Our plan was to sail over to Tenerife, spend a last evening with Marcus, and then leave Tenerife the next day. But plans tend to change, and so they did. We are still here, in Las Galletas on Tenerife. We like this little slow village, not that it’s particularly beautiful or interesting. I think the fact that we don’t feel like exploring this island is the reason we have stayed. Here we have had time to relax, hang out with boat friends and think about the things we need to do before the crossing. Most people here in Las Galletas speak some English, but not at all that much as I am used to on the Canaries. Marcus speaks quite good Spanish and made some friends during his last night here. It’s fantastic how much warmer people get if you speak their language. I tried it myself in the fruit store, although my Spanish is very bad I managed to ask the assistant what the song they played at the moment was called. It’s a song we have heard a lot on the radio lately and a few verses starts with the word Cantare, so we have kind of adopted it as our new boat song. The artist is named Amaia Montero and the song is called Te voy a decir una cosa. Anyway, she started to ask me a few things back and I also found out that she had been at the same place as us on Marcus last night here. Now I’m really keen to learn better Spanish, one way to do it is taking Spanish classes in Cuba. Sofia and my sister seems to think that’s a good idea so I think we will stay on Cuba for more than a month. But plans can change! As days have passed by we have come to the decision that La Gomera is too far away, in the wrong direction, so today (I think) we will leave Las Galletas for the bay called Playa de la Terjita on the south-eastern tip of Tenerife.

The movies are from Marcus last night here, we found a bar that was about to close but let us in and locked the door. Marcus talked with the locals and after a while they started to play for us. It was magical! /The Captain

We could see the island, La Palma, many hours before we arrived, the highest top is about 2500 m. We prepared ourselves for the acceleration zone that is a known phenomena around the Canaries. The wind can increase with up to 15 knots in a few minutes, therefore we took a reef in the mainsail. But as it got darker around us the wind died away and in the end we had to start the engine when we had about 5 nm left. Inside the breakwater we found a ferry harbour and felt a bit lost. We continued into the inner corner where it according to our pilot book was supposed to be a newly built marina. When we got closer we could make out the gap and the lights showing us the way in. The marina was ghostlike, almost no yachts in a very new and rather big marina surrounded by construction sites. We moored along a reception pontoon and had a cup of tea before we went to bed around 01.00 am. Before breakfast today we went to the marina office, housed in a barrack, and checked in. No problem at all, they didn't say anything about our arrival outside office hours. The price here is alright (14 euros), water, electricity and Wifi is included. This afternoon Marcus and I have been strolling around in the picturesque city centre, of course with a beer stop, while Sofia has been doing some power walking. Santa Cruz de La Palma seems to be a very nice and quiet city without the massive tourist invasion typical for the Canaries. So far no one has tried to speak Swedish with me to lure me into a restaurant and that's a very good sign. / The Captain

New pictures from Madeira and Ilhas Selvagens uploaded, you find them here.