I took my boots intending to explore the western coast north of the harbour and hopefully find some to have a swim. I took the dinghy anchor, intending to anchor it in the shallows off the beach assuming that with the low tidal range I shouldn’t have much trouble retrieving it. The trouble was that no sooner had I hit the shore than two boys arrived and enthusiastically ‘helped’ me carry it up the beach. My attempts to explain I didn’t want to do that were to no avail. Oh well I thought, never mind.
The expected bartering began immediately. Given they were perhaps half the age of the guy who only asked for 1€ the other day, I turned down their suggestion of 5€ and we agreed on 1€ each. I indicated that I had to go and get change first and would pay them later. They went off in the direction of the quay and I followed after putting my boots on. Then I thought I might as well get them to show me the best place to get some change. Big mistake. The youngster I asked at the quay turned out to be a different boy altogether, because shortly after we started walking the original two turned up and were clearly a little put out. OK I said don’t worry you’ll all get your €. By the time we got to the shop, the little gang had grown to five! Oh bugger! Still they were pleasant friendly kids and so eventually I parted with 5€ for having my dinghy minded!
I then set off and skirted round the fenced off and port area surrounded by the slowly rotting hulls of abandoned yachts and fishing boats, passed run down factories churning out I’m not sure what and got down on the lava flow comprising the coast around these parts.
As I walked along it I ventured to the edge every now and then and peered over to judge whether I dared enter the surging water but on every occasion decided against it. Professional free diver Alexi, in his (I think) 30s, got in and out round here and survived but I doubted that I would.
Apart from the surging coastline the most interesting part of my track was stopping off every now and then to admire the rock pools with their captive communities of small fish and in many, but not all - sea anenomes.
You can view some short videos of the rick pool life here:
https://youtube.com/@tomfisher7900?si=cMYuzCdlFDuwBLAO
Occasionally I would find one big enough to swim in....
...but I had my eyes on a cove further up the coast which I thought might be sheltered enough from the surging swell for me to venture in.
I passed this area of the shoreline that was covered in thousand upon thousand of broken Conch shells
and found one that was almost intact.
It was a puzzle as to how they got there but later in the day on board Feral, Charlie was of the view that they must have been dumped. Quite why and how they met their fate, remains a complete mystery.
I continued my slow trek along the lava flow and passed the most promising rock pool for a swim thus far. The cove however was just round the corner so after stopping for a quick lunch of apple and orange I continued on. Half an hour later I was there. However, this cove like everywhere else was a seething cauldron of sea surging up and down the jagged lava flow so after admiring the scene I returned to the rock pool stripped off but donned trunks for reasons of safety rather than modesty. There was no one around and some of the lava was quite jagged! I then spent half an hour in completely still water in my own private aquarium admiring a variety of small fish. It was delightful, but unfortunately I had forgotten to bring my GoPro and therefore had no means of recording the sights.
Afterwards I sunbathed on a small area of relatively flat lava to dry off. The lava was warm too and so it was a very pleasant experience.
I then walked back along the dirt track and covered the ground back to the port in less than 30 minutes compared with the 3 hours it had taken to clamber across the lava.
Back at the port area I came across Alexi and Charlie who were out for a late afternoon walk and they invited us on board for drinks later that evening. Of course I accepted - I was very interested in seeing Feral close up.
On board Bonny I prepared dinner - beef curry and then we headed over to Feral.
I loved her. She felt like she had just arrived from a distant and exotic Pacific island.
As mentioned in a previous post, she was a wreck when they acquired her in 2021 in Calatra, Faro on the Algarve, just down the coast from Albufiera where I bought Bonny and indeed I had sailed there in 2020. So they were there restoring Feral in 2021 whilst Mick and I were preparing Bonny in Albufeira just down the coast for her voyage back to the UK!
We heard more about their lives and adventures both before and after they met on a Free Diving course that Alexi was running in Tenerife in 2021 and of their plans to build a new Cateremaran from scratch in the UK at some point in the future. Charlie is British but grew up with her family in Tenerife. She then returned to the UK to study before returning to Tenerife to undertake the Free Diving course. Shortly after that they embarked on the project to rescue Feral from the beach at Calatra. Alexi seems far too young to have crammed in his numerous adventures, including hiking around Europe for 10 years, exploring the Amazon and Patagonia! They are a remarkable couple deeply in tune with the day to day rhythms of their life afloat and the ecology of the ocean.
If you ever come across a boat named Feral, odds are you will have stumbled across Alexi and Charlie embarking on another episode of their extra ordinary life.
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