Sailing to El Hierro island (18 October)

We started sailing towards El Hierro island on early morning of 18th of October. The day started magnificently. We woke up when Margus shouted that there are whales and if we want to see those we should come up quickly. This was the fastest we have ever gotten out of the bed.

Exactly on the background of Los Chistianos we spotted many pilot whales and we though we even spotted an orca. Pilot whales look bit like dolphins but you can tell difference because they move differently. They are slower and if they breath through the hole on their back the noise is much louder. The reason we thought we also saw orcas is that we saw on the distance the big sagged fin like we saw on the orcas in Loro park. Since those whales did not come as close as the pilot whales then we cannot be 100% sure.

After a while we discovered ourselves in the middle of dolphin pod. Dolphins had lot of fun swimming around our boat from one side to the other, trying to keep up with us. It was the first time we also saw wild dolphins jumping high out from the water on the open sea. There was very little wind and we moved with an engine. So we stopped the engine to observe the dolphins longer, but barely moving boat was not an interest of theirs. Seems that they enjoy racing.

Therefore, the morning was fun, but we cannot say the same for the rest of the day. As soon as we got from the shelter of the Tenerife island, we were exposed to the heavy winds with blasts of more than 40 knots. It felt like the waves are coming from every direction because our boat was moving like being in the washing machine. It made us all feel sick. We tried to sleep but this did not last long because we had forgotten our cabin window open and at some point the waves were so high that we got a splash of it right into our bed.

So we woke up late afternoon trying and tried to eat something. With waves like this cooking requires some skills. First of all, you tend to get sick when trying to do something indoors. Secondly trying to hold everything on place and not to spill anything is a challenge. Kaija decided to do buckwheat which we just got from the package sent by Kaija’s parents. Jaanus tried to cut some ham and onion to mix it with the buckwheat. Due to big waves, accidently, whole pack of buckwheat was emptied into the pot. There was enough for next couple of days. Jaanus finished with ham and onion, but when Kaija was about to put this on the pan she had to run out to empty the stomach – s wasted apple and granola bar. Jaanus finished the cooking successfully but Margus was the only one who still had an appetite.

We tried to sleep because as soon we stood up or moved we felt sick. Although the views from th stormy sea were amazing. 35 miles away and we could still see Teide and on the other side we also could already see El Hierro island. Since wind was heavy we also moved faster and thus there was a hope that we will reach the port the same evening. This however did not made us feel any better.

Some time later Jaanus also felt particularly bad at some point and also had a bad headache – probably due to dehydration and the cold he caught. He took one paracetamol but this ended with that everything which Jaanus had tried to eat that day came straight out. So we were like vegetables until the rest of the day. Margus had to sail alone which he managed very well. Sails were set to very small due to high winds to avoid any danger of capsizing.

Finally, we made it to the El Hierro island, just before the midnight. Jaanus still couldn’t move because he was fighting with a headache, seasickness and cold.