La Gomera

Chris Crocker writes:

The Harbour Master in San Sebastian was indecisive and couldn't make up his mind whether to allow me to crane Spero out onto the quay or not - so I decided to build a cradle and pull her out onto the beach myself. The same beach, incidentally  that Columbus had careened the Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Nina before crossing to the New World.  In front of "the San Sebastian School of Philosophy" a bunch of guys who spent every day on the beach front resolving world issues, I built a cradle of pine logs cut from the woods in the interior. These guys watched me with great interest and had endless advice to offer. At the height of a big spring tide we floated Spero into the cradle and when the tide went out she sat in the cradle beautifully. With a mooring warp borrowed from the ferry we attached the cradle to a big truck and up the beach she was dragged.  She remained upright - indeed looked very secure in her cradle! Over the next weeks we renewed the covering boards and built a sort of windscreen. She was painted and varnished and the rigging was renewed. The lads - the town youngsters - who had been so helpful and supportive were very keen to come on day-sails which were great fun - at one stage we had 13 people on board.....