Final Stop Before Summer Break 2025

Here we go again — another loop around the beautiful and slightly mind-bending island of El Hierro.

This is the last video we recorded before heading back to Germany for the summer. The plan is that I’ll return mid-summer for a couple of weeks and get a handful of boat projects done. Mostly the unsexy but important stuff: rigging, chainplates, and through-hulls.

I haven’t decided yet if I’ll write an article about that. I barely filmed anything — just a few photos here and there. Nike is simply much better at capturing both the progress and the beauty around us in a way that’s actually fun to watch. I usually end up with documentation that looks like: “Here is a bolt. Here is the same bolt, but removed.” 😄

But back to El Hierro.

The Southern Edge of the Island

This time we don’t explore the western side — we head to the southern part instead. And it’s wild down there: exposed lava, harsh coastline, and that feeling you often get on El Hierro that you’re standing somewhere between “new land” and “unfinished planet.”

We also learned something that sounds almost made up: there’s a new volcanic island forming south of La Restinga. It’s forbidden to cross that area by boat — because the volcano can release gases and bubbles. And apparently, if a boat ends up over that kind of bubbling water, it can lose buoyancy fast.

Not the kind of “interesting fact” you want to test in real life.

La Restinga and El Julan

From La Estaca, we drive down to La Restinga, the small fishing village in the south. It’s one of those places that feels simple and calm on the surface — and then you notice how much bigger reality passes through it. A place where tradition, celebration, and global topics suddenly overlap in a way that’s hard to ignore.

We also visit El Julan in the Valle de El Julan — one of the island’s most important pre-Hispanic sites. Quiet, windy, and full of that deep-time feeling. Not in a dramatic “touristic highlight” way, but in a subtle way that makes you slow down automatically.

This episode is a bit of a wrap-up for our Canary Islands chapter — for now. It’s still travel and exploration, but also a small pause to look at perspective: what we call “problems,” what other people have to deal with, and how sailing and traveling can shift the way you see your own life.

For the next video, we’ll continue our journey south, starting from Tenerife. And I might share the summer boat jobs at a later point — once I’ve decided whether my “bolt photography” deserves its own post.

Stay curious, stay salty.
– Floh