After leaving Marina Del Sur we had a long day trying to sail to Santa Cruz de Tenerife where our guests would depart a few days later.
The sailing was simply frustrating with good wind at first, but from the wrong direction and then light winds but in the right direction. After a few hours it became apparent that we would have to motor into a lumpy sea in order to reach the marina at a sensible time.
Our late arrival in the marina was no problem as the friendly and helpful staff are on duty 24 hours per day. They quickly helped us into our berth and then Angelika cooked a lovely dinner with wine.
During the manoeuvre the bow thruster died completely with an loud and unnerving shriek. I had been expecting it so I was ready, but it’s disappointing to see how dependent I have become on this device.
We had deliberately timed our arrival in Santa Cruz to coincide with the last week of the the annual Carnival. Unfortunately this was not a good plan as the main stage was just minutes away from the marina. Very convenient, but also incredibly noisy.
The music continued the whole night and finally finished at 0530! Some of the music was OK, but much of it was unintelligible and simply L-O-U-D!
The Carnival action continued over the next few days with colourful parades and more very loud music into the early hours – generally until around 0500.
After the parade we went to one of the street food “restaurants” and had paella, tortilla, chips and four very large beers.
The food looked super, but unfortunately it was all dry and tasteless. The beers were large and everything was fine until we received the bill – a whopping 81€!! Unbelievable…. We won’t make that mistake again.
The last night of the carnival ended with a spectacular firework display at a very reasonable 2230 (unfortunately we didn’t get many good photos). This was followed by more music, but on a stage further into the town and was simply a subdued background noise. This also ended around midnight, and a calm night followed, finally!
