhole covers. ! The pressure was immense on the sewage system and many manhole covers had already been pushed off by the water pressure. Needless to say we had to wade through deep running water to get to the destination. We had the greatest fun and stamped once more in the water to make each other extra wet, but we were also happy to have arrived at the pizzeria. Nice, a glass of wine and quickly choose a pizza. Frans feels something tickling his sandal-clad foot. Oops, a big cockroach. This triggers a kind of unconscious cockroach sense and we suddenly see cockroaches everywhere. They crawl up the bar wall, run across the floor and we see one crawling into the bag of another visitor who has nothing in has. I am sitting on a carpeted wall bench; very suitable for the cockroaches to run up against. To be on the safe side, I push our table forward just a bit so I can see what is happening below us. I keep my feet, which only have slippers on, off the ground. In the meantime, I often check the wall I'm sitting on to see if there isn't one coming up to run under my skirt. Cockroaches are afraid of light and like to crawl in dark places. Yes! Just as Frans is shaking off another cockroach from his foot, one comes running towards me from the other side of the couch, I can stop him just in front of my skirt. The owner of the business sees it and comes to us. "It's the rain, they are trying to get into safety". Well, that could indeed be because there are normally cockroaches on the street and that would now of course be a cockroach whitewater course. He clearly feels super bullshit that there are so many cockroaches (well, they just kept sitting instead of running back and forth) and asks if we want another table. Well, um, no thanks. That we have already seen that our table is quite strategic and that we have the fewest cockroaches here, I will not mention. The pizzas come. Shit, I ordered the wrong one. It is topped with an extremely thick layer of white cheese, which unfortunately produces an incredibly strong goat cheese smell. I really like goat cheese, as long as it is not too much goat, say ;-) Don't appoint, I say to myself, go, eat it. So I just take a bite, but I think it's REALLY really dirty and I gag. At that moment another cockroach races across the ground, straight up my bench and before I could do anything about it, I hear a scream from the person in whose bag a cockroach saw a good cabin. Hihi that boy has discovered it. The owner sees the whole thing and looks shocked. Frans and I look at each other, now it has been nice and I ask as sweetly as possible if we can take the pizzas with us. We think it's silly for that owner but I can't eat that pizza anyway and we are actually quite fed up with those cockroaches. On the way back home we laugh and wade through the deep water again, the rain still not stopped and the manhole covers still spouting fountains. What do I see lying there, I ask Frans. They are drowned rats, the poor animals have drowned in the flooded sewer .... Before we got into the boat we took a shower at the harbor because it is a bit dirty to walk through sewage water. Then we share Frans's pizza and it turns out to be more than enough. Somehow we are not that hungry anymore. We have sometimes eaten more relaxed and it was sometimes better, but this dinner is nevertheless at the top of our most memorable dinners. "
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After we have explored the island with a rental car, we are a bit ready on La Gomera. Well, actually that's wrong. We could stay here for a very long time and would like to walk everywhere, but we would also like to continue and from the weather information we read that in a few days there will be wind from the south and it will not be easy to get to our next destination El Hierro to sail. So we decide to leave for El Hierro within a few days and wait there for favorable wind before leaving for the Cape Verde. We would like to anchor somewhere on La Gomera so we decide to leave the harbor and look for a nice anchorage a little more to the south, which works out well!
There is a lot of "swell" at the anchorage, so ocean swell, or "waves". When there is no wind, boats tend to end up lying across the waves. There is no wind, so Detour turns slowly across the waves and then a nuisance rolling starts. Since Ilona still wants to finish the fabric on the back of the boat (this will help us stay dry during a crossing in strong winds) and has to use a sewing machine, we can't roll back and forth like that. The sewing machine would not stop and Ilona would turn green (due to the concentrated work). We can solve this by putting out an extra anchor at the back of the ship so that it cannot lie across the waves. Due to our inexperience, the anchor falls overboard. So I also have to go overboard to fish the anchor again. It is night, but the water is still around 26 degrees.
Once in the water, I discover that every movement elicits lightening of the algae in the water. It looks like magic! My hand is a magic wand that leaves stars with every movement. It is a surreal spectacle that remains extremely fascinating. I call Ilona into the water. She doesn't want to at first, because she doesn't want to be in the water at night. But in the end she also goes into the water and also becomes fascinated by all the light phenomena. The anchor is not visible in the dark, partly due to the glowing algae, but the next morning the anchor is quickly above water again.