Tenerife

 They day began to approach when we were due to meet Dave and Carol in Tenerife. A last flurry of preparation on Dark Tarn to prepare her for a winter alone unfortunately coincided with the worst weather we had experienced in Getxo. We also had some very bad news from home regarding a relative which knocked us for six a bit. We spent a quiet week aboard watching the rain and being bounced around in the high winds.

Nonetheless the fridge was defrosted and all lockers were inspected and aired, clothes were packed in bags and Lynne finished the spring clean of the headlining show etc. A season early.

After a last con flab with Álvaro who promised to look after Dark Tarn we took the metro into Bilbao to get the bus to Santander. The plan was to give ourselves plenty of time and possibly explore Santander itself for a few hours before catching the bus for a 15 trip to Seve Ballasteros airport. The trip took us an hour and a half along the coast road through some steep mountains and spectacular cliffs and scenery. However to our total surprise before reaching Santander the bus stopped at Seve Ballasteros airport, we decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and de bused with our luggage. Quiet wouldn't begin to describe Santander airport, we had a meal and a coffee before clearing immigration into the deserted departure lounge.

We had a few hours wait being far earlier than intended but it was a not unpleasant  time. There seemed to be 4 flights that evening and it made a marked contrast to Manchester or Dublin!

The flight was 3 hours and we de ended to Tenerife south at midnight local time. We caught a taxi to the marina where we found that neither of our phones had recovered from flight mode in a working state. Lynnes in particular saying it had no SIM probably due to being sat on on the plane by a passenger. We trundled along what appeared to be the visitors pontoon and soon discovered Hocus Pocus moored near one of the strangest craft we had yet come across, a local "party boat" which was tricked out as a Viking longship!

After Dark Tarn, Hocus Pocus was something of a revalation, as we were welcomed by Dave and Carol it was difficult to get used to the vast amount of space aboard, after so long aboard our wee boat!

It was very warm, although we were obviously in "Fernandos" as every other voice was speaking English. Dave and Carol suggested a full one for breakfast and we were delighted to agree. Tenerife itself is fairly obviously a volcanic island as a quick inspection of the local beach revealed.

Dave and Carol had come here for the transport links, to facilitate visits from friends and family ( and us of course! )

And also to provision for the Atlantic crossing. A quick look around the Marina showed a number of boats doing exactly the same thing and the ensigns of Sweden, the U.K. France Poland Netherlands were all in evidence. We got stuck into the snag list ( every boat has one of these ) and things were going well until after a trip up the mast to retrieve a broken halliard I managed to get my specs flicked of by a lazyjack which then gracefully dropped into the briny, oh well I had my spare pair and I'm due for an eye test anyway! Dave manfully volunteered to attempt to dive for them but neither of us is in the first flush of youth and hanging around at a depth of four metres on one breath is a young mans game, but it was worth a try. Monday night was "steak night at the local Irish bar, so we decided that sounded good and it turned out to be just that. 

Of course it's not all work and chatting, some serious relaxing was called for too and I took advantage of Hocus Pocus's hammock to laze a bit while we spoke to Alex on the telephone.