Not Lanzarote

So - off we set for Lanzarote  - 9am Sunday morning forecast 15 to 20 knots of wind from the quarter. Ha - 30 - 35 knots on the beam.. Soon we were getting stronger gusts and when the wind instrument read over 40 knots, Scruffbag looked at me and said, "Back?" I concurred so we returned to port.

2pm same day and the wind appeared to be dropping so we set off again (hindsight is a wonderful thing and with it we would not have set off). The winds were still strong but were forecast to drop to practically nothing by Monday so we were confident that if we went south for a while to be more comfortable then we could turn and head for Lanzarote once they dropped a bit.

Sunday night - strong winds
Monday - strong winds
Monday night - strong winds
Tuesday morning - dropped a bit but still over 20 knots

Flying fish commits suicide by jumping on to deck

 By now we were closer to the southern part of the island chain and setting a good course for La Gomera, whilst Lanzarote was still 218 miles upwind.

Abandon passage to Lanzarote and head for La Gomera. Agreed.

Winds did not really drop till Tuesday evening and  later that night we slowed right down in order not to arrive in the dark. We were worried as we had not booked a berth and we had been told the marinas get pretty full this time of year but Scruffbag knew of a good anchorage if we could not get into the marina.

Tennerife looked good as we passed it at sunrise.

Fortunately our fears were groundless and we booked into the marina for 15 days. Friends  told us this island is better than Lanzarote and Scruffbag loved it when he was here 18 years ago so here we are in the hot sun ready to enjoy it.

A second ocean sail over - another windy and stressful time for me but another delightful island at journey's end.