0953hrs - Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Due to now being 5 days behind schedule I have to backtrack to make sure I cover everything...
Where did I leave off?
Porta de Arguineguin, getting there at 1 in the morning and putting down anchor. It was lovely, being able to swim off the boat in the morning. We went into town later in the day... far more touristy than I was expecting however the beach was lovely and we all had spanish tapas. Due to Adam's phobia of land he stayed on the boat to fix everything that we had suceeded in breaking.
Ariel in Arguineguin
We left Arguineguin at about 4 to attempt going back to Puerto de Mogán. Having run up the bearth earlier we found out that Rona II had taken the bearth that we were expecting to get. So by the time we got there... seeing as it took us 3 hours to go 1.5miles Fiona insisted that we put on the motor. So we finally got into Puerto de Mogán at about 8ish back in the orginal bearth that hadn't been suitable resulting in us motoring down the coast.
Arriving in Puerto de Mogán
As we needed water we had to stay which was great news! Finally a shower was possible and we all went out for a gorgeous dinner! I have the card in my bag somewhere... but it was lovely sitting outside. I had Pulpa (Octopus) in the Galician Style, which meant lots of salt and paprika, but it was delicious! Then Pasta Marinera, everything was SO fresh. I love it when the whole crew can just chill and chat about the journey, the pluses and minuses and what we'd like to do again.
Night view of Puerto de Mogán Marina
We then decided and exploration was necessary! So as Fiona had been on a job in Gran Canaria (actually in Puerto de Mogán) for 3 months she knew the town better than any of us and recomended that we try and find the ZOO Bar... which aparently had live snakes and the suchlike. So we all had a few beers it really was a riot, with 20 questions going round at once. Finally headed back to the boat at 0130ish. The next morning SHOWER, which was such an amazing feeling having purely been bathing in salt water for a couple of days. But then at 10 o'clock Adam had already got sick of land so we had to move the boat out of the harbour and but her at anchor just outside. The actual reason was that we had been moored up in the Water Taxi's berth which ran from 1000 to 1800. So more swimming ensued at anchor and then Fiona kindly ran a dinghy taxi onto shore.
Jolie Brise at anchor off Puerto de Mogán
I was with Wez and James and we went for an explore around the town. Its beautiful there! All white washed buildings with primary coloured trim and Bougonvelia cascadia over all of the rooves of the houses. Once we got away from the water the temperature shot up! With no breeze the temperature sky rocketed to about 28ish. Wez needed to find and back and James wanted to buy some honey rum which we had had at the restaurant the previous night. By the point it was 2ish and we heading back to the boat.
Puerto de Mogán
The afternoon involved more swimming, some attempting fishing and just generally mellowing in the sun. It was lovely to stop in one place for a day to really get to see it. However we knew we were heading back over to Tenerife in the evening. So at 6 or 7 we got ready to go and headed off. Just as Rona II reached us with a paddleboat and a slide... I think they were quite upset to be rejected after peddaling all that way. We knew the journey over to Tenerife was going to be hard... but I think that was an understatement!
Getting up from Puerto de Mogán to the headland was hard in itself as the direction of the wind meant sailing in the exact direction we wanted to go was impossible. We finally put the motor on as we were literally making to progress over ground. Within about a mile of crossing the headland we could see the white caps in the distance. Having been given a 5 minute warning from Adam we all dashed below to don all of our foulies including lifejackets and get back on deck. Within about 500m the wind went from 12 - 15 knots to 25/26! So Jib 3 went up and we put in Reef 1. I think it was the dampest crossing I've ever been on! All of the crew were lined up on the high side, sitting on the deck with our backs to the wind. Ever 6 or 7 seconds the boat would be covered in water. To start with this was horrible and claustrophobic, because when you are in foulies you real as though you are restricted in your movements. But Adam cooked us all rice and chorizo... already salty! Which promptly turned into even saltier rice soup! This put more humour in the air and soon we were being to enjoy the constant drenching.
Some of us had some pretty epic falls while slipping and sliding around the boat... further adding to the hysterics that were going on. On this crossing helming proved to be difficult as we were sailing as close to the wind as possible which in heavy seas is hard and the boat tends to just bounce up and down on the waves, so you have to bear away from the wind to keep up speed but then keep tweaking back into the wind to stay on course. We went onto the watch system for the last part 3 lots of 2 hour watches. Thankfully we were on first so we could do our two hours and then sleep until we were almost in port. Now we really weren't expecting to get in as early as we did! Due to us working by Adam o'clock we thought it would be 3am... but we were in by 1!
It was such a brilliant feeling to finally arrive in Tenerife. All the other Tall Ships in boat blasted their ships horns and clapped us in. Having been so tired it really was wonderful! Berthing was a bit of an issue but thanks to Christina's brilliant assistance in Spanish we managed to communicated that a ship the size of Jolie Brise was never ever going to fit into a 40ft gap behind Xsar. So instead we ended up behind Spirit of Bermuda and infront of Tecla along the quay. All of us just crashed looking forward to a leasurely start.
War Memorial with view of the Tall ShipsSo the 13.05.09 was a chillax day for me. I sorted out my bunk... had an attempted rinse down in the showers and began the hunt for internet. I was thrilled to find that they had sorted out free port WiFi for us, so I spent the majority of the day typing up the rest of the blog which I had written while at sea. I helped clean out the fridge and we scrubbed the deck... generally boaty stuff. I managed to get in contact with the parental unit on Skype which was brilliant, chatted for about and hour and all for FREE! By the evening it was time for the FOOTBALL! Barcelona v. Athelico Bilbao. I went with Sara Ana and Bea and we found a cafe/bar which had a widescreen TV set up outside. We had a bit of Tapas (langoustines on avacado, canarian potatoes and tomato and mozerella salad with olives and bread) and beer and watched the second half of the match. Barcelona of course won 4 - 1 it was a great game to watch and Sara is a brilliant supporter.
Our task was then to find Barry Wez James and Dani who had been out for a while. We finally found them at the bar where they had watched the game. They didnt really want to move on, so it wasnt until we were asked to leave by the owners due to us being the only people there and they'd already shut all the shutters. They then wanted food, so we went up to the only fast food restaurant open and many burgers and plates of chips were consumed... didnt exactly look lovely. We then met Fabiola a friend of Sara's who had sailed on Khruzenshtern for the previous leg, it was amazing to hear the differences between how the cadets lived and how the 'guest sailors' on board were treated... for example guests can shower as often as they want however the cadets only get one shower every 10 days! Regarding food cadets only get porridge and bread whereas guests get 3, 3 course meals a day! After chatting for a while Ana Bea and I heading back to the boat as we were cold and practically falling asleep.
Then on Thursday the 14th Ana Bea and I went up to La Laguna! In the morning we'd had to polish brass and wash all the waterproofs but we managed to leave at about 11ish. We went to the tourist information office and picked up lots of leaflets and maps of Tenerife.
The tourist information office!We then caught the tram... it put english public transport to shame. The ticket machines worked, the boards showed accurate arrival times and the tram was so clean you could practically eat off the floor! La Laguna was beautiful so different to Sta Cruz. La Laguna is a World Heritage site with countless numbers of 17th Century houses with beautiful plaster and terracota roofs. We got drenched though as there was bizarre horizontal drizzle for a good hour.
One coffee later and we were back on the explore. I would love to go back there to go to all the museums as it looks like there is far more to see. Far more history than I expected to find! I took so many photos!
A few of one of the many courtyards inside to old houses... this was actually the tourist information office!
We then tried a traditional Venezualan Dish called an Arrepas! It was amazing! It was made out of cornflour, very similar to polenta but finely ground. Then it was formed into a crab cake sized patty and deep fried. Then sliced like a pitta bread and I had chicken and avacado filling with the two traditional Canarian sauces one green and mild and one red and spicy which I know is called Mojo!
I have to pause this entry here as I have to go see if I can put my stuff on Tecla. I shall write more later on!
Ciao for now!
