On 15^th August 2021 we finally left for Tenerife. The 1^st part was a bit choppy because we were nose-up wind (meaning that the wind was directly in front of us) so we had to use the motor. This gave me a little of discomfort - seasickness - but less than last time. We finally changed direction where we saw some pilot whales. The wind started pick up – making it ideal for sailing - but the gusts started picking up and soon the heeling was getting considerable. We reefed 3 times but Mistress was still doing over 7 knots. In spite of that, that was one of my first good sailing experience with Mistress. I even started enjoying healing!!! When we got near Tenerife, we pasted the cliff suddenly stopping the wind. There, we got welcome by a mammoth pod of dolphins, a couple jumping up to 1 metre in the sky like they were putting a show just for us. We arrived at 5pm and after a couple of ours we met with Ben and Tes.

Tenerife is the most “normal” island because it looks a lot like continental Europe. It’s mainly flat except the north and the Teide National Park. The north looks considerably like the mountains in Europe and the south looks like the coast of Spain full of tourists not making it my favourite out of the Canaries. Besides that, we really enjoyed the Teide National Park. The best way to see it, in my opinion, is from north to south: you start from the abundance of vegetation in the north full of pine forests, see the lava fields (which are similar to Pozo Negro in Fuerteventura or Timanfaya in Lanzarote) and end with pine forests in the south. We spent most of our time with our rented car in Los Cristianos because we have some friends there and there were more things to do there as a tourist. By the end we had managed to do 1,320 km in a week in Tenerife with that car.

We mostly stayed in Santa Cruz de Tenerife which is the joint capital of the Canaries along with Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Las Palmas is the capitol of La Graciosa, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria whereas Santa Cruz is the capital of La Gomera, La Palma, El Hierro and Tenerife. I believe Santa Cruz is nicer than Las Palmas because there are no ponderous concrete buildings making you feel like an ant. In the centre there is a beautiful square full of flowers and lights in the night. There are also a couple of fountains there adding to the ambiance.

I really enjoyed Tenerife and I would go back again. Actually, it wasn’t the first time we went to Tenerife: 3 years ago we escaped from rainy England for a 4 day holiday in Los Cristianos. I said I wanted to go back there again. We also went on a catamaran where my dad noted that one day he wanted to live on a boat. Well now his dream became reality.