Sailing and Birding

For more photos of us sailing - click on the yacht
To see the bird photos - click on the Fuerteventuran Chat

Sailing South and The Birds of Fuertevetura

I've done some sailing over the years but I wouldn't say that I have any great experience, but I am interested enough to find out first-hand what a long sea-voyage on a yacht would really be like!

I attended an outward bound course at Applecross on the mainland of NW Scotland when I was seventeen, literally learning the ropes on twin masted open cutters. These clinker-built, sail boats were remarkable easy to handle and great fun as well. We sailed all round the Inner Sound to Scalpay, Skye, Raasay and Rona, camping, fishing and having great adventures learning how to handle this very forgiving of yachts.
We could anchor in any of the small bays and use the dingy to go ashore to pitch our tent. We were told that it was an initiative course on survival out in the elements. I was appointed team leader and had nine other lads with me, also eager to survive. We had to punch cards on various islands and get back after a minimum of five nights out with snares to catch rabbits, tea bags, waterproof matches and the like. Using my own initiative I set sail duly for all the rendezvous points and duly marked my sheet on the first day. We then set sail for the island of Rona where the Royal Navy had a torpedo testing range and there was also a lighthouse which was manned in those days. Well, we hit the jackpot and of course survived eating and drinking courtesy of the Navy and Northern Lighthouse Commission!

Years past and it wasn’t until I was living in Germany that I took up sailing once more. This time crewing a small “Bavaria” yacht with three German Police officers, around the Mediterranean coast from Port Grimaud and other posh places like St Tropez. This particular adventure was really a bit of a laugh and, well, there wasn’t much wind to speak of and half of the time we were forced to use the motor. Then again everyone else in the race was in the same (boat ...oops!)of near breathless conditions and we all had to make our way to a different port each nightfall. Needless to say there was a fair bit of boy’s nonsense including gastronomic food, good wines and lots of incidental drinking to be done in order to qualify for the regatta in the first place! We were never going to win this but then again we all knew this well in advance.


Ten years later and my good friend Roger who is the proud owner of a 72’ twin masted yacht called the ‘Gloria of Greneda’ asked if I’d like to join him to sail from Spain to Madera and then on to the Canaries. This was back in November last year and my mate Mick from Devon, a sailor and yacht owner was also to be included in the crew. Sadly the date had to be postponed due to repairs to the main mast that required a long wait for parts and specialist welding bits for thicker aluminum. (Mick went back home and is now taking a break on Trinidad and Tobago birding and relaxing in the sun with Amanda his lovely wife.)

With repairs completed in Portimao, Portugal, Roger and George his crew mate set sail to Gibraltar. John, another friend who lives and works on boats in the Algarve came by car. The plan was that Roger, John and George would organise that George’s VW camper van would be put on the car ferry in Cadiz (for an extortionate sum of money) and they would then collect it when they arrived in Lanzarotte. All of this was arranged and after getting supplies on board at Gib on the Friday the 29th we were ready for our journey south.

Our immediate neighbours at the marina were a family sailing around the world on their large catamaran. We were invited aboard for drinks in the evening once their two small children went to bed. It was a great evening and we certainly had a lot to talk about. They had had some hairy experiences with their yacht in the Mediterranean and they were forced to make some emergency repairs in Algeria. Here they met great workmen involved in another project who gladly helped with repairs and made their yacht sea-worthy again in order for them to continue their journey.
Lee, had been an admiral in the US Navy and had at one stage in his long service commanded the aircraft carrier the USS Kittyhawk for two years. He was a flier himself and had started on carrier based F4 Phantoms and later the F14 Tomcat. We had lots to talk about as my interest extends to everything that can fly!
We got to our bunks not too late and heard on the weather forecast that there was going to be a lull in the string winds that had beaten the south-west for days and we could make a start around mid-day.

Just before it got dark I saw a Short-toed Eagle and a young Marsh Harrier heading south in The Strait! We left the marina at Gibraltar on Saturday the 30th of January and the wind was coming straight in our face as we headed across the Bay of Algeciras and out into The Strait of Gibraltar. We tacked back and forth making slow progress and it was getting dark with a heavy swell when we passed Punta Paloma beyond Tarifa. We shared night watches into three hours each and turned south as we came passed Cape Espartel on the Moroccan coast.

The Strait of Gibraltar is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world and constant vigilance is needed at night with so much heavier traffic about. Once clear of the cape, we tacked once again almost due west as the wind changed in direction and strength. We left sight of Morocco and the lights twinkling from the shote towns and villages and sailed further west into the blackness of the Atlantic Ocean. The swell continued and on each watch we checked the radar and constantly adjusted the heading on the autopilot according the the wind direction. Sleeping isn’t all that comfortable on a boat in a rolling sea and when it came my turn to bed down for a few hours I found it even difficult to lower myself into the lower bun in my cabin without crashing against the wall, door or sink! Eventually I managed to strap my canvas sheet tight across the front of the bunk and wedge myself in. This was to be repeated on every night but one during our journey south. As dawn broke and the rest of the crew were in equally silent mode, we turned and tacked almost in a straight line for the Canaries. The distance is roughly eleven hundred kilometers from Gib to Lanzarotte and I could already see that it may take longer in this latest bout of rough weather.
With appetites at a low and all eyes focusing on the horizon, we sailed south for the next two days. I wanted to look for as many sea-birds as possible on this Pelagic trip but I had virtually no chance to get any photos of really good sightings of rarer birds like Storm Petrels or the one Black Browed Albatross we saw on day three. Northern Gannets were plentiful and we always seemed to have a Black-legged Kittiwake to our stern and we did end up feeding one with a trailing leg that was damaged in some way. Northern Fulmars and some Cory’s Shearwaters and two different species of Skuas were also seen and a migrating Osprey heading north high in the sky about 50 NM west of Agadir!

Dolphins at night were absolutely spectacular. We had these lovely creatures for company on brief periods every night alongside the boat. The minute luminescent sea plankton was always visible at night and looked like a thousand stars twinkling as the boat passed by and they lit up. When a Common Dolphin swam through them they lit up the dolphin and the surrounding sea that made the animal seem to have mobile underwater searchlight pointed at them. As they accelerated to get to the bow of the yacht they shone even brighter. This was something I think that will stay with me forever and is really one of those sights that make your heart sing. A Hawksbill Turtle was another lovely sight, paddling past our stern.

Our appetites did return and only one of us was physically sick overboard. It wasn’t me, thank goodness but the curries I made seemed to heal us all rather than hinder our growing of ‘sea-legs’! The weather changed and we were almost becalmed with eighty NM to run to Lanzarotte, so we motored the Gloria at 10 knots on a calm but still rolling sea. This must be why the others wanted to surf on the islands many surfing beaches. The waves just kept on rolling in from the west. Once we berthed at El Barquito Marina, south of the island’s capital Arrecife we had our first good nights rest.

When dawn came the first thing I wanted to do was to have a good shower. Although there were showers on board the gloria, standing up was our biggest problem never mind holding a bar of soap soap. Now that’s just asking for an accident to happen! I said my farewells to Roger, John and George who I had found excellent travelling companions and we all had some great laughs.

Now For Some Birding...
I then took a taxi to the port of Playa Blanca and caught the morning fast cat ferry to Fuerteventura. Once on the island I took another taxi to the airport, which was going to be the place of departure back to Andaluca, and hired a car for three days. The two taxis and ferry across the small strip of water cost as much as my internal flight to Gran Canaria and the onward leg to Seville! Come to think of it, the car hire was cheap too at only 57 Euros. Ah well, I wanted to go birding but why did I keep on rolling about on dry land and everytime I lifted my bins to look at a bird I felt all queasy... I had one day of clouds and sun on Fueteventura, one day of torrential rain and one day of sun and clouds.

I wanted to get close to photograph some of the exciting species like the Houbara Bustards, Black-bellied Sandgrouse and Cream Coloured Coursers on the island but had only distant views of both on my day of rain. The other photos, like the Fuerteventuran Chat, Barbary Partridge, Berthelot’s Pipit Trumpeter Finch were all quite pleasing and I was satisfied that they were all fine to look at and study properly.
I did have quite a few Fuerteventuran Egyptian Vultures and several Booted Eagles which are always lovely to watch. The Common Kestrels there and the Common Ravens are great as well and I did have a surprise young Lanner Falcon that completely took me by surprise. There were a pair of mating Laughing Doves too that seemed to be quite happy and I’m still not too sure of their status.

All in all I was happy to have had the wonderful sailing experience and to have had such good company with the lads and the birds on Fuerteventura. I will be going back some time and perhaps it may be possible to combine a family holiday. I don’t think sailing there with my girls would be a good idea!

SYSTEMATIC LIST OF OBSERVED SPECIES

Black Browed Albatross (Thalassarche melanophrys)
Northern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis)
Cory’s Shearwater (Calonectris borealis)
Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea)
Litte Egret (Egretta garzetta)
Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis)
Ruddy Shellduck (Tadorna ferruginea)
Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus)
Booted Eagle (Hieraaetus pennatus)
Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo insularum)
Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus dacotiae)
Lanner Falcon (Falco biamircus erlangeri)
Eurasian Coot (Fulica atra)
Barbary Partridge (Alectoris Barbara)
Houbara Bustard (Chlamydotis undulate fuertaventurae)
Cream-coloured Courser (Cursorius cursor bannermani)
Stone Curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus insularum)
Little Ringed Plover (Charadrius dubius)
Ringed Plover (Charadrius hiaticula)
Dunlin (Calidris alpine)
Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus)
Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago)
Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus)
Common Redshank (Tringa tetanus)
Greenshank (Tringa nebularia)
Common Sandpiper (Actites hypoleucos)
Wood Sandpiper (Tringa glareola)
Turnstone (Arenaria interpres)
Parasitic Skua (Stercorarius parasiticus)
Pomarine Skua (Stercorarius pomearinus)
Black-legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla)
Yellow-legged Gull (Larus cachinnans atlanticus)
Audouin’s Gull ( Larus audouinii)
Sandwich Tern (Sterna sandvicensis)
Black-bellied Sandgrouse (Pterocles orientalis)
Rock Dove (Columba livia)
Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocta)
Laughing Dove (Streptopelia senegalensis)
Hoopoe (Upupa epops)
Lesser Short-toed Lark (Calandrella rufescens polatzeki)
House Martin (Delichon urbica)
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
Berthelot’s Pipit (Anthus berthelotti)
Fuerteventura Chat (Saxicola dacotiae)
Spectacled Warbler (Sylvia conspicillata orbitalis)
Sardinian Warbler (Sylvia melanocephala)
Fuerteventura Blue Tit (Parus caeruleus degener)
Southern Grey Shrike (Lanius meriodonalis koenigi)
Common Raven (Corvus corax tingitanus)
Spanish Sparrow (Passer hispaniolensis)
Greenfinch (Carduelis chloris)
Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)
Linnet (Acanthis canabina harterti)
Trumpeter Finch (Budanetes githagineus amantum)
Corn Bunting ((Emberiza calandra)