Marina del Atlantico - Santa Cruz - Tenerife

There is a lot of debate about this marina. When i talked to other sailors there were always confusing and conflicting messages about this place. Also more questions than answers.
Even in the Imray pilot books the information was outdated.
This information is from 24th September 2009 when we were here with our Lagoon 380S2 catamaran.
I called them the day we arrived in Tenerife as soon as i had cell coverage. They speak english and were very friendly. Without asking they gave me the information that we have to pay port and light tax for the first night and that this would make the first night expensive. 100EUR is a lot of money for a 38feet boat. From then onwards it was only 34EUR which is OK. This still seems to be the only marina in the canaries asking for this tax. But when you keep the receipt it should be valid for one year.

The approach during daytime is easy, you should call Santa Cruz port control on VHF12 before you are close to the harbour. I suggest doing it when already 2-3miles out because there is heavy ship traffic. They will give you permission to enter the harbour. You use the entrance far south which lit and very deep and wide. Then you go north in the basin and to the starbord side at the end of the basin there is the entrace of the marina. Do not be scared if there are strong winds a few miles out, it can be still quite inside the marina. We had 25knots out and only around 8 knots in the marina.
Approach at night might be tricky because of the city lights but should be manageable. In the basin you can make your boat ready because it is huge and there is not a lot of traffic in this basin. So no need to put the fenders and lines out when it is still bumpy outside the harbour.

In the basin you call VHF channel 9 and 24h they have a sailor which will ask you for boat dimensions and directly assign a berth and he will be there to guide you and help you with the lines.
There is no reception pontoon.

The Pontoons were in good shape with light and water and the only negative thing was the rubber rail which leaves black marks everywhere.

The marina office is in a new building and so are toilets, showers and coin laundry. The toilets are clean but there was no soap or paper towels. The showers are also OK. So the story about the dirty old containers is history.
The laundry machine takes 4 Euro (2x2 coins) and they even have a washing powder vending machine.
There are gates at the pontoons and for 5 EUR deposit you get the key for showers and laundry and also for the gate. It looks like you have to close the gate at night since during the day they are left open.

A big minus is the lack of Wifi but you have good cellphone coverage and so i used the HSPA modem of my laptop. They have enough space also for multihulls since they have a pontoon to go longside also.
To the city you just follow the red line on the floor and in about 5-10minutes you are in the heart of the city with all the usual shops like the luxury food chain McDonalds :-)

This marina is no luxury one like the marina Rubicon in Lanzarote but it is quite at night since it is around 200m away from roads. You might here the horn of a ferry or cruiseships which dock in the next basin. I liked the ambience of industrial harbour mixed with yachtharbour and big city. It is a nice change.

For shopping you have a chandlery in walking distance (15minutes) and also a Cortes Ingles and Carrefour supermarket. To bring the stuff to the boat i still would recommend a taxi, backpack or stroller. some of the supermarkets are said to deliver to the boat also but we have not checked that out yet.
Cortes Ingles delivers from 150EUR onwards or 90EUR if you apply for their Cortes customer card. The taxi from there is only around 4 Euro!

There is a CIGAR Rental car at the north harbour basin where you can buy the ferry tickets. There office is at the first floor and their carpark just 70m away from the marina. An Opel Astra costs 115EUR for 3 days.

Next to the Cortes Ingles there is a DISA station, there you can get your gasbottles filled/exchanged.