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Monday 1st
– Tuesday 16th September
Allan & Bev at
Mount
Teide
It’s been a
hectic and frustrating couple of weeks. The Marina Del
Atlantico is adjacent to the centre of Santa
Cruz so it makes up for lack of facilities in the Marina itself. We’ve
decided not to use the toilets or shower blocks as they are pretty basic
and infested with cockroaches.
Everything
in Tenerife seems to take a long time. The chandlers don’t have the bits
we need but can always get things “in a week”. Allan found a very useful
electronics shop “Lalo” where he could buy
some much needed bits of cable and connectors, and was able to order a car
kit to install the phone in the boat. He has also spend hours on the
internet ordering other things we need for the boat – a couple of folding
Dahon Helios folding bikes, more electronic
bits and pieces, solar panels, wind generator, ssb
modem. Tenerife is supposed to be cheap because it doesn’t have VAT but we
have found things like solar panels to be very expensive. The whammy is
that delivery charges are enormous from overseas. The delivery cost for
the solar panels from the US is $349 and for the bikes over £400 from the
UK !!
Bev didn’t
get back from the UK until the third of September so Allan met up with the
Americans Warren and Judy McCandless on La
Contenta and went for a
canarian style meal at La Herbieta.
Fish is of course on the menu but Allan had a steak in sweet (and hot)
sauce with thin sliced potatoes, delicious and great value.
We hired a
car for three days. A very reasonable 55 euro for a
Saxo for three days from Orcanarias. We
made a trip up to Puerto De La Cruz and down to Playa de Las Americas and
Los Christianos. We had been thinking about
buying a house here but have gone off the idea because its
sooo expensive. A decent villa with pool is
around 400,000 euro, a one bed apartment is easily 100,000 +.
We like
Puerto. It’s touristy but has a lot of charm. There are the inevitable
souvenir tat shops and PRs trying to get you
to eat in their restaurants, but on the whole it’s well done and they have
some nice pedestrianised walkways and squares.
We didn’t have time to visit the Loro
Parque or the Martinez swimming pool complex
but both looked interesting.
It’s been 12
years since Allan was in Playa de Las Americas on holiday. Many of the
“facilities” were readily recognisable but the town has grown enormously
since then. More of the same really – English pubs and German eateries.
The beach seems to have even less sand on it than then. The biggest
disappointment is that the karaoke bar he spend most of his time “The
Buccaneer” has gone to be replaced by a pretty uninviting disco pub. The
nearby Flanningans seems to have prospered by
contrast. Bev was delighted to find a pub on the seafront that had Walkers
crisps and promptly indulged – washed down by cold beer.
We visited a
Chinese restaurant opposite Flanningan’s and
had what was certainly the best, if not the most expensive, Chinese meal
we have had since leaving the UK – half a crispy duck between two – for a
starter - enough said !! The service was fantastic too – pity Allan was
driving as the complimentary liqueur was great.
It’s amazing
how you make new friends. On our pontoon its
been a little quite because its mainly local Spanish boats. The chap
nearest is called Angel, he is a Colombian (but his mother is from
Gran Canaria), he
is just preparing his boat – a Beneteau 39 for
a trip to Venezuela via the Cape Verde Islands. He speaks a bit of English
and the rest we sort out by waving our hands about and drawing things in
the air. He loaned me his Iridium phone to try out my SIM card and I was
mortified when he later came to see me to tell me his phone no longer
worked, when he talked to the dealer he figured out it was because he was
not putting the antenna in correctly and had broken off a piece of plastic
connector inside the phone. Days later Allan spent many hours helping him
work his long range radio and felt a lot better at having repaid his
kindness.
We had an
evening out with Warren and Judy before they sailed to
Gran Canaria.
Having polished off their champagne and nibbles on their very nice 49 foot
new Najad boat, they introduced us to a great
Pizza restaurant called Epoch and a fantastic ice cream shop in Santa
Cruz. Pizza, beer and ice cream came to about 8 pounds a head. Great night
out and lots of great stories from two people who have been sailing for a
few years. Interesting that their favourite cruising destination is Saint
Katherine’s dock – London.
We also met
Erik Dullerud on Orient Express. Erik is a
Norwegian who has lived much of his life in Canada. We visited Erik on his
lovely traditional style wooden boat with a bottle of wine which turned
into many bottles of wine interspaced by a many slices of cheese and
crisps. Allan woke up with a little bit of a hangover but Bev had quite a
lot of a hangover… Erik was a really interesting guy and he had sailed to
Santa Cruz with Moses a Russian Jew who also now lives in Canada. Both had
many fascinating stories to tell.
Allan
eventually agrees to cut Bev’s hair which was getting rather long and very
tangled in the wind. Allan’s tactic was to hack great chunks out first and
then to straighten it out (or try to) later. The one inch trim that Bev
had wanted turned into a 2.5 inch cut. Allan proclaimed that he had always
liked short bobs. Bev cried several times during the ordeal and Allan said
he would never do it again.
After Bev
trimmed the ends herself she grew to like the shorter
look !
It’s funny
how you try to save money when you aren’t earning !!
Tuesday 16th
September
Erik came
over to our boat on his way to the airport and a flight back to Canada. We
imbibed (an Allan word – translated means ‘drink’) a few bottles of the
French wine that fill the boat bilges and then visited the so-called Irish
bar in town. Like most of these places it bears no real relationship to
any bars that I have every visited in Dublin. This one had Guinness on
draft and a Guinness advert on the wall and that was it – no farming nick
nacks on the wall, no authentic Irish jigs on
the sound system, no old news papers and faded photos on the wall, no
crisps… At least it wasn’t a big detour on the way to the bus station for
Eriks trip to the
southern airport and they did sell cold Guinness. We left a little after
midnight. Erik later told us he had a “slight hangover” on the first leg
of his flight to Madrid due to the wine he had drunk earlier and a few
‘black and tans’.
A great
night though.
Wednesday 17th
September
Happy
Birthday Allan ! Oh no, not long until the
dreaded 40….
Special
Birthday treat of full fried breakfast cooked by Bev. She had even managed
to find some sausages that were a passable interpretation of the ones we
get at home and Heinz baked beans. Bev also bought two much needed
presents, a bottle of Aftershave and a pair of skimpier swimming trunks.
Allan has been getting a hard time about the tan on his legs only starting
below the knee because he always wearing his surf dude style shorts and
swimming gear.
This is
definitely not a day for boat maintenance so we chilled out in the Pizza
Hut in town. They had a three course meal deal for only 5 euro 95, and
that includes the beer J
Later in the
evening we managed to find a place to eat that we both liked the look of,
an Italian/Mexican restaurant just off the front street – the
Avenida Marina. Nacho’s and dips to start
followed by great mixed burritos and chimichanga’s
washed down with a bottle of Faustino VII. Great service and food.
Thursday 25th
September
Happy
Birthday Allan’s Dad !
There has
been a noticeable increase in the number of big ships visiting. The format
is usually the same, cruise ships arrive first thing in the morning,
tourists spill out into the town or board the fleets of waiting buses to
take them on tours of the island, then by night fall they are gone again.
This month we have seen the Aurora, Oceania and Deutschland and a few
other smaller ships.
By far the
most impressive though have been the tall sailing ships. This Mexican ship
with an unpronounceable (and forgettable) name spent a week or so in port
on its way to San Juan in the Caribbean. We were able to go on board and
it was beautifully presented.
As she left
port, playing their national anthem, the crew climbed the rigging and took
up saluting positions standing on the yardarms, in a beautifully
synchronised manoeuvre. Other ships in the harbour sounded their horns, in
tribute, as she left for her transatlantic journey.
Tuesday 30th
September
Joyce and
Bill, Bev’s Mum and Dad arrive for two weeks holiday. Allan collects them
from the airport. They have brought the two folding bikes with them on the
plane – it worked out much cheaper than getting them shipped. Dad had to
sit in the boot of the car to get everything in though. A bit of an
uncomfortable 1 hour ride for him – poor thing!!
They also
came loaded up with a months post (all the people still trying to take
money off us), more UK food items (branstone
pickle, ready made sauces, instant bread mix…) and a portable
hoover and toaster.
We have
really started to settle into life in Santa Cruz now. It’s a real mixture
of a place with some beautiful parks and squares, some lovely old
buildings and good shops. It’s also not touristy which is nice.
September
had turned into a month of consolidation. We have done numerous jobs we
needed to get done on the boat, bought lots of little things we need to
get to make life more comfortable and have had time to relax which was
much needed.
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