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Tuesday, October 4, 2016

2016 Sail La Palma to Las Palmas

At 0745hrs 29th September 2016 we saw off our friends Tom & Annie who left Santa Cruz marina heading for La Gomera. 

We then downloaded yet another set of Grib Files and decided that, after all, this was the best day to leave for the coming 10 days if we wanted to have a chance of sailing back to Las Palmas the most direct route north of Tenerife. 

 

So, Mike returned the hire car to Orlando in Los Cancajos, taxied back for €8, and we cast off our lines at 1215 hrs and headed eastwards for the northern tip of Tenerife,  90 nmiles away, course 084 degrees

 

Leaving Santa Cruz



 

 
The wind was a gentle NE 3 occassionally 4 and the seas quite calm. We tried sailing a few times but the angle was too tight for us to be able to safely clear the northern coast of Tenerife. So we ended up motor sailing most of the afternoon and night. In contrast to our trip to La Palma under a Full Moon two weeks previously, we were now at New Moon and the night was very dark.

We rounded the NEastern tip of Tenerife at 0700 hrs 30/9 and were able to sail more south. At 0740 we were able to sail at 60 degrees to the NNE 4Bft wind 

By 1030 hrs we had cleared the Traffic Separation Zone and could set course 117degrees for La Isletta, Gran Canaria and free off further, sailing with full rig on a beam to broad reach.

 

 

 

 

Around 1600 hrs the wind dropped to a NNE 3 Bft and with quite a swell running, our sails started to flog and progress was slow.  So,  genny furled and motor on .

 
At 1930 hrs we were moored back in our berth in Club Varadero, Las Palmas
Total distance 146 nautical miles in 29.25 hrs average speed 5 Kts. Motored 21 hrs, sailed 8.25 hrs

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