Caribbean Odyssey starts from Tenerife

Santa Cruz de Tenerife

After a wonderful start to the new year with days of cobalt blue skies, steady NE winds and pleasant temperatures, culminating with a balmy night for the Three Kings’ procession, participants in the Caribbean Odyssey woke up on Saturday to a dull cold day with rain showers and a sad-looking grey sky.

Marina Santa Cruz

With all preparations done and all boats in good shape, the spirits were high and all participants were keen to finally be on their way.

With proverbial Swiss punctuality the crew of Olena were waiting impatiently to cast their lines.

The crew of Wilderness were just as keen to go.

Last jobs on Sandro and Tubalcain.

But the first to be on its way was Sina.

To be followed by Olena.

With the crew of Tubalcain busy stowing away their fenders before putting to sea.

They were followed closely by Wilderness.

Then came Sandro.

And finally Serenity.

The aerial photograph of the city of Santa Cruz, shown at the beginning of this report, was taken last year while on a flight from Tenerife to the neighbouring island of Gran Canaria. More recently, again from my window seat, I was lucky to take another aerial shot of this beautiful island, that of the 3700-metre high volcanic cone of Mount Teide.