Marina San Miguel, Tenerife

We are still in San Miguel Marina waiting out the 20 - 25 knot winds forecast until at least next Thursday when we hope to make our crossing to La Palma. It would seem from those we have spoken to who have sailed regularly in the Canaries for several years, that this year the winds have been far stronger than usual, so we are just biding our time until the forecast improves. We have noted whilst sailing that the forecast strength is usually increased by 15 knots or more in the acceleration zone so we are happy to wait.



We have been reading the pilot guides and researching on the internet (as much as the rather flaky WIFI will allow) our next destinations – the Cape Verdes and La Palma. There may be a full marina (due to open Sept 2008) or just one pontoon in La Palma, little seems available to confirm. The previous pontoon arrangement was managed by the Club Nautico which provides access to its facilities of a swimming pool and WIFI for a reasonable berthing fee on a stern-to pontoon, although this is apparently rather rickety. We have learned on the internet that the Marina La Palma is to pass into the management/ownership of the Calero family who run a marina of the family name in Lanzarote. This was supposed to lead to the expansion of the facilities, to I think 200 plus pontoon berths, by Sept 2008 and presumably a considerable increase in price. I will be ringing Calero tomorrow to see if we can find out before we depart.

The Cape Verdes island group also sounds like it will be an interesting stop-off point, apparently Mindelo which everyone raves about as an excellent anchorage now also boasts a marina and resort suitable for super yachts. It shows that even in 4-5 years since the pilot books were written much can change. We plan to visit three of the islands in the group from what we have read so far, but this may change when we get there. I think we both feel that this will be the first real exploring and the first different culture we will experience and we are looking forward to it. However, much is spoken about the potential for theft of tenders/outboards etc plus the need to employ boat boys at up to £10 a day in Mindelo to protect your boat, so it also has its downsides.



Otherwise, we have been fairly quiet, performing a spring clean for the boat following our previous visitors and preceding our next in September. There is a fair bit of activity in the marina and regular tourists wandering by on their way to the inevitable Submarine tour who stop and look at the boat, we must be in dozens of holiday snaps this year. We even provided a tour of the boat to a family who stopped by, the husband having recently enrolled on a crewing course in the autumn and harbouring ideas of embarking a trip similar to our own who was keen to hear our plans.

This morning we explored a little more of the Golf del Sur resort which we are on the edge of, taking a 2 hour walk into San Miguel village. If there was any original Canarian habitation in the area that preceded the resort it is not possible to see the evidence of it and all we found was more and more villas / hotels and a commercial centre of restaurants, bars and a Nisa supermarket. There were many empty units and villas for sale and not many tourists in evidence (although in fairness it was Sunday morning). There is a very large resort part-built and with no signs of recent activity, the bare skeleton of which commands the view of the coastline, as we have often seen elsewhere. I am always amused by the local technique for structural support of buildings during construction which appears to consist of the use of acroprops in as large a quantity as possible, the picture below is a fairly mild example we have seen literally hundreds used on a single floor of a building to support sometimes several floors above it.