Tenerife
Santa Cruz
30/11/07 18:50
A relaxed start to the day. Around 11:00 I caught the 139 bus (€1.25) into Santa Cruz. The unmarked stop was right outside our marina gate. Highway TF1 winds towards Santa Cruz quite close to the cliffs which comprise large parts of the east coast of Tenerife. I could just see Gran Canaria across the channel.
The bus station is quite central, about 15 minutes from Plaza España which is presently a building site. This government building was on the south side. I wondered what the Scottish involvement was. There wasn't any. Scotland and Tenerife share the same flag.
The "Talon", otherwise known as Auditorio de Tenerife, was designed by Santiago Calatrava. One local told us it was supposed to represent a dove. A guidebook states that it represents the innovative frame of mind of the Tinerfeño (locals). It looked like a big talon or claw to me.
From another angle the Sydney Opera House springs to mind. We booked tickets for a concert on Sunday night.
Downtown Santa Cruz with its dramatic mountain backdrop.
A restored lighthouse lens from the north coast now on display in the harbour passenger terminal at Santa Cruz.
An MSC cruise ship departing Santa Cruz harbour followed by an Australian built Fred Olsen high speed ferry with P&O's Aurora alongside.
We hired a car for a few days from Cicar. We had used them in Lanzarote and Gran Canaria. Here they gave us the same price, €30 per day all in, for a Vauxhall Astra or similar.
Puerto Radazul is built at the bottom of a cliff. The townlet of Radazul is divided into two parts. Alto, built on top of the coastal cliffs and bajo, is built into the cliffs. The latter and the marina are accessed by a steep switchback road.
The bus station is quite central, about 15 minutes from Plaza España which is presently a building site. This government building was on the south side. I wondered what the Scottish involvement was. There wasn't any. Scotland and Tenerife share the same flag.
The "Talon", otherwise known as Auditorio de Tenerife, was designed by Santiago Calatrava. One local told us it was supposed to represent a dove. A guidebook states that it represents the innovative frame of mind of the Tinerfeño (locals). It looked like a big talon or claw to me.
From another angle the Sydney Opera House springs to mind. We booked tickets for a concert on Sunday night.
Downtown Santa Cruz with its dramatic mountain backdrop.
A restored lighthouse lens from the north coast now on display in the harbour passenger terminal at Santa Cruz.
An MSC cruise ship departing Santa Cruz harbour followed by an Australian built Fred Olsen high speed ferry with P&O's Aurora alongside.
We hired a car for a few days from Cicar. We had used them in Lanzarote and Gran Canaria. Here they gave us the same price, €30 per day all in, for a Vauxhall Astra or similar.
Puerto Radazul is built at the bottom of a cliff. The townlet of Radazul is divided into two parts. Alto, built on top of the coastal cliffs and bajo, is built into the cliffs. The latter and the marina are accessed by a steep switchback road.
Morro Jable to Puerto de Radazul
29/11/07 20:10
28th November 2007
We weighed anchor at 09:45 in light winds and decided to motor sail until we picked up stronger winds off Punta Jandia at the south west tip of Fuerteventura. "Aphrodite" had already left but we passed her shortly afterwards.
At 12:30, with Punta Jandia astern, we turned the engine off and proceeded under full sail with N3 winds.
"Aphrodite" is about the same size as "Kiriwina" but half the weight. She came powering past us at 14:00.
Throughout the afternoon we made modest progress. The winds eased to around 5-8 knots so the yankee and staysail were furled and replaced with the ghosting genoa. This gave us about 3-4 knots. After a couple of hours the wind increased and veered to NNE 13 knots. The genoa was taken down and replaced with the yankee and staysail.
Thereafter we had good sailing with speeds in excess of 5 knots through until the early hours.
29th November 2007
An attempt to photograph the lights of Las Palmas on Gran Canaria as we passed just after midnight. Not very successful. It's hard enough getting a good image at night. Even more so from a bouncing boat.
By 02:20 the wind had eased to around 5kn and we were making less than 1kn. At this speed we risked arriving off Tenerife after dark and so we proceeded under engine and main.
There was quite a bit of traffic in the Gran Canaria /Tenerife channel.
The summit of "El Teide" on Tenerife viewed from about 20 miles out.
A Norwegian LNG tanker and a Norwegian fast ferry.
At 11:20 we were able to continue under sail alone and arrived off Puerto de Radazul at 14:00. Tomas had phoned ahead and we were assisted into our finger berth by marina staff and all fast at 14:15. It then rained quite heavily.
Passage time 28 hours. Log 122.1 miles.
We weighed anchor at 09:45 in light winds and decided to motor sail until we picked up stronger winds off Punta Jandia at the south west tip of Fuerteventura. "Aphrodite" had already left but we passed her shortly afterwards.
At 12:30, with Punta Jandia astern, we turned the engine off and proceeded under full sail with N3 winds.
"Aphrodite" is about the same size as "Kiriwina" but half the weight. She came powering past us at 14:00.
Throughout the afternoon we made modest progress. The winds eased to around 5-8 knots so the yankee and staysail were furled and replaced with the ghosting genoa. This gave us about 3-4 knots. After a couple of hours the wind increased and veered to NNE 13 knots. The genoa was taken down and replaced with the yankee and staysail.
Thereafter we had good sailing with speeds in excess of 5 knots through until the early hours.
29th November 2007
An attempt to photograph the lights of Las Palmas on Gran Canaria as we passed just after midnight. Not very successful. It's hard enough getting a good image at night. Even more so from a bouncing boat.
By 02:20 the wind had eased to around 5kn and we were making less than 1kn. At this speed we risked arriving off Tenerife after dark and so we proceeded under engine and main.
There was quite a bit of traffic in the Gran Canaria /Tenerife channel.
The summit of "El Teide" on Tenerife viewed from about 20 miles out.
A Norwegian LNG tanker and a Norwegian fast ferry.
At 11:20 we were able to continue under sail alone and arrived off Puerto de Radazul at 14:00. Tomas had phoned ahead and we were assisted into our finger berth by marina staff and all fast at 14:15. It then rained quite heavily.
Passage time 28 hours. Log 122.1 miles.