The Txistu and Danbolina : Basque Flute and Tabor

We had spent 5 days walking through the Basque Region of Spain and we ended our travels at a small town near to Bilbao called Amorebeita. Here we met a musician who played the Txistu (flute) and Danbolina (tabor).
These instruments have an unbroken tradition in the Basque country (as well as other parts of Spain too) but what makes the Basque Txistu a little different is that they have been changed to bring them more into a "classical" repertoire. My knowledge of this instrument (as in indeed all Spanish instruments) is limited, but I am finding that the tuning, scale, range of the txistu has been tempered and fixed so that it can be played more easily with other instruments.

The txistu is a 3 holed fipple flute played with one hand, and it can have a range of over 2 octaves and is fully chromatic. It is made from various black coloured hard woods or hard plastics, the fipple mouth piece is made from metal and it is generally found in the key of F (or F sharp if it is played on the streets, as it produces a louder sound). We spent a great weekend with Iban, who let us attend his performances:
On the saturday there was a txistu/danbolina and dance performance for the pensioners at an old peoples center. One man danced a traditional dance dancing the 1st and the 4th part of 4 part dance, while Iban played the txistu and danbolina together (one hand the melody and the other hand the rhythm).

Next there was a march/procession around various streets of Santurtzi, here 3 txistularia played and marched, stopping at various bars along the way!!
That was the end of the formal playing, but as there was a Basque football match on that night the txistu and danbolina was brought along to play various football and traditional Basque melodies.

The Sunday was a march/procession around the streets of Amorebeita, an unbroken tradition (except for 3-4 years in the 90s) where the txistularia play various melodies and stop off at various bars playing a mix of Basque and Spanish melodies for the people who often come out onto the streets and make an occasion of it with wine and food.

Extremadura Folklore Ensemble

While on holiday in the Basque Region of Spain I came across a folk group on the streets of Santurtzi (Bilbao). I was there meeting Basque musicians who play the Txistu so I did not have time to stop and take the performance at its full length. Here is a small clip of the group. Extremadura is a region of Spain close to Portugal, it is the Central/Eastern side of Spain. I know very little about the area but I know they have a similar pipe and tabor to the Leon/Salamanca regions and to Basques. Here they have beautiful colourful costumes and are dancing to the music of that region.

First Sail with the Crab-Claw Rig Kayak

This is the video of my first trip with the Gumotex inflatable kayak on the Solway Estuary using the design of the Polynesian catamaran rig. There is less stress on the boat in a jibe and easily erected and carried.

Hoisting the Masts: On Kayak and Sail Boat

I put the mast up on the Hurley Felicity about 2 weeks ago during a flat calm, no wind was stirring. My sister came at 6am and we went down to the mooring and got her ready for the lifting. I had a new idea of using a series of pulleys for hoisting the mast. These pulleys were connected to the fore-stay and the sheet was led back to the cockpit. The idea was to raise the mast by hand as far as I could lift it then use the pulleys to hoist her fully up. My sister was there just to see that if it lent one way she would correct it, it was a trial and error situation. It did not work!! The pulleys kept on getting jammed, i adjusted them so the sheet stayed on the wheels, but they kept on jamming. In the end i asked my sister to pull on the fire-stay and the mast went up easy enough!

Then we had gales so the the next week I could not do any sailing, the winds did not abate and I decided to try out my design of the Lateen rig on my Gumotex kayak. I had been designing and building a rig over the winter. The sail was made from tarpaulin and i had a short un-stayed mast. When hoisted the sail sat at 45degrees to the hull with little head room clearance. The foot of the sail had a spar.

My first tempt was a success, she sailed Ok, the winds were slight and there was a few days of quiets winds, excellent conditions for the first sail. It took me ages to set up, but when hoisted I found she was good sailing down wind on a run, and tacking into the wind she was Ok. One difficulty I had was when sailing on a tack I would use the paddles as a rudder so I needed 2 hands to control the paddle and also to control the main-sheet. This was a problem as either the main-sheet could not be adjusted efficiently or the paddle was not stable.

The latest sail was done over a 2 day period, I slept on the Felicity and tried out the kayak during the day. I changed the sail so the yard was close to the small mast pointing upward, brought into the top of the mast by a pulley. I fixed the bottom of the yard to the middle of the mast. I also strengthened the mast by fixing a bunji cord as a fore-stay. This helped me to hoist the sail in close to the mast without it moving too much and for the mast to get in the way of the paddle and my face! With the yard vertical the spar and sail had enough clearance for me to use the paddle in a more effective way. Also I cleated the main-sheet so I could paddle/steer off the wind so I could have the sail working in conjunction with the paddle, sometimes I would stop paddling other times I would steer and other times I would paddle...or drop the sail if it became in-effective.