Greetings. I am now in Santa Cruz in Tenerife, after a pretty lively sail of 150 nautical miles or so. It was very windy and pretty rough most of the way, but at least that meant I made it in very good time. I left Lanzarote at 6.30 am on Thursday and, even though the wind didn’t really start blowing until lunchtime, arrived in Marina Santa Cruz mid-morning on Friday.
The new sails and rigging held up fine. Very occasionally, maybe four times, the swell caught the boat and nudged her off course a little, but she righted herself easily. I never felt over-pressed or in danger, even though the wind must have been gusting over 30 knots.
I steered a course slightly to the north of Tenerife to avoid a traffic separation scheme in the busy shipping lane between Tenerife and Gran Canaria. There were lots of cruise ships, tankers and the like in this area, which I reached in the small hours, but I managed to sail through a gap in the queue before heading south west. The view coming down towards the Anaga mountain range on Tenerife at dawn was very dramatic.
The marina is large and basic, which suits me fine, and it’s in the middle of Santa Cruz, which is convenient. Waking up to the sound of church bells was nice, and reminiscent of home. Quite a few people I met in Arrecife are also here. I have a number of jobs to do – stripping more old varnish, putting new varnish and paint on, buying a new outboard, buying a new VHF, and changing the gearbox oil among other things. A nice Raymarine guru, Pepe, has come to work his magic on my electronics, which are now mostly functioning.
I’m also hoping to get out for a few bike rides and will take plenty of photos. I went for a walk around the city centre yesterday, visiting the Auditorio de Tenerife, a particularly photogenic, gravity-defying modernist building, and Mercado de Nuestra Senora de Africa, a really cool food market that I will definitely be visiting again. It seems like a really nice town; I wish I could stay for longer, but I’ll have as much fun as I can!
I’ve put a few photos on the photo page. More to follow.