The fading lights of Madeira accompanied us on the first few hours of our journey.
Forty four hours after leaving Madeira we arrived in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The crossing was not pleasant. With neither moon nor stars and cloud cover much of the way, the nights were rendered pitch black. We battled the wind from all its sailing extremes: No wind at the start, then wind in the nose all the next day and with the arrival of a nastier than planned weather front at the beginning of the second night, wind from behind for the rest of the trip generating my least favorite kind of swells and rocking the boat in a very uncomfortable manner making seasickness once again a battle for me.
The trip was not without its blessings. First and foremost we arrived safely without any damages. Moreover, we witnessed once again how well Taka Trois sails close to the wind and how fast she is thereby cutting our journey short by a full day compared to some of the other sailboats who made the journey around the same period--much appreciated by this sailor! At my most miserable moment on the morning of the third day, a school of at least a dozen dolphins came to cheer me up and I managed to get my favorite picture of these beauties yet.
The trip was not without its blessings. First and foremost we arrived safely without any damages. Moreover, we witnessed once again how well Taka Trois sails close to the wind and how fast she is thereby cutting our journey short by a full day compared to some of the other sailboats who made the journey around the same period--much appreciated by this sailor! At my most miserable moment on the morning of the third day, a school of at least a dozen dolphins came to cheer me up and I managed to get my favorite picture of these beauties yet.
You can just imagine them yelling "whoo-hoo" as they jump over the waves.
I will also share with you one amusing story at my own expense. During my watch in the middle of first night, a large object appeared on the radar screen off the starboard (right) side of the boat. I checked on the AIS tracker, but no boats were visible on the screen (Automatic Identification System (AIS) is a collision avoidance system that gives information all the ships in your area, their speed and courses and how to contact them). Not all boats have AIS and therefore are not visible on our tracker, so one has to keep constant vigilance. I peered over the side into the darkness looking for this mystery boat. Nothing.
Patrice was sleeping soundly and I didn’t want to wake him up unnecessarily, so I kept looking and tried not to panic as this object drew closer and closer and got bigger and bigger on the radar screen eventually covering our boat entirely. What on earth could it be? My imagination offered many possibilities: A whale? Jesus taking a nightly stroll? A UFO?!!! At that thought, I looked up and at that moment was pelted by huge drops of rain. I then realized that my mystery object was a big black rain cloud hovering over us. Go ahead and laugh, but I’d like to know how many of you wouldn’t panic in the same situation.
So here we are, just a day’s sail from the final destination of phase II: Puerto Morgan, Grand Canaria. At first glance, Tenerife is arid with high volcanic peaks and Santa Cruz is a bustling and somewhat unattractive metropolis--a bit of a shock after the quiet lush beauty of Madeira. We share our marina with the cruise ship dock and the shipyard, so it’s a busy place and not the prettiest one we’ve been to, but there is one very big advantage for us here--we are at latitude 28° and that means the temperature is a constant balmy 24°C (75°). So read this and weep my dear northern friends, after traveling 1800 nautical miles south we are finally WARM!
Patrice was sleeping soundly and I didn’t want to wake him up unnecessarily, so I kept looking and tried not to panic as this object drew closer and closer and got bigger and bigger on the radar screen eventually covering our boat entirely. What on earth could it be? My imagination offered many possibilities: A whale? Jesus taking a nightly stroll? A UFO?!!! At that thought, I looked up and at that moment was pelted by huge drops of rain. I then realized that my mystery object was a big black rain cloud hovering over us. Go ahead and laugh, but I’d like to know how many of you wouldn’t panic in the same situation.
So here we are, just a day’s sail from the final destination of phase II: Puerto Morgan, Grand Canaria. At first glance, Tenerife is arid with high volcanic peaks and Santa Cruz is a bustling and somewhat unattractive metropolis--a bit of a shock after the quiet lush beauty of Madeira. We share our marina with the cruise ship dock and the shipyard, so it’s a busy place and not the prettiest one we’ve been to, but there is one very big advantage for us here--we are at latitude 28° and that means the temperature is a constant balmy 24°C (75°). So read this and weep my dear northern friends, after traveling 1800 nautical miles south we are finally WARM!
The island of Tenerife appears in the morning light--the city of Santa Cruz, where we are docked, is at the far left.
Scroll down to read my just published third and final account of our time in Madeira.
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