El Puertita

Chiscos - Atlantic Cruise
John Simpson
Tue 11 Oct 2011 16:01
28:06.738n 016:46.197w
 
We were now getting into the swing of anchoring so we left Cantera to sail to Tenerife and had identified a suitable anchorage on the SW coast well away from the forecast NE winds.
As we closed the Tenerife coast towards the end of the day, and arrived at the designated point, it looked decidedly unappealing. True, there was a beach, but there was a NW swell rolling in towards the beach and huge rocks everywhere. So we motored a little further up the coast and found a bay at a place called El Puertita. There was a small finger of land breaking the swell with a small bay behind it. A yacht was just leaving so we took it's place and anchored in about 8 metres. The sea was clear enough to see the anchor had set well on the bottom, but the gap was very narrow. As the tide went out the rocks seemed to get ever closer and there was only one way out!
 
We endured a fitful night with all of us waking regularly as the anchor alarms went off and we swung gently about . Fortunately, we didn't move very far and in the morning we were in exactly the same position as the previous night.
We got up and then set off for the marina at San Miguel around the island on the SE coast, looking for a quieter night tonight!