Keep the fingers crossed !

Lower Valle Gran Rey with the port of Vueltas (top)

Yesterday the parliament of La Gomera approved a government motion calling for the reopening of the ferry service between Los Cristianos in Tenerife and Valle Gran Rey in La Gomera which had recently been suspended indefinitely by shipping company Naviera Armas (see previous post). The motion also calls for the port of Vueltas in Valle Gran Rey to be included in the list of Canary Islands ports with an 'obligatory public service' (Obligación de Servicio Público, OSP) by the Canarian ministry for transport, which would mean that a ferry connection will have to be provided.

Further, the approved motion also calls on the port authority to further improve the harbour of Vueltas and integrating it better into the town.

In an interview La Gomera's president Casimiro Curbelo also said that ferry company Armas was already actively looking 'in all of Europe' for a suitable ship to charter with which the ferry connection can be reopened viably.
In 2018 the service transported more than 170.000 passengers and 30.000 vehicles, most of which would have passed through the national park in the mountains had the ferry not been there.

Just after the announcement of the suspension of the service about 1.200 signatures for a petition in support of the ferry line were collected in Valle Gran Rey in a very short time and presented to the local mayor.

Keep the fingers crossed...

Bad News

It has recently been announced by the ferry company Naviera Armas that the ferry service between Los Cristianos in Tenerife and Valle Gran Rey in La Gomera has now been suspended indefinitely. The direct service between the two ports by high speed catamaran was introduced two years ago, but since this summer only sailed at weekends. The company has also stated that it will study the viability of a similar ferry service to be reinstated in the future, possibly with a smaller vessel. 

This is sad news for Valle Gran Rey and bad news for the forest in the national park which is experiencing higher volumes of traffic since the ferry stopped operating as all goods and traffic have to go across the mountain through the park on that road now.
Read more with an update ...

Ferry to VGR back in service

The direct ferry between Los Cristianos and Valle Gran Rey which had been out of service for some time due to the annual testing and inspection of the vessel in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, arrived back in the port of Vueltas late last night and is operating scheduled sailings from today and bookings can be made through the Armas website once again.

New vessel to connect Valle Gran Rey with Tenerife

HSC Champion Jet 1 arriving in La Gomera yesterday. (Images: puentedemando.com)

The rapidly expanding ferry company Naviera Armas will be introducing yet another vessel on the route between Los Cristianos on Tenerife and Valle Gran Rey on La Gomera island from today. The high speed catamaran (HSC) Champion Jet 1 has been chartered by the Canarian ferry company Armas from the Greek/Cypriot shipping company Seajets to replace the Trasmediteranea Alcantara 2 which sailed on this route up to last night (see my recent post).
Champion Jet 1 was built in Tasmania by Incat as hull number 044 in 1997 and has just  undergone a complete refurbishment (see image below). This latest vessel on the LC-VGR route can accommodate about 750 passengers and 200 cars and offers all the usual facilities such a bar cafeteria, shop, etc. while achieving a top speed of 36 knots, which makes her faster than the previous vessel on this route and should ensure more realistic arrival times (ETAs). The 285ft long vessel with a beam of 85ft once operated in the Channel islands and later connected Poole with Cherbourg for Brittany Ferries as 'Condor Vitesse' before being sold to Seajets in Greece in 2015, where she was renamed Champion Jet 1 and operated from Piraeus and Heraklion.

Now the chartered HSC is expected to also connect Los Cristianos with Santa Cruz de La Palma once trials there have been completed and hopefully the fast ferry will connect La Palma with La Gomera as well.

Tickets for sailings between Los Cristianos and Valle Gran Rey can now be booked well in advance on the Naviera Armas website. Presently two return trips are offered on most days until the 10th of February 2019 and further schedules are expected to be published soon.
Update: This morning's first Champion Jet 1 scheduled sailing from Valle Gran Rey arrived in Los Cristianos on time, covering the distance in just 90 minutes. The previous ferry was always very late arriving at its destination. The new vessel seems to achieve the ETAs, making the service more reliable which is crucial when you have to catch a flight from Tenerife.

Latest (summer 2019): This service temporarily only operates Saturday/Sunday due to fleet restructuring. A new service is likely to begin at the end of summer and is expected to connect Los Cristianos with Valle Gran Rey and  the island of El Hierro. Update to follow...
UPDATE OCT. 2019: 
This service has now been suspended indefinitely. Read more...

Direct ferry between Tenerife and Valle Gran Rey

The Alcantara 2 in the port of Valle Gran Rey 

For some time now the ferry company Naviera Armas has covered the route between Los Cristianos on Tenerife and Valle Gran Rey on La Gomera. Different vessels were used and some days stopovers and even a change to another of their ferries in San Sebastian de La Gomera were involved making the the whole journey a bit cumbersome at times.

Presently the company offers a twice daily direct connection between the two ports in both directions with the fast catamaran ferry 'Alcantara 2'. The service is bookable with Canarian ferry operator Naviera Armas (see the Travel, etc., page of this blog), even though this ferry still sails in the colours of the ferry company Trasmediterranea. The explanation for this is that Naviera Armas bought 92,71% of Trasmediterranea which was owned by yet another company, Acciona. This € 260 million deal, which had to pass Spanish and European competition legislation, makes Armas now the largest passenger and freight ferry operator in Spain.

The Alcantara 2 previously served the connection to El Hierro island in 2013, that time chartered by Armas. The 240 ft vessel was built in Freemantle, Australia in 1995 with a top speed of 32 knots. It can accommodate over 500 passengers and 120 vehicles while offering the usual services such as a bar/cafeteria, a shop and a children's play area.

The journey between Los Cristianos and Valle Gran Rey according to the ferry schedule should only take an hour and a half, but that seems a bit over-optimistic as most of the sailings have taken about two hours. Please note that ALL ferry companies seem unable to achieve their ETA (estimated time of arrival) - the sailings usually take a fair bit longer.

Anyway, the service is most welcome and avoids the long haul by bus or car across the mountains and the whole island of La Gomera. The hope is that more delivery trucks will use this service instead of driving through the national park.

When you're planning your trip to the south-west of La Gomera, please note that the Naviera Armas schedule is only available 1-2 weeks ahead of the sailing and even if it hasn't changed much in recent weeks, this makes it difficult to plan ahead. However, there's no shortage of places on this service and it can be booked prior to sailing in Armas' port terminal offices where English is spoken.
UPDATE 23-11-18:
The above ferry service is now bookable well in advance, presently until the 10th of February 2019. As it is 'Black Friday' today, there's a 50% discount available on all bookings with Naviera Armas until a minute before midnight Sunday 25th of Nov. 2018. To avail of this discount you must tick-click the second box under the acceptance of their terms and conditions, which states in Spanish only that you wish to avail of their 'promocion Black Friday'. It is easily overlooked and the booking will proceed at the regular price if you don't tick the second box, but that extra click just gave me 50% off the fare for two.
+UPDATE Dec. 15th 2018: A faster vessel will operate this ferry route from today. Read more...

Ferry schedules for holiday season

There will be a revised ferry schedule operating over the Christmas and New Year holiday period. The most important changes are on Christmas Day and on New Year's Day when both ferry companies Fred. Olsen and Naviera Armas will operate only one crossing between Los Cristianos on Tenerife and San Sebastian de La Gomera and only one return journey on this route, and all those sailings have evening departures. Intending passengers over the busy holiday period are advised to book in advance and to check ferry times. For direct links to ferry schedules and bookings in English you can go to my TRAVEL page.

Ferry problems

The damaged ramp in the bow of the ferry 'Volcan de Taburiente'  (Image: Felipe San Luis )

The ferry 'Volcan de Taburiente' which is owned and operated by the Canarian ferry company Naviera Armas and presently serves the islands of La Gomera, El Hierro and La Palma from Tenererife's Los Cristianos port sustained damage to the bow ramp last night. It had arrived fro the island of El Hierro last night when during the berthing in Los Cristianos one of the hydraulic arms lowering the ramp collapsed leaving the cars and trucks trapped aboard until the roll-on/roll-off ferry was allowed to turn around and to allow the vehicles to disembark through the stern ramp.

If you intend to travel to La Gomera or the other two western Canary islands on this service you should check with the Armas ferry company as there's bound to be disruption until the vessel has been repaired, bearing in mind that another of the company's vessel which serves these islands is currently out of service due to annual maintenance.

Red light for the 'Island without traffic lights'

Just some of the new traffic lights
Image: gomeranoticias.com

La Gomera island with a population of just 20.000 has always managed its road traffic without any traffic lights, but now several sets of traffic lights have been installed in the port of San Sebastian de La Gomera where recent road works have created a new traffic system for the busy harbour area. They have not yet been switched on and it is hoped they will only be used when there is a lot of cars coming off the ferries. The local population were always proud of the fact that La Gomera didn't need any traffic lights and many are calling the newly installed ones unnecessary, considering that the larger port of Los Cristianos on Tenerife doesn't have any.

Two ferry sailings cancelled today

The ferry company Naviera Armas has cancelled the scheduled sailings of its ferry Volcan de Taburiente at 11:30am today from San Sebastian de La Gomera to Los Cristianos and the 2pm sailing in the opposite direction. The company has not given any reason but the poor weather conditions with high seas and gale fore winds may have something to do with the decision. The weather station at the Alto de Igualero mountain, La Gomera's second highest peak, registered a wind gust of 112 km/h yesterday lunchtime.

Cars trapped on ferry last night

Image of the ferry and the assisting crane. Source: gomeranoticias.com

The Armas ferry sailing from San Sebastian de La Gomera at 5pm yesterday docked on time in the port of Los Cristianos on Tenerife at 6pm. The roll-on roll-off ferry Volcan de Taburiente berthed bow-to at the port and when attempting to open the bow and the extendable car ramp that also serves as a second door in the bow interlocked with the half-open bow due to 'technical problems'. This left the cars and trucks aboard trapped on the vehicle decks  for more than five hours. 

A large mobile crane was bought to the scene which eventually managed to lift the heavy bow to free the mechanism, which allowed the vehicles inside to finally disembark more than five hours after docking. Passengers intending to travel on the return sailing to La Gomera at 7:30pm were left stranded in Los Cristianos.

The ferry company Naviera Armas now had to suspended all sailings of the ferry Volcan de Taburiente, but intends to provide a replacement service until the ship has been repaired.

The same ferry had damaged the ro-ro ramp in the port of Los Cristianos last week due to heavy weather, and in April a truck went on fire on its car deck resulting in another disruption of the schedule of sailings.