Well we did it - went "Primitive" as Karen referred to it - anchored for 6 nights in the Bahia de Antiquera - about 5 miles north of Santa Cruz de Tenerfie. For any yachties reading this - Karen said it in jest  as up until now we had enjoyed the luxuries of marinas (although our first Moroccan experience was hardly luxury - dead fish and diesel as well as a fat friendly cat greeting us as we alighted the starboard sugar scoops - but that is another story) for the first 6 months of our journey.

We set sail in a rather choppy 2+ meter swell coming into Las Palmas, at 7:00am, about 1/2 hour behind our companion catamaran Queimarla out of Freementle with the motors on half throttle and full sails in about 12 knots. We had to motor up north around La Isletta before turning to a broad starboard reach for the trip. Queimarla, built by its owners Paul and Barb is a nice 45ft sailing catamaran, is designed much more for sailing than our apartment on the water. Unfortunately, given the differences in boat speeds in light winds and trimming skills most of what I saw of them was a view like this:

Well actually this is a close up - our boat takes a bit more wind to get going than their's.

The closer we got to Tenerife the further to the east the wind moved to the east and the further north we sailed.

Finally we turned into Tenerife (before we overshot the island) - I was impressed we finally caught Queimarla - only to find later that they had practiced their storm maneuvers on the way.

As we turned to the island we both dropped our sails and the 5knots Where II could muster ended up being a winner and we got some better views of Q........ check out the change in skippers

Paul

Molly -the fluffy white dog

Pretty much to plan, we arrived at Bahia de Antequera on Thursday evening to an emptying bay and we went in first - our first time dropping an anchor for an overnighter - I surveyed the area for depth and eventually anchored off the starboard bow of another yacht before Q came in - it felt good but unsure whether we had done it right (.... never anchor in front of anyone kept going through my mind).
Paul and Barb then came in and anchored and we started to relax - well we both stayed on our repective boats wondering why the other party wasn't coming over.

We had entered the bay on a 4 day Spanish long weekend and slowly on Friday , Saturday and Sunday our peace was shattered - there must have been 4000000 boat in the harbour...

Okay - it doesn't look so bad - but all the weekenders basically drove in, dropped some chain in one spot and then relaxed....
We had 30 meters of chain our and swung as a cat does - they had maybe 15 and swung on a lot less chain / warp - sometimes I could eyeball the skipper of the boat next to me and then he would be 30 meters away. All this in the acceleration zone with variable winds from just about any direction. Fortunately the skippers of the boat next to me got up from the cushions (and black bikinied blonde) on the bow and watched me watch him from my cockpit - nerve wracking but safe.

By Monday the Bay was safe from weekenders and we relaxed in between gusts. We occassionally made it to shore, took our dinghy for a burl (it was good to be with other Australians who understood what a burl was) around the bay.

So you must wonder what the hell you do in a bay with nothing on shore for 6 days - well the social calender was hot - there was drinks on respective boats, dinner parties (interrupted by a quick dash back to Where II to check whether it was dragging) and baking bread - yes I baked our first bread rolls on board Where II


And of course there is the water sports - rowing and snorkling. But before you look at the pictures - please remember we are Australians (love the water if it is warm) and rowing has always sounded hard work....



By the way see the ferry in the background - if you ever sail - watch them - apparently they only use their radar to pick their targets...... You have to wonder why we put the radar reflector on the boat????
So what was I doing all this time? Well Barb and Paul had given me the gear to make up a trawling line - the Lord only knows what we will do when we catch something.... so I put the trawling line together.

I also cleared the props, handled the officials that came upon us in a very fast looking boat

We went ashore once and climbed up the surrounding hills - spectacular scenery.

Paul was a bit more energetic and headed up further and bought back some great shots (Thanks Paul)

Of a night we settled back - only half relaxing as we had to check the position of the boat regularly (a bit of first time nerves (you know - will the earth move, is it the right hold, is the position still the same....) and watch the occassionally suspicious meeting of boats in the middle of the night - I think I have clear evidence of a drug drop here - what do you think?


So is it a good anchorage? Yes not to bad - go in at 7 m and you should be on sand with good holding - it is protected from the north to northwest but the swell comes in around the point so it is a bit rolly. Also it is just off the acceleration zone so the wind is very variable and gusts come down off the cliffs - not what is on Windguru and you move around alot. Also avoid the weekends - it is only 5 miles from Santa Cruz so a popular place with the locals - and I can understand why - so it does get crowded. One guy wanted to drop his anchor about 8m off my port bow - but understood my english gestures and moved quickly - they don't quite understand the dynamics of a 13t catamaran with 2.5m high sides, gusty winds and a 35m chain.....