Madeira - Tenerife
Trippwire
Sun 25 Oct 2009 11:07
So, as usual, a very
belated update to the blog.... Jennifer has been promising to update the blog,
but seems to have been very 'busy'!! So, I have been weak and given in,
which means that you are going to get another dose from me, I am afraid; as
I write, Jennifer has been sent to sit on the naughty step.
We left Charlie in
Madeira, and brought with us a reasonably sizeable hangover and set
off for just under a 300 mile passage to Tenerife, with the intention of going
via the Salvagen Islands. These consist of a couple of deserted (aside from a
couple of wardens who live there) islands in the middle of the Atlantic, and
would give us a nights sleep to break up the journey. With a high pressure
situated directly overhead, the order of the day was rather a lot of motoring
for the first 24 hours, which was rather dull, particularly given a rather large
sea that had built up - there was a low pressure off to the north west that was
sending down one swell, and the trade wind north easterly swell was running
counter to this, creating rather an awkward motion.
We arrived at the
Salvagen Islands 24 hours after starting off, full of anticipation and
being greeted by some very large dolphins (not whales!). Sadly though, when we
got into the lee of the island, the swell was still very large, and there would
have been no way to get ashore, let alone anchor safely. We heard later on that
the parents of Alex Zino had been on holiday there for a few days and were
marooned on it due to this swell. So, another night out of bed for
us!
Salvagem
Grande
The nature reserve
wardens cottage. The breaking sea is where one would normally
land!
As soon as we had
abandoned the Salvagem idea, the wind picked up and we had a very good sail for
the last 120 miles to Santa Cruz, arriving at 5 in the morning. We both crashed
out and were woken up by a German boat trying to extract themselves from their
mooring next to us. The plan was to spend 24 hours or so in Santa Cruz (capital
of Tenerife) and then head down to the south of the Islands. Santa Cruz marina
had a different idea though; they have a tax on boats coming in which means that
you have to pay for 10 nights worth of tax, even if you are only staying for 1
night...the result was a bill for €85 for the single night! So, despite being
rather jaded, we called ahead to a marina on the southern side of the island,
had a shower, bought some bread [now, this was a tricky conversation, because
Jennifer has amazingly been very domesticated (for those of you who
know her, that is a very unusual thing!) and been making bread. Her bread
is very good......buuuuttt just not quite as good as the bread that you can
buy......if you know what I mean!].
After a short 30
mile hop down the coast, we arrived at Las Gallettas before sundown, by this
time pretty keen to put our feet up. When we arrived, we were firmly told that
there was no space...disaster! Luckily we had called ahead, and when the
guy realised that we were not going to take no for an answer, put us in their
last remaining space.
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