Another Santa Cruz (de La Palma)

The long process of leaving Tenerife is finally completed. Kiwi made her way to the naboring island of La Palma after almost a month on Tenerife. There was too much interesting hiking, snorkeling and surfing to do, we simply saw no reason to sail on. The day we finally set sail in Santa Cruz de la Tenerife, we ended up lowering them again after ten miles and staying for couple of more days in a dream anchorage of all times: Ensenada de Antequera. Finally a lonely anchorage on an (almost) uninhabited beach, surrounded by scenic volcanic cliffs. We could swim ashore and spend hours in snorkeling with cuttlefish, puffer fish, parrot fish, trumpet fish and other marine freaks. All struggle of the trip and bad moods were forgotten - this is what we had sailed for! All evenings spend in the swimming pool in Skattøra to learn to swim were also all paid of : ).

The strong disliking Philipp has developed for overnight passages and crossings with big waves, drove us to the solution of sending him home for Christmas. Sanja will cross the Atlantic crewed by Jelle and Eva (or Duke and the Dutchess, as we call them) , while Philipp will gather strengths in Europe and reunites with Kiwi in Caribbean.

Tenerife ... the island of dreams

In addition to the minor readjustments in the crew, preparations for the Atlantic crossing are full on. Kiwi has finally a manual bilge pump (!), the water tanks are being washed and filled with famously delicious La Palma water, the lazy jacks are renewed, Sanja makes a daily trip to the masthead and some serious sound design work is being done to make Kiwi's kitchen as silent as possible. The passage to Cape Verde will start after the heavy southerly weather has passed. Here are couple of pics from Tenerife, La Palma will follow!

Tenerife is perfect for downhill hikers like us. Island is 3700 meters high, you can spend days walking down the hill : )

Tenerife is like cheese -  picture from lava tube cave Cueva de Samara

Grazy nice valley of Barranco Seco