Tenerife 28:29.5N 16:12.8W
Lotus
Thu 22 Oct 2009 17:19
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We didn't quite leave Madeira straight away as the
wind was none existent. We took the opportunity to see a really bizarre
tradition/tourist attraction up the hillside in Funchal at Monte whereby
people get in a large wicker chair on wooden skids and virtually toboggan down
the tarmac road which has smoothed out considerably with the passage of
thousands of sleighs. Two 'drivers' in white shirt, trousers and straw boaters
wearing purpose made specialist thick sold footwear (they look liked modified
riggers boots) stand on the back and guide you down the road by turning the
sleigh to slow you down, running wildly on the outside of the bend, controlling
the sleigh as you would a wayward shopping trolley on a slope and occasionally
even dragging you down the less steep bits. The two km downhill course is
open to general traffic so oncoming traffic adds to the thrill, as do cross
roads where no one inparticular has right of way. This was a highly
organised and lucrative tourist attraction which we did not take part in but
walked down the road and watched the sleighs go by. A continuous line of
people queued to pay 25 Euros a pair for this daredevil trip that first took
place in the Victorian era. The massive pickup bringing the sleigh and
sleigh drivers up the hill is a modern touch and hence some of the drivers
are more than a little portly nowadays.
  We eventually set off with a forecast of light
winds, in reality they were extremely variable. we hadn't gone far when
dolphins put on another display for us this time hunting tuna which leapt
somersaulting out of the water either in a bid to escape or because they were
being flipped by the dolphins. Seeing a three foot tuna fly 6 foot
out of the water was quite impressive, unfortunately all to brief for john to
get his rod out and catch one for our tea.
Strong then almost none existent winds took us
erratically down towards the remote and uninhabited (save two nature wardens) Selvagen Islands.
There is a small anchorage on the southern side of Selvagen grande where we had
planned to spend the night in order to break our journey to the
Canaries. Our slow progress meant that with only 4 hours of light we still
had 30 miles to go, however the winds picked up and by motor sailing with the
cruising chute alone we were hitting 9knots, maxing out just short of the magic
10 at 9.9knots. We were really pleased to round the island into the
anchorage with about 20mins of light to spare. Our pleasure was short
lived and our hopes dashed when we discovered that significant swell was
rounding each end of the island making the anchorage untenable, with waves
crashing on the jagged rocks just downwind of where we would lye at
anchor. We reluctantly re hoisted the sails and headed south for Tenerife,
not even having taken a photo. Yet again the winds dropped but as they
were now directly behind us we poled out our two head sails, set the
windvane steered (which worked remarkably well) and moved sedately on at
3-4knots. Much snoring went on in the cockpit during watch, especially
when John was on.
Once again with light winds it was likely we would
make landfall in the dark. The wind gods favoured us though and the
winds both strengthened and backed so that we bouled nicely along with the
cruising chute and main and then romped into Santa Cruise, close reaching in
25knots of wind, nearly hitting 10knots (sans engine), perhaps with a little
help from the odd breaking wave.
Santa Cruise as the islands capital has a
large commercial port with an unfriendly feeling enhanced by the rip of
'you've got some money and we'd like as much of it as possible' that was levied
under the guise of 'Port Tax' which meant we handed over 95euros for two days
berthing. We later discovered it wasn't quite a bad as it sounded as
we only have to pay this tax every 10 days.
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