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t was a catastrophic day for 50 year-old Russian human rights journalist Andrey Novoselov when his 8.5 metre boat ran aground at El Porís in Tenerife. At the time of going to press, it was still high and dr y on the small beach. He had left Las Teresitas, Santa Cruz, stopping for overnight boat repairs at Radazul. When he set sail the following morning, 200 metres out of the marina, the high winds took control and he could neither return to Radazul por t nor change direction. He was carried south, to El Porís where he could see the lighthouse. He thought he had reached the ‘end’ of Tenerife and that the winds would blow him out into
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Shopping +spree! Special focus on La Laguna the Atlantic. The boat was out of control and, still some way off the small beach, he placed an SOS call. He waited for 30 minutes for the emergency services to appear, and as he didn’t have a 200 metre cable on board with which to secure the boat as they suggested, his only option was to beach it, but Andrey didn’t see the rocks hidden beneath the water which have now damaged the hull. Andrey founded a human rights information agency in 2003 and published a newspaper on the defence of rights. He claims that the Russian authorities were, “against” this and in 2005 he was condemned to six months compulsor y labour. However, following an inspection which revealed that he wasn’t working, his
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El Porís
sentence was changed to six months in prison. He left Russia and applied for political asylum in France but that was refused so he went to Geneva and asked to be recognised as a UN refugee. He waited for 18 months and had still not received a response to his application so in November last year he returned to France again where the authorities
Siam Park
(Credit Matteo Mereu)
High flyers
ight of the world’s best windsurfers showed their skills in the Siam Park E wave pool recently.
Spectacular jumps in the Siam Park wave pool
The exhibition, billed as the Extreme Jump Event, was viewed by 200 fans from facebook and holders of the park’s yearly membership Agüita card. For four hours from 7pm in the evening, the floodlit Wave Palace pumped out its biggest waves for the surfers to spin and leap over and along. Taking part were Daniel Bruch, Alex Mussolini, Eleasar Alonso, Iván Hernández, Darío Ojeda, Peter Garzke, Walter Scotto and the only woman representative, Iballa Ruano all of whom appeared to thoroughly enjoy the experience of windsurfing on the swell of the biggest artificial waves in the world.
wanted to deport him back to Russia, and so he came to Spain. Andrey has a lawyer in Madrid and applied for asylum here in January. During February he stayed at the albergue (shelter) in Santa Cruz, and spent from March to July at Las Teresitas preparing the boat on which he was planning to reach the United States. Then disaster struck at El Porís. Andrey told Island Connections, “I cannot go back to Russia where there is no justice or law.
It is impossible for an independent human rights journalist to work there. Putin has put an end to all that - there is no more freedom of speech. If I go back, it will be prison, torture, or maybe even death for me. That’s Russia. 600 journalists are already dead.” Meanwhile, while Andrey awaits the decision of the Spanish authorities, both Guardia Civil and Local Police officers pay regular visits to his temporary home on the small beach
where he lives surrounded by the few worldly goods he owns. It looks as though it will be difficult to remove the boat from the beach as it would be almost impossible for a crane to gain access. With a damaged hull, the boat cannot be floated off at high tide either. Andrey could be living there for a while yet, but has plenty of visits from curious onlookers and is grateful to the local neighbours who have been bringing food, water and milk for him.
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