JOHN

We spent 5 days in Santa Cruz on Tenerife, 28:27.3N 16:14.5W. Arriving at around lunch time on Saturday the 17^th after 2 nights at sea. The approach was quite rough, but we saw a few yachts racing just outside the harbour. We didn’t do much that day apart from dealing with customs, and a small amount of exploring of the town.

On day two, we hired a car and made tourists of ourselves, visiting Mount Teide and Los Christianos. The cable car on Mount Teide was closed due to wind (the same story as when I was last there) so we had our picnic lunch at a viewpoint and moved on to Los Christianos. At the end of the day we went on a huge shopping spree as part of preparation for the Atlantic crossing. When we got back to the marina, we found a large swell coming in despite the huge harbour wall. On reaching our boat with all the shoping in a marina trolley, we were told to by an American who was opposite us to keep hold of our trolley, as his had just rolled off the pontoon with 40 bottles of expensive wine.

The third day was the first deck painting day, in preparation of Neil and Alan joining us on Friday We painted from the stern to the middle with a paler shade of ‘cream’ than had been used previously, which was just a little too yellow. I offered my services as a diver to the American man first thing in the morning but he gave the job to another neighbour. The trolley was recovered with only one bottle in it. Douglas got a man to come and look at the fridge/freezer which had not been working since Madeira. The problem turned out to be half wiring, half insulation.

Day four, the second deck painting day. We started from the bow and moved back this time, but were running out of paint very quickly. We ended up leaving a patch unfinished under the RIB, to be finished later. Offered help to the Americans again, but the guy decided to do it himself with borrowed equipment, managing to gather all the wine bottles into a bag, but failing to get them to the surface as he couldn’t work the equipment, then ran out of air.

Day five was spent by Dougie, gluing the new, neoprene insulation to the fridge/freezer. It is now working like a dream.

An incredible view to have lunch to.

John looking at the view. (A windy day, but that doesn't explain the double chin!)

John and Beverly on the slopes of Mount Teide