Tenerife

With the boom back on, we left Puerto Calero in the afternoon and had a smooth overnight sail to Santa Cruz de la Tenerife, a place we haven't been to since the start of our world tour in 2004. Not much seemed to have changed in the harbor, except for a new marina building, which by now looks like it has always been there. The harbor itself is as sleepy as always, and it seems just the ferries and the occasional cruise ship which dock in the next basin up north. But the town, which we always liked, had improved and now features a nice central pedestrian zone.

Our friends had already started exploring the island by car when we got in in the late morning. So we took off for another island tour the following day. First along the north coast to the rather pleasant little town of Garachico, which once was the major port on the island, until a volcanic eruption filled most of the natural harbor basin with lava. A new harbor has recently been built to the east and the new marina is just becoming operational. It's quite a large basin, that contains a little fishing basin, the marina and a ro-ro terminal for a ferry that is supposed to go to Tazacorte on La Palma. Right now, the still narrow and fast shoaling entrance would not allow any such ferry to make it into the harbor. So, that's ll future. But yachts are welcome and in decent weather the entrance should be fine.

After exploring the old town center of Garachico, we moved on west and south towards the large caldera that surrounds the mighty Teide at an altitude of about 2000m. From in there the big cone goes up another 1700 meters. It si possible to take a cable car up to almost the top and a limited number of pre-registered people is allowed to hike up to the summit from there. We skipped all this and just enjoyed the views from the mezzanine level, which is still way above the clouds.

The next day we started early for a long long 75 mile day cruise, first down the east coast of Tenerife, then along the south and across to the western side of Gomera, where we anchored in our favorite anchorage at Valle Gran Rey.

more Lanzarote …..

Fixing our boom took some more time, than initially anticipated. The main reason for delay was, that the expert at the yard in Puerto Calero, not only wanted to just weld the cracks around the boom-vang attachment, but thought the material around the whole area has weakened over time, and that a proper re-enforcement would be the only way to do it right. Well, except from getting a new boom extrusion, but that would have taken until mid August to get shipped from Sweden. Bending the re-enforcement plates to properly follow the rounding of the boom, required a hydraulic press that could do the delicate multi-step bending process. While the shop at the shipyard is rather well equipped with machinery, it doesn't feature such a press. The only one on the island is in a large shop in Arrecife, a shop that was recently equipped with the latest machinery, after getting the order to build the new radar dome on Lanzarote's highest summit. At the time of our arrival, that press was rather busy punching out hundreds of similar parts for the local electricity company, this way introducing the first 3 day delay. But then, when all the parts were done, they found that they had the wrong measures and started all over again. So, in the end we had to spend exactly two weeks in Lanzarote.

This wasn't really bad though, maybe except for being in the most expensive marina in the islands, as we kept discovering more and more new beautiful sites on this island. Manrique has left his traces everywhere on the island and his good puristic style, that is so pleasing to the eye, seems to have caught on to the whole island. With its clean and minimalistic appearance, that island stands out from the rest.

After exploring the vicinity of Puerto Calero, walking over to Puerto Carmen, and on another day taking the dinghy there, we again rented a car to check out some of the popular sites that we hadn't yet seen during our past three visits. We found the lava caves, again different to those we had seen in other parts of the world, especially due to the well thought out lighting. Then there is a wonderful old fort containing an impressive museum of modern art, and another lava cave with an underground lake reflecting the outside world. Via a beautiful outdoor poll, this is connected to a vast underground auditorium in a large lava cave.

So, in the end we were not too unhappy to be forced into a longer stay at this fascinating island. Meanwhile our friends Henry and Kikki on Enderlig had sailed on to inspect Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria. We know Gran Canaria, but haven't been to Fuerteventura, so that will maybe be on another trip. On the day we got our boom back, we took off through the night, to join our friends again in Santa Cruz de la Tenerife.

Lanzarote

Lanzarote, very different from other Canary Islands, is best characterized just as Volcanos and Caesar Manrique. Nothing but the two seemed to have had more influence on the appearance of the island, with its minimalistic beauty. For us it was the third visit to this island and we keep finding new stunning places every time. This time we spent two days exploring the island together with our friends. And while less sunny in the volcano area, we had the pleasure to have e decent view from Manriques outlook over the 'Rio', the canal that separates Lanzarote from Graciosa. Last time we tried to go there, it was all fogged in. So, both the outlook and the Manriques Cactus-garden were new to us. And of course, both are magnificent. His house near Arrecife, built into lava-tubes, we had already seen, but it is always worth seeing again and again.

Two days ago, Endelig left for Fuerteventura an island we have yet to se ourselves, but it will have to wait for another Taniwani roundtrip, as we are still stuck at Puerto Calero, waiting to get our boom repaired. Remounting it is now planned for Sunday, but who knows… In any case we will then sail through over night to Tenerife to catch up with Endelig there.

by the way, clicking on a picture makes it bigger and you can then flip through the set.