Gran Canaria to Tenerife

Well, specifically Las Palmas De Gran Canaria to Las Galletas on Tenerife. This was another of those passages that is just too long to fit into a day sail but is too short to make into a real passage. In total we logged 68 miles – a nautical mile is 1.15 stature miles or about 1.8 Km. Our original plan had been to make a 0400 start and try to get here in one “day”. The forecast winds of force five to six made us rethink that and we reverted to the strategy we used to get from Gran Tarajal with an overnight sail. This time we were better prepared though and the passage was much less boring or uncomfortable.

This strange drilling ship had been dominating our view of the port all the time we were there.

We started at 1400 and after a very bumpy motor into some steep waves to get round La Isleta which marks the north eastern extremity of Gran Canaria we were able to crack off onto a reach along the north coast of the island. The wind continued to free us so that by the time we had cleared the island we were on a near dead run. This coincided with the sunset and my handing over to Audrey. Another innovation for us was to revert to four hour watches on short overnight sails rather than our usual six hours. The bonus of this for me was that I got to see the sunset on my 1600 to 2000 watch. As forecast, the wind did freshen to a force 6 (23-27 knots) and we had to harden up to a reach as we crossed a thing called a Traffic Separation Scheme. A TSS is used in close quarters areas and works like a dual carriageway though they are only purple lines on a chart. If you are not running along them you have to cross them as quickly as possible at right angles to the flow. We did cross very quickly even with only the jib up.

We were then just under 30 miles from Las Galletas by 0130 on my watch again. With the wind we had (still a force 5) we would have got in much too early so it was another case of slowing down. This time however, I could simply reduce sail and go much more slowly which was more comfortable than heaving to.

Moving slowly is a bit boring but we did OK and reached here just before 0900. The four hour watches are a big success for overnight passages though rather than our usual six hours. We do six hour watches on long passages, which is unusual, as it gives you a much longer period to sleep and this works well for us as we are short handed and sleep is always in demand. However, on short passages, you don't really get into enough of a routine to sleep at unusual times compared with land based routines so the shorter four hour watches become more bearable.

Our last sight of Gran Canaria as the sun comes up

Apologies for the blow by blow account of a minor passage but this is the sort of thing that occupies us when we aren't ashore sampling local wines.

We were also greeted with a novel use for a jet ski which provides the powerful water pump for this sort of stunt.