LinoCat

My mobile woke us up at 07:00 and after disconnecting shorepower we left at around 07.30 Marina San Miguel. We were happy that we had a place tied to the huge sailboat. Much better than a mooring line. Just crawling overt this boat was not so nice every time we wanted to come or go. Anyway at 07.30 we left and we set sail right away and had a nice ride. The wind vane had given up and so we could only guess the wind but from wind angle and boat speed and the waves it started with around 15knots and we made around 7knots of speed. After the waves piled up outside and we got into the acceleration zone i put a reef into the main sail. That means you shrink the sailarea and so the boat can take more wind. After another hour i also put a reef into the foresail and we still were doing 7knots. After another 2 hours LinoCat had Reef 2 in the main and foresail and was still doing 6-7knots and i guess the wind was around 30 knots ore more. Since we could not measure we had to be rather on the saf...

Hi, our windvane has stopped displaying wind data, so another topic on the 2 do list. We met with Norbert and Erika yesterday in Purto de la Cruz. They live in Venezuela and invited us for a lunch. Extremely friendly people and we had a great afternoon. After that we drove to Santa Cruz to give back the keys we had from the marina and to get our first flags for the Caribean. so we are now having courtesyflags for St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the the Grenadines. Of course Lani played with them immediatly. In the evening we were having a wine with Liz and John from Jalan-Jalan and we tried the rum which we got from Norbert and Erika. It tasted very good. Today we will get the Linocat letters so we will have our name at the bows also and we will do some more washing and so we have to dig for 2 Euro coins again. Also we sent emails to a few marinas in Gran Canaria to reserve a space and we are waiting for good wind to sail over. Jalan Jalan and Forty-Two have left this morning but we will...

If your baby cries? Yes, you use the pacifier yourself and VOILA.... you relax! :-) Michael at the Thai Restaurant in San Miguel, Tenerife

The anchorage while we have dinner

Anja, Nina, Andi and myself went for a swim and also jumped in and washed hair etc. It was nice and refreshing. Now we are preparing Spaghetti. Lani will freak out because it is her favorite dish. Tomorrow we will proceed to La Gomera and hope to find a good spot at Valle Gran rey anchorage. Punta Abona anchorage looked like swell and so went to the red mountain. We had seen that spot when we went noth here last time.

They all arrived safe yesterday and we went out for a nice dinner and then had another red wine on the boat until midnight. This morning we missed the time change and then had a breakfast and gave back the rental car. After checking weather we decided to leave and so we are now sailing south with the Spinnaker doing around 6 knots. We are to late to reach la Gomera today so we have to anchor somewhere.

The "Flying Kefi" also arrived with Dieter whom i met already in July when driving to Portimao with my dad. He will participate in the Ile du Soleil Rallye. This rallye will take him to Brasil and the Amazonas. Especially the Amazonas is a great opportunity and i hope he and Claudia are having a lot of fun! Here is a link to the rallye.

After our last visit in the "swell-marina" with the mooringlines we thought we give it another try. Last time we had asked them if they have a berth and they said yes and then there was only a mooring available. This time we entered and called them over the radio around 16.00 but no reply. Reception pontoon was full with the yellow submarine and a boat taking diesel. Called again on VHF channel 9, no reply. We then decided to drive all the way down to check for free berths. We saw one but again not on a finger but with moorings. A marinero used a whiste and wanted to move us to such a place and i wondered if they have no VHF radio. We decided to leave and go for an anchorage instead.

When we reached the Marina San Miguel on Tenerife we could already see the waves breaking along the coast. The Marina has no direct opening to the south but the waves are breaking at the shore and then reflecting back in the marina. So i did not want to leave the boat alone since it was rocking back and forward. We had to use mooring lines and have the back of the boat against the dock. In Europe many boaters call this "roman catholic docking". Well i do not want to go into the details why this is called like that :-) We played cards with my parents and had some Campari Orange after a good meal of fresh Ravioli (not the ones from a can). The night sleep was average with alls the squeeking noises from the dock and once i went out to check if all is OK. We woke up at 8 and left the marina around 10.30 direction west (270 degrees) to reach la Gomera. After one hour we saw some pilot whales (german: Grindwale). They swim extremly slow (around 6km/h) and have a dorsal fin which l...

We have decided to head south. From tomorrow onwards the wind should be sailable today it is just 2-3knots and so we motored along and also stopped for a swim and cleaned part of the boat hull. While i am writing this we are at Bahia de Abona just passing it along the coast. The mountain top is in clouds but we have 30 degrees and the weather is great. Lets see how far we get today, it might be either an anchorage or maybe the marina San Miguel.

My parents are currently visiting LinoCat and so we had a smal tour through the island. We drove from Santa Cruz to Puerto de la Cruz but via the Teide mountain range. We reached 2330m and had very nice scenic lookouts. It was interesting to see the vegetation change with the different climate zones. Also the temperature dropped from 30 to 20 degrees and the air was crystal clear. We had lunch in Puerto de la Cruz and drove back via the highway.

We met Paul and Lisa in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. We saw that they have 2 boys and so we chatted with them and met. Karl and Arne, the boys are bursting with energy and the family had set sail since July and is also going to the Caribean, so they follow a similar route and we are sure to met them from time to time. It was good for Lani to realize that she has to share her toys with others and we met again at the beach where Kire was anchoring right in front. It is not to difficult to find a family with 2 blond boys on the Canary islands, especially, if they use a foldable banana boat to reach the beach. They had friends visiting them and so we had 4 kids at the beach from 9 month to 3 years. They had fun and could practise socialising :-). We had to leave around 14.00 because i had to drive to the airport to pick up my parents. So the next entry will be with the parents.

T his is how it looks on the Raymarine Chartplotter when you approach Teneriffe from the north. The pink strip to the right is a traffic separation zone where special rules apply. This is usual where there is a lot of ship traffic. The red cross above that area was one of the waypoints we have used to stay out of that area. Then we changed course in a southerly direction. The yellow arrow pointing to the boat (which is black) is the winddirection. The two lines going out from our boat is the heading and the course over ground (which is the way we actually travel). The pink triangles are other big ships. There is a lot of traffic in front of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. This is also the reason why you should contact port control in this area when crossing the harbour or entering it. Then they know your intention and callsign and can contact you. This is also for your own safety. The red cross with the white square around is our current destination in the course computer. The autopilot will s...

Here are some snaps from the drive to Taganana via la Mercedes and then some pictures of Las Teresitas beach. It contains Sahara sand and they also have a wave breaker which means it a kind of perfect lagoon and i was astonished to see so many fishes. I tried out the new Pentax W80 but i would say it is average besides the capability to be used under water down to 4m.

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-...

We saw the lights of Tenerife already at night and in the morning we could see the mountains. We apporached the island from north with the direction towards Santa Cruz, the second biggest city of the Canary Islands with around a quarter million people. We came into a so called "acceleration zone" where the wind was up to 25knots. When approaching the commercial harbour you need to call port control on VHF channel 12 and ask for permission. The Marina Atlantico is then at the end of the south bassin and is well protected besides wind from the south. Since we had northerly winds it was perfect. In the marina the wind was calm with 8 knots. Once you are close to the Marina you call the Marinero on channel 9 and they directly guide you to a berth. There is no reception pontoon which is unusual. I will write a special report about this Marina since it is often discussed. We then did a small walk into the center which is only around 5-10Minutes away and has a pedestrian area with ...

For Lani it is sometimes tricky that she is not allowed to walk alone when we are at sea. But the good thing about a catamaran is that the boat issailing upright and not heeling, so she can play sitting outside or inside. We just need to male sure that she is not directly sitting in the sunlight. When it is too windy we do not let her play with water, which is her absolute favorite. She loves to guess what people are drawing, she enjoys songs and kids lyrics and typical childpay things. Whenever we reach a Marina we make sure that she gets enough opportunity to walk.