LinoCat

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.

I can not afford a haircut as a poor traveler and so it had to be self made. Using the electric hairtrimmer from India the job was done by Chris in about 10 minutes. Here you can see the success half way. The boat end where the steps are looked like a sheep was killed by a wolf. Well, actually two sheep, a brown and a silver metalic one. (I do not want to call it grey). As a reward the sun came out with temperatures inside LinoCat of about 31.5 Celcius. So it was nice to have a new summer hair cut.

It was a beautiful day with blue sky and it was warm and the boat was clean and shiny. What best than trying to let Lani mess up all the place. We put her naked in her chair which was mounted outside so we could use the garden hose to wash the boat. She had her favourite mashed fruit and i guess she was eating 20% while the rest was spread out everywhere. Of course she had to have a shower afterwards and we have to wash the seat also. But it was fun!

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...