Duration: 7 days
We finally got the weather window we were waiting for and set sail for the Canary Islands on Sunday morning (11th August 2019). That said, we knew the first 72 miles were going to be tough as we transited Cape Finisterre, where the Bay of Biscay meets the Atlantic, and we had to motor this distance into squally conditions with headwinds and very short choppy seas. Both Sandra and Peter were feeling off and quite ill during this time. Paul, our crew member, was totally unaffected and ate anything, even sardines in tomato sauce! (Guess that’s to be expected after forty years of sailing). The smell of sardines was too much for Sandra, who made herself scarce on the foredeck.
We decided to motor through Sunday evening, into the night and early hours of Monday, and the diesel fumes exacerbated our queasiness. The challenges just kept coming as we sailed alongside a major commercial shipping channel (TSS Traffic Separation Scheme) off the Portuguese coast. The chart plotter looked like a game of Space Invaders, there were so many tankers, cargo ships, trawlers and fishing vessels heading north and south in the area. During this time with the wind on the beam with a fairly large sea, we were on high alert as we monitored ship movements and dodged several large ships. Really difficult when you are feeling lousy. Watch rotations were every three hours and the three of us took advantage of what rest time we could.
Top Tip – Not all vessels have or use AIS, so you can’t totally rely on the chart plotter to locate vessels in your area. On this leg we had a sailing yacht about a nautical mile away that did not register on the chart plotter. Similarly fishing vessels/trawlers will often not show on the chart plotter, and this is particularly concerning when on night watch.
We revised our sail plan the next morning and decided to change course and run down wind and set the sails accordingly with a preventer attached from the rear of the boom to the forward cleat and back to the cockpit. With three metre seas in play, we sailed that way for most of the trip. A couple of other things of note were missing the opportunity to snag another fender that floated by, and avoiding a full sized wooden pallet which was extremely fortunate as it passed very close to the boat before we spotted it.
Near the Canary Islands the winds were again moving around too much to sail so we motored the remaining distance, which took approximately 3.5 hours. We arrived in Santa Cruz, Tenerife around 0400 on the Sunday morning (7 days at sea). We had pre-arranged a marina berth at Marina Santa Cruz, and after traversing a tricky harbour entrance we headed for an outside finger berth. Given the time of day we were surprised to see a member of the marina staff on hand, complete with lantern, to assist us in mooring Sea Goddess. By this time we were all exhausted and decided to call it a night and deal with all the formalities in the morning.
The next morning we realised we could not get off the boat as the stern was jutting out over the mooring dock, so that wasn’t going to work. With no ‘step’ fender on board Peter and Paul had to literally jump from the side deck onto the dock using the guard rails and a stanchion. Being vertically challenged, getting off was a lot trickier for Sandra, getting back on was hilarious. There was a vacant berth/pen next to us, so Peter decided to move the boat and reverse in. This was his first go at reverse/Mediterranean berthing. Oh and just to add to the mix, we had an audience of about eight people on a facing dock. No pressure! The initial maneouvres went well, but then a gust of wind caught the front of the boat and skewed the boat in the pen before the mooring lines were attached. A heart stopping moment, but we recovered and successfully docked.
Check in formalities were straightforward and related to marina administration. Peter, as skipper, only needed his passport for identification. As Canary Islands is part of the European Union there was no requirement to check in from an immigration or customs perspective. However, prior to our departure we needed to check out of the European union. The immigration office is located next to the ferry terminal. All crew were required to attend with passports. Peter also took boat registration certification and customs clearance documentation (which we received in A Coruna) just in case. The check out process was straight forward and took about half an hour.
For more information about the marina click here http://seagoddessadventures.com/marina-santa-cruz/and check out http://seagoddessadventures.com/sailing-to-australia-tenerife/for our thoughts on the city of Santa Cruz.