Canaries arrival

We tied Ruth II to the marina in Santa Cruz de Tenerife early this morning. 

Like the dolphins on yesterday's photo she must have sensed something was near - we did almost as much milage in the last two days as we did in the first five of the leg from Cape Verdes. 

At one stage I thought we might be like Columbus and find America such was the initial dog leg to sea. After a couple of false tacks we eventually got a freeing wind, and helped by the engine we avoided falling off the edge of the ocean. 

Port arrival always means bubbles and this time Ruth II really needed her bath, her deck, guardrails and anything exposed were salt encrusted after the long bouncy beat. So straight from night watches to hours of hosing and scrubbing, the boat quite properly comes first and the crew scrub later. It will be bed for me once this post sends and God knows when I will get up again. 

However this is probably going to be a shortish stop. The weather next week looks quite suitable for the 700NM hop to Gibraltar, provided we don't wait too long. The current thinking is maybe to head out on Tuesday morning, there is a weather system out near the Azores which has pushed the trade winds in towards the African coast which should give us a quiet calm band to motor in or even as SW wind for a bit. 

As with all boat plans... subject to change 

TC