Tenerife again

We arrived yesterday at San Miguel Marina which is about 4 miles away from the main Tenerife South airport where Jenny & Bill are flying into tomorrow. So have spent the day washing down the boat as we had a quite boisterous sail across from Gran Canaria and got lots of salt water on the decks! Have discovered a small leak in the forward cabin hatch handle which Peter has now repaired by replacing the washer which was missing!

Had a lovely night Tuesday in a quiet anchorage just outside Plastito Blanco Marina which is right on the south side of Gran Canaria. It was our first night at anchor on Trompeta so now we know the anchor works and sets well so we can sleep peacefully knowing we are secure. There was no wind when we lifted the anchor at first light about 8 am and motored for 3 hours. The wind picked up late morning and we must have hit one of the acceleration zones as win speeds were up to 30 knots and the seas were quite high at probably 10 to 12 feet swells!! It was. Good job we decided to dose up on stugeron before we left just in case. We had been in Las Palmas Marina for 3 weeks so needed to get our sea legs again!

Anyway let me tell you about San Miguel which is a new Marina on the South side of Tenerife which is still not finished but fortunately no construction is actually taking place at the moment. There are lots of unfinished roads and gravel paths about. It's quiet with an amazing number of English people nearby as there is a golf resort called Pebble Beach village which I walked through today to find a cash machine. There is a club called Fairways with an English bar a bistro with typical English food. No local housing for miles as far as I can make out. The Maria is righ nex to th Golf Course so there is a strip of green grass to break up the rocky surrounding area. Lots of concrete apartments and hotels.

We have met some other sailors who live in the Marina including a comical fellow called Rick who originates from Wakefield an has a very broad Yorkshire accent! Also a young French couple called Jeremy & Ord who speak good English. There seem to be very few visiting boats and lots of small local fishing and motor boats moored here.

When we arrived last night a French skipper who helped us said h could see we had something in the propellor so a diver came this morning and retrieved a plastic sack for a charge of 30 Euros! Peter wishes we had a mask and snorkel on board so he could do this in future but our snorkel gear is in the BVI waiting for us to collect it! At least we know we are good to go now.