Tenerife

After a comfortable motor sail, we arrived safely at the marina in Santa Cruz on the island of Tenerife. It was a pretty nondescript marina right in the heart of the city. The whole area was under development and it was a bit of a dirty walk into the town. Although we had a pleasant enough walk into town we weren’t very impressed and decided to move on as soon as possible. John and Helen from Awaroa joined us the following day after their sail from Gran Canaria. We wanted to hire a car and ‘do’ the island but decided that the marina at St Miguel, 30 miles down the coast, would be more pleasant place to do it from. We moved on the following day.

Justin and Chris sitting out yet another window shopping spree by the girls!

The marina at St Miguel is based at a new golf resort and has all modern facilities including the all important washing machine! We hired a 7 seater car for a couple of days and headed off up onto the lava fields and into the Mount Teide national park. The scenery was stunning although we all felt that the 50 Euro charge per couple was a little too much to bear for a trip up the cable car to the top of the volcano. We had already done this when we were here on honeymoon some 27 years ago so we were more than happy not to go.

The hire car – our ice cream van!

After we left the national Park, we drove down to the beautiful seaside town of Los Gigantes, where we had a lovely lunch and both Helens decided to have their feet cleaned by some nibbling German fish!

Awaroa Helen doing her stuff with the waiter from the restaurant – what she will do to get a beer glass!

We then made a quick stop at the Gran Tenerfe hotel in Playa de las Americas, the hotel where we spent our two week honeymoon 27 years ago. It had changed a little but it was great to see it was still a pretty classy joint!

Checking out the sun beds – still comfy after all these years!

Chris with another cool hairdo!

Still got the moves on the dance floor….?

The following day we did some serious provisioning for the passage and managed to find a place for most of it on board.

That evening we all went out for a final meal which was great fun if a little pricey..

The following day we made a final shopping stop at Iceland and then had our very last meal with John and Helen – a full English breakfast! We said our goodbyes and headed off for a very exciting sail across to our final canary island, La Gomera. See you in the Caribbean Awaroa!

Gran Canaria

We arrived safely in the port of Las Palmas on Gran Canaria, where the 250 ARC (Atlantic Race for Cruisers) boats were gathering for their departure on the 20th November. There was a real buzz to the place and although we were unable to get a berth in the marina, we were pretty comfortable anchored just outside with about 50 other NARC boats (Not the ARC) or as we were SNARC (So Not the ARC!) boats. We spent a few days here, soaking up the atmosphere and getting a few jobs done.

We were boarded by the port customs officials who could not have been a nicer bunch. They were very happy to pose for photos and even asked for our blog address so they can keep up with our adventures.

We had a walk into the old town where we came across Christopher Columbus’ house, a very interesting museum, and it was free!

The girls paid to go and have a look inside the old cathedral whilst the boys took the lift up to the top of the tower to have a look at the view.

Las Palmas is a very busy port which houses a large sailing club where each day endless dinghies race around the anchored yachts. A bit hairy sometimes..

 

As part of the ARC festivities, the annual dinghy took place in the marina, with hundreds of people dressing up and throwing water and flower bombs at each other – great fun.

On our final night, we organised an impromptu get together on the beach with all of the anchored yachts. What a great party with people from all over the world, all preparing to cross the Atlantic.

The following day, we left early morning for our trip over to the next island of Tenerife.