Marina San Miguel, Tenerife

Tuesday started very very early we slipped our ropes at 3.30 am and hoped to cause as little disturbance as possible. However as we pulled away Marco with a bottle in one hand starts to shout at full volume, “Kevin, Kevin! Come back”, not sure what he wanted but now off the dock we decided to carry on. Next we passed the marina office, the security guard came out to ask if we were going to come and see him, I said we’d paid the day before and he shrugged and went back inside. So much for a quiet exit, Marco continued to shout out something about Blue Marlin as we passed the breakwater.
I stowed the fenders and Kevin motored us off on course for Tenerife in winds so light they barely registered. It was a great sight seeing the lights behind us gradually heading out of view, though once we were out of the shadow of the headland the inevitable swell started from the NE, which unfortunately as we were heading NW was beam on. We’d been warned to head straight for Tenerife and get there as soon as possible so we just had to head into it and wait for the Wind Acceleration zone to pick the wind up. After our experience of the strengths off Gran Canaria’s east coast we weren’t keen to be on the main sail as we could soon be beyond the limits of the second reef and dropping it at night in a beam on swell did not seem clever. The wind came about 4-5 miles offshore gusting to 20 knots and building to an average of 25 knots with gusts to 29 knots. Considering that the background wind was slow low, it was amazing that even overnight these acceleration zones can be so strong. It was a pretty uncomfortable and wet ride but fast with a speed over ground of 7.5 knots all the way.
I’d not slept well that night and after a drenching I caught an hours sleep whilst Kevin in oillies for the first time since Portugal took the helm. I came too, but was feeling off, not least because of the motion and we’d not eaten yet. After 20 minutes of keeping watch with Kevin as we head through the Tenerife traffic separation scheme then donning my oillies down below, I succumbed to seasickness for the first time in about 5 years, though immediately felt better afterwards and took the helm.
We could already see the peak of Teide on Tenerife as soon as daylight had come and by 10am were well within sight of landmarks on shore. We’d been expecting two distinct wind acceleration zone one off the coat of Gran Canaria (the strongest), then a bit more settled follow by another off Tenerife. However, what we got was a fairly consistent 25 knots with perhaps 20 minutes in the middle of 16-18 knots, not sure then really what was background wind strength was and what was acceleration, we experienced a little trepidation that the background wind strength had increased after we passed the first acceleration zone and we had worse yet to come as we neared Tenerife. We made an escape plan of heading south if the wind increased to the end of the acceleration and heading back north in the land shadow of the south, but luckily never had to use it as the wind stayed around 25 knots all the way dropping to about 18 – 20 knots as we neared San Miguel.
We had sketchy details about Marina San Miguel as it was only just being rebuilt (after previous less substantial breakwaters had been damaged in storms). We managed to locate the breakwater and contact them on VHF channel 9. We were showed to an alongside berth between two others with a 20 knot wind blowing us on, however Kevin took it in his stride and brought us in under full control as we thankfully secured the lines about 11 am. By the time we’d eaten and checked in at the office the wind was howling and gusting 25 knots at the marina. It must have been nearly double that in the Gran Canaria acceleration zone and we were pleased we’d taken Antonio’s advice and got straight across early.
We had a couple of hours sleep then washed the boat and head out from some food in the small resort 10 minutes walk away. We could tell we were in Tenerife, everyone was British and the food was a lot cheaper. We were happy to tuck in to a large roast chicken dinner and vegetarian pizza with drinks for 17 Euros. We head back to the boat, thankfully now with only a gentle wind. We are however, very close to the airport, and they are still building the marina so it is not the most peaceful, but is the only one I could book us into in Tenerife.