During the previous 2 days, we have watched whales on several occasions.  These are not the grey whales of the Canadian Pacific coast, or the small sleepy whales which we saw sunning themselves around the Straits of Gibralter.  These are half as long again as Harmonica, have square, bottle noses, and move fast and purposefully presumably while feeding.  We have watched the great puddles and swirls of water which they make as they swim underwater; 30 metres between each one.  We assume that these are sperm whales.  During her watch Jan saw 2 lit up as phosphorescent sausages.

We have hardly used the engine, the batteries are low, and today was a bad day for our solar panels.  The sun never broke through clearly and there was a thin mist limiting visibility to about 5 miles.  However there was no damp in the air this time.  This was a light Harmattan: dust from the Sahara  desert drifting off the coast during the dry season of the northern winter when the winds are offshore.

The swallows invaded one day.  3 in all but one took a very strong liking to our cabin.  4 times we caught it and carried it out to the cockpit.  Then we had to seal up the boat.  Jan practiced her nursing skills on the swallow while Dave was busy below, but we could not get together since the swallow would dart in as soon as the companionway opened.  Passing supper up got quite complicated.  Poor Fred lay exhausted in a bower of towels in the cockpit after a frustrating days un-nest-building.  He died there before midnight.

By Monday evening it was clear that we could reach the Gambia entrance on Tuesday night's rising tide. On the Monday radio net we called for information from people who had entered the Gambia and Linda on Maverick called from 1,000 miles south to say that the entrance is straight forward and that a night entry should be alright.  The weather from Trudy's "Trans-Atalntic" net indicated favourable winds, but a major ocean swell from a storm somewhere way up north.  All information proved correct.

We reduced sail at dusk to prevent any surfing.  It still makes for an exciting entry at midnight crossing 8 metre banks with a big Atlantic swell behind us.  We found the narrow channel in.  We only found 1 of the 5 buoys charted and that one was not lit.  What would we do without GPS & radar.  On the way in, we encountered a big fishing trawler coming in close to us without lights.  He must have been wooden as he did not show up on the radar and he did not answer our conventional VHF call.  We shone spot lights at each other.  We eventually called on the radio...."Big boat going into Banjul with no lights on" (not the usual way to call a boat!).  A minute later he turned round and headed out to sea again.  Maybe we alerted the local authorities to his presence.  We had read that Korean fishing boats come in illegally, and they do not follow any of the normal shipping rules.

128 miles per day for a week.  We dropped anchor off the dilapidated port of Banjul at 1.30 am and remembered nothing until woken by children's calls of good morning from a dinghy alongside.  Our new neighbours on the boat Jorja were heading into Banjul to check into the country and had arrived to offer us a ride in their dinghy.

At Port's authority the man we needed to see was out so I went to immigration inside a security gate and got 28 day visas.  Back in the Port's Authority, the man had been back but was out again, had I seen customs?  So I headed back to the security gate where a new shift had taken over and the guard said I could only enter by car!  After a minute's polite explanation, I was shown to customs where the entire office was completing goat or chicken breakfast.  The only cash machine in Banjul was not working, so it was another hour in line to get some money, then back to the Port's Authority.  This time, I waited for the man, and he could not have been more pleasant when he arrived.

So now we are checked into Gambia.  We have a comfortable feeling of a poor, over-administered, but friendly place.  The people in the streets smile easily and will talk, but do not push themselves onto you as in some places.  We shall sleep off the passage for 1 or 2 days at anchor, then start up the River Gambia.
 

Our previous 3 weeks in the south of Tenerife were also useful and fun, but very different.  Tenerife is European, and full of holiday makers on the south (sunny) coast.

We spent a week out of the water in the boatyard run by the Cofradia (fisherman's cooperative).  We replaced our propeller with a feathering propeller, which was super on last week's passage.  It gives us more speed both motoring & sailing.  We also repainted the bottom, oiled the wood, bought another anchor, replaced the life lines, fixed the outboard engine again, attached a track on the mast for our new orange trisail........

On one excursion, we took a public bus through small villages and banana plantations up to the national park in the middle of Tenerife.  The main volcano has a crater 15km across and the 3718m cone of Tiede towers at one side.  It is the highest mountain in Spain.  We hiked up the steep side as far as one is allowed which is just short of the top.  At that height we were climbing on icy snow.  It was a windy day and the cable car was not running.  Janet's plan had been to come down on the cable car to catch the last bus back at 3:30 but did not realise until arriving at the top that she would have to walk down.  We both missed the last bus, but hitched rides back.

Janet's sister Ann and husband Dave visited for a week staying in a friends apartment by the harbour.  We sailed with them to La Gomera, a small island close to Tenerife, where we stayed 2 nights.  A brisk 5 hour sail across the channel was enough to cause Ann, with a few bruises to show for it, to return by ferry!  (Ann, we shall make a sailor of you yet).  We rented a car and drove through mountainous countryside through an ancient laurel and pine forest designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1981.  The windy road went high along narrow ridges with spectacular views all around finally dropping into a steep valley with terraces perched along the sides growing bananas and palm trees.  Many banana plantations are now under plastic covers and look quite ugly but this island still does it the old way.  La Gomera was less touristy than Tenerife and looked to have some fine walking country.
 

Dave & Jan

Web page:         www.techco.ab.ca/harmonica
position reports: www.winlink.org => position reports => ve0dh