La Palma marina, canary Islands

[coldar1]

Hi folks. Thought we'd share a very recent experience - Christmas 2014, in the marina at La Palma in the Canary Islands. We are booked to cross the Atlantic with "Atlantic Odyssey" in the crossing set to depart La Palma 8th Jan 2015. We arrived in our Lagoon 440 Cat 23rd Dec to take advantage of a generous discount ahead of the rally which started 24th Dec and continues until the departure date. Unfortunately, we find that the marina, albeit new and modern, is affected 24/7 by a swell that makes living onboard almost untenable with boats and pontoons moving heavily in the swell with the associated creaking, groaning of ropes, and cracking sound of the finger pier pylon rollers etc as they ride up and down sometime violently, a real pain in the ass! We have two large monos near us who's owners should sue for whip-lash injuries the boat movements are so violent. One family onboard is suffering sea-sickness worse than they have experienced in normal anchorages let along in a marina berth.
Shortly after our arrival, we took a shower and the discharge from our grey water pump was noted and the Harbour master came visiting to make it clear in no uncertain terms that NO water whatsoever could be discharged from the boat so no cleaning teeth, no prepping food in the sink, no rinsing out a hand-towel, NOTHING! Only 2 hours later, we observed the marina staff washing down all the glass and stainless wall panels near the shops and eateries with heaps of soapy water coating the sea surface right behind our boat. When quized as to the double standards, the Harbour Master explained this was special biodegradable soap so we took our special biodegradable soap - approved by a heap of eco sites listed on the label to be told NO meant NO, and our soap was NOT acceptable.
My suggestion is that you give this marina a big miss! The swell is awful, the "free" wi-fi is almost unusable, and the grey water rule application is rediculous with double standards blatantly applied. Happy to discuss further at coldar48@gmail.com or in the forum. PS: I have emailed Atlantic Odyssey about our serious misgivings about them using this marina as a step-off point in future.

[goboatingnow]

Interesting , the no discharge must be fairly new


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