Porto Santo was probably the hardest place to which to say goodbye so far. After I had got everything pretty much ready the evening before I paddled to the harbour café one last time, sat in the evening sun and had a few beers. Besides being a little sad to go, I was also eager to get to the Canary Islands. This should be a fairly easy passage with perfect winds from the port quarter all the way.
It was still dark when I woke up and got ready to cast off. Everything went well. There was lots of wind in the bay but that was mainly because it was funnelling through the mountains. There should be a bit less outside. My rib which I had hurt falling onto my bow cleat while trying to get the anchor up in a hurry a while before was giving me a little trouble but all in all things were great and Amy and I were ready to go.
There was still a good bit of a wave outside because the wind had been blowing the last few days. The sails came up in no time and I set the course directly for the northeast tip of Tenerife. It was blowing force 5 with gusts of force six but we were well reefed and very fast. Faster than any time before on this trip. I had dived and cleaned the underwater hull in Porto Santo and this was making a big difference, too.
The waves were a bit uncomfortable but the mood was very good. Some dolphins came along for a short time but not many.
By evening I was beginning to feel cold and weak. The temperature outside was still warm enough to be wearing shorts and a t-shirt and I was shivering Something was obviously wrong. Waves were now coming over the side more often and breaking into the cockpit but luckily none ever went below. My man Wayne was silently keeping the course and I hadn’t seen any ships all day, so I decided to go below and lie down. I did 30 minute rests and slept very well. I now had a fairly high fever and was weak but I was sleeping well and hardly had anything to do with handling the boat.
I slept through a lot of the next day, too (in 30 minute intervals of course) and by nighttime I was feeling much better. I was hungry and since the waves were now smaller I made myself some dinner. I had to stay up for a few ships to pass and once my AIS alarm went on for a sailing boat which I couldn’t see. On the screen it was getting closer and closer but I couldn’t see it. The sailor had added “solosailor” to the boat’s name. This made me a bit angry. Apparently here was a singlehanded sailor en route to La Palma for the MiniTransat. He or she had gone to sleep hoping that by reading “solosailor” on the AIS everybody would take extra care. I am not sending AIS so they can’t see me. But in order to conserve energy they had apparently switched off their lights so now I couldn’t see them. A dangerous situation. The ship passed within a few hundred feet and I never saw it. This was also due to the fact that the wind was carrying loads of Sahara dust and visibility was less than good. I thought about hailing the sailor on the VHF and yelling at her or him but then I didn’t bother.
The next morning I was feeling a lot better still and when the sun came up I could already see Tenerife. My new battery was now in such bad shape that it didn’t even last through one night of keeping the instruments and the navigation lights running. At around 1 or 2 in the morning I would have to switch to my starter battery and then back when the sun was up and I was getting enough energy out of the solar panels.
By early afternoon I turned into the Dársena Pesquera (the commercial fishing harbour) of Santa Cruz where the Marina Tenerife is located. They immediately answered my VHF call and helped me with the docking. I had made it to the Canary Islands which was still hard for me to believe. The marina personnel were very nice and helpful and I was continuing to float on my happiness cloud.
I would now have to take care of my battery problem and also do other repairs and errands. But I have to weeks until my reservation in La Gomera starts.
The harbour is a commercial harbour with a dock for the Guardia Civíl and with no restaurants, markets or bars. For that I always need to take a bus into Santa Cruz or walk to San Andrés for about 45 minutes where there is a nice beach and some restaurants. But it is relatively cheap (compared to prices in the English Channel it is even incredibly cheap) and people are very friendly here.
One day I went hike. It was strenuous because I went in the midday sun and the temperatures were always around 37ºC during the day and not much below 30ºC during the night. But the landscape was beautiful and I was all by myself.
I took my battery to a very good repair shop and am desperately hoping that it can be fixed. A new one would be quite expensive and may not even fit into the space that I made for it.
