Playa de las Tejitas Tenerife

Puerto Mogán, Gran Canaria   

We made an early start (0705!) out of Anfi del Mar on the morning of Tuesday 14 November. We were planning to go to La Gomera but in 2 stages, breaking the passage briefly in Tenerife. The forecast was good and we wanted to arrive in daylight, but you can never guarantee the wind, hence the early start. Heading northwest from Anfi del Mar in the calm of the early morning our prompt start seemed well-justified. The scenery along the southwestern coast of Gran Canaria is quite spectacular, if you ignore some of the larger resort complexes [Ed: like Anfi del Mar!].

Cape Descojonado – the western tip of Gran Canaria but it looks like the end of the world   

The morning light made the spectacular scenery even more dramatic. We followed a straight-line course from Anfi del Mar to our planned destination on Tenerife, separating from the coast of Gran Canaria at about Puerto Mogán, but a couple of other yachts going the same way as us, continued to hug the coast until they reached Cape Descojonado, the most westerly point of the island. As we moved away from the island, the seas increased but the wind stayed light, so the mainsail slatted noisily as BV rolled in the swell. Gradually we moved out of the island’s wind shadow and by 0910 we had switched off the engine. Inevitably, the wind curved around Gran Canaria so we started off with the wind from dead behind us, the mainsail held out to port and the genoa poled out to starboard. However, within about 30 minutes we had had to roll away significant amounts of genoa, put 2 reefs in the main then adjust the sails for a beam reach – the true northeasterly wind had finally reached us once we were well clear of the effect of the island. Perhaps that’s why Troll had decided to keep hugging the coast until she reached Cape Descojonado, to save all that sail handling!

El Tiede, Tenerife’s 3717m high volcano   

Once we had eventually settled on a sailplan we had time to take in our surroundings properly again. Tenerife was already in sight so navigation was very easy! At first it was only the tip of the volcano, El Tiede, that was in view (and that from 50nm away, though at 3717m AMSL I suppose that should be no great surprise) but gradually the rest of the island appeared too.

We also had an appearance from several pods of dolphins, one of which numbered about 20 animals, some babies amongst them. Unfortunately, they stayed long enough for me to get some good pictures but not long enough for Nicky to also enjoy some time up on the foredeck watching their antics.

Playa de las Tejitas ahead   

Since this was just a passage stop, we had decided to drop anchor in Playa de las Tejitas, rather than go into one of the marinas on the south coast of Tenerife. The anchorage is protected from the wind and swell by Punta Roja, a spectacular red rock headland that is visible from quite some distance out.

Playa de las Tejitas   

The beach itself is fairly unremarkable and, being black sand, isn’t terribly attractive [Ed: not helped either by the almost continual low cloud cover or the background of old hotels and the airport, however convenient it may be for the latter!]. When we arrived there was already one Brit yacht at anchor in the bay and we were joined by another just before sunset.

Punta Roja   

The real attraction, however, was Punta Roja – both for the shelter that it affords the bay and for the colour it glows when the sun comes out.

Leaving Tenerife – and another sunrise on the go   

In the end, we had made good time on our passage from Anfi del Mar so we had longer at anchor than we had anticipated. Even so, we didn’t stay for long and were up and away the following morning by 0720. By that time the first Brit yacht had already gone and was out of sight. We had another 50(ish) mile passage ahead of us, this time to La Gomera. Though we weren’t exactly sure where we would go to on the island, there were several possible options; it would all rather depend on how the wind and swell worked out.

Playa de las Tejitas, Tenerife, Canary Islands