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Tenerife is too well-known to need describing in any detail. There are fascinating contrasts within its small area: the green north and the arid south, picturesque old towns such as La Orteva and brash new holiday resorts such as Los Cristianos, hot sandy beaches and high mountain walks. Indeed its most remarkable feature is the volcano of Mount Teide which rises to 3,700 metres, and makes the island visible to the approaching yacht from astonishingly long distances, 60 miles or more.
This section describes the main harbours, as shown on the map, together with our experiences when we visited them. This does not include all those given in the RCC Pilotage Foundation’s handbook “Atlantic Islands”, but the remainder are in our opinion day-time anchorages or harbours mainly intended for small local boats. As the prevailing wind is from the north, all are on the other coasts, but occasional gales from the south-west can affect harbours facing that way. |
Antequera Bay.
Coming from Madeira we approached Tenerife from the north, and as night was falling, we anchored in the shelter of the isolated Antequera Bay just behind the north-east point of the island. Imagine our consternation when we tried to lower the mainsail and it refused to budge. In the calm of the bay Lyn was able to climb the mast and free it. The top steel lug had twisted half out and torn the track. We were very lucky that the five-day crossing from Madeira had been all in light winds, so we hadn’t needed to reef. |
Tenerife from the north.
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Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
The next few days were occupied with organising a repair. First we went to the new Darsena Sud marina in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (the island’s chief city), to find it was full, but there was a space on the harbour wall where we waited a couple of days for a vacant berth. Such is the pressure of space in marinas at this time of year that advance bookings are essential. However this marina had no repair facilities. We enquired at the nearby Darsena Pesquina (Fishing Harbour) which has a travel-hoist, a large chandlery and engineering works for every kind of repair, but they could not lower the mast.
Radazul.
The obliging receptionist at the Santa Cruz rang around for us, and booked us in at Radazul marina a few miles south of Santa Cruz, where there was a crane. This is a small private marina that was also full, but the harbour master kept fitting us into slots as local yachts came and went. We cannot praise too highly the help he gave us, particularly in organising an aluminium welder to come for the mast, difficult given the pressure of demand at this time of year. Moreover, he dismissed the first welder who he felt was not doing a good enough job, and went to the trouble of finding a replacement. All this the day before he left for Barcelona on his annual leave.
Albona Bay.
The mast fixed, our next destination was Los Gigantes marina, on the west side of the island, in order to meet our friends Linda and Norman who were holidaying nearby. En route we passed harbours we have visited before. Albona Bay is a well sheltered anchorage in a little bay. Several yachts were already there, but although it is a good bolt-hole there is little of interest ashore.
Las Galletas.
Las Galletas harbour was completely full, with yachts anchored outside. We know from bitter experience that the holding is poor there. The harbour is filled with long-term liveaboards who are moored with three or four anchors out in different directions: it is virtually impossible to anchor without getting tangled with one of these.
Puerto Colon.
Next is the anchorage at Los Cristianos, to which we will return in a moment. The nearby Puerto Colon marina is also private. We had entered and tied up to a vacant berth on our previous visit, but while we were waiting for the harbour master at his office, he was out untying Sentinel’s lines and letting her drift free, where she crunched into another yacht. “Full, all full, go away!” was all he would say as we sorted out the mess. He may have been distracted because a luxury 50’ yacht had just sunk at its berth nearby. We could see it in the crystal clear water sitting serenely on the bottom, the only things awry were the fenders which were hanging up rather than down. I am pleased to say we have had nothing but courtesy on this visit – but we did not revisit Puerto Colon. |
The massive cliffs of Los Gigantes.
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Los Gigantes.
When we arrived and saw the entrance to Los Gigantes marina, our hearts went into our mouths. There was a big sea running, with high north-westerly swells which were breaking right over the top of the harbour wall. The narrow entrance, on the north side, was close to a surfing beach, and as we ran inshore we found ourselves being lifted on great breakers. We were practically among the surfing dudes when we had to hang a right into the entrance, hoping we had timed it right so that a breaker wouldn’t hurl us sideways as we turned. There was no way out but the beach if we got it wrong, but luck, and Sentinel’s powerful engine, got us in. |
Even then our problems were by not at an end. The swell surged into the harbour. We swept uncontrollably past the reception office: the harbour master shot out and indicated a vacant berth dead ahead – it was about the only place we could have stopped. The swell in this harbour is so bad that every finger pontoon has a piling, yet even so the pontoons pitch around and are regularly broken up. Judging by their dilapidated state it is hard to believe the marina is only a few years old. Its wall was breached by a storm a few years back. Few yachts visit and it is the one marina to have space. Directly onshore of the marina is a holiday resort geared to the most budget of British package holiday makers: "It’s just like Skeggie”, as one new arrival succinctly put it. Yet the place has a lot to offer. A small beach with good surf on days like the one when we arrived. The amazing black basalt cliffs that give Los Gigantes its name, towering behind, with a fascinating ramble down the Masca gorge through them. And the world’s greatest concentration of pilot whales, in the sea directly outside. |
Pilot whales off Tenerife.
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Whale watching on Ros Ailither.
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Los Cristianos.
Los Cristianos may not have a marina but it has a good boat yard with huge travel-hoists. While we were waiting for a new sail to arrive from England, we decided to use the time to have the boat hauled out, so we could put on fresh antifouling, restuff the glands, and fit a new propeller. There were a good many boats already ashore. After a few days, we realised there was quite a community actually living in boats in the yard. The longer you were there, the further from the water you got moved. One steel Dutch boat right at the back had originally been hauled out for three weeks – 10 years ago. Plainly a number of the yachts were never going to see water again.
While in Los Cristianos we met up with David and Hazel, whom we had first met in Portugal. Their yacht Ros Ailither is a traditional wooden sailing trawler that they had converted themselves while Dave worked as ferryman at Starcross.
San Sebastian de Gomera.
After we were relaunched, we anchored fore and aft in Los Cristianos harbour. A contretemps involving two other yachts that dragged in strong winds saw us having to drop our aft anchor after one hit us, and then having the other hooked on our front anchor and refusing to move. Fed up with Los Cristianos, and the standard of anchoring, we decided to leave even though the wind was not far short of a gale, and accordingly we set off for San Sebastian on the island of La Gomera.
As on Tenerife, the marina at San Sebastian was full, but luckily there was just one space the right size for us. One reason for this was that an Atlantic rowing race was being prepared in the harbour – we counted no fewer than 22 boats, nearly all British, getting ready. It seemed like madness to us. They go knowing that a fair proportion will have to be rescued en route.
La Gomera itself is lovely. A complete respite from the strident commercialism of Tenerife, tourism is much lower key. It is the place from which Christopher Columbus left for his discovery of the Americas, and the tiny church he finally visited is still there. Like him, almost all the yachts are in the final stages of preparation for an Atlantic crossing and there is a great sense of camaraderie in the marina. |
View on La Gomera.
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Gran Rey.
In contrast to the other Canary islands that are mostly arid, a large area of La Gomera remains wooded. We hired a car and enjoyed an afternoon strolling through the “laurisilva” forests of the Garonjay National Park, where apart from subtle differences in the tree species and the sudden spectacular views, one might well be rambling in mossy Kentish woodland. We drove to Gran Rey, a miniture version of Los Cristianos harbour, where the few visiting yachts have a rather exposed anchorage only partly protected by the harbour wall. |
Then it was time to leave. With Tropical Storm Delta threatening to pass over La Gomera in a few days, we felt the marina, which is open to the south, was not a good place to be. So on 25th November we left, in an effort to outrun the storm.
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