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.
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!