El Médano had had a good run of windy days over New Year, so I was hopeful of some windsurfing. The wind dropped the day we arrived, and though I got some windsurfing the following day, we had only 3 good days in 2 weeks.
These were 5.3m² or 5.7m² days, nothing exceptional. On another day, I sailed 5.7m² in the morning. Another day, the wind was Westerly, and I could have sailed with a large sail on flat water. One day, we watched the Easterly wind offshore all day, but it stayed too far out of reach. Meanwhile, the planes at the airport were taking off into a Westerly wind, and there was no wind at all on the beach! In total, 5 sailable days, definitely less than we might have expected.
Much of the time, it was cloudy, and we had a lot of rain. One day it rained fairly heavily all day. There was snow on Teide - not enough to ski on, and it didn't last long, but makes a good photo. With the cloud, it was also quite cold (by Tenerife standards), so I wore the detachable arms with my convertible wetsuit. We also had some good warm sunny weather.
The desert vegetation has responded very well to the extra rainfall. Everything was very green (by Tenerife standards). The local kesterels were very active. I took lots of photos of flowering shrubs, kesterels, and mountain scenery.
South Bay have a good wind forecast, so we were able to go and do some walks, without fearing the loss of windsurfing time! We walked up Montaņa Guaya, beside Los Christianos, and up Conde from Arona. Conde is an enourmous flat-topped 'rock' of about 3000 ft. height, which dominates the Playa Americas, Los Christianos area. Some kestrels on the summit allowed me to take their photos. Another day, we saw a large white owl near the motorway on a walk from San Isidro.
The local buses are quite amazing. We were almost the only passengers on the bus to La Escalona, on narrow winding roads. From Escalona, we walked through the woods above Barranco Infierno and down to Adeje.
After a quiet February, the winds in Tenerife picked up early in March. We arrived on Wednesday 8 March, and I sailed the 69L Naish wave board on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Friday was 3.7m², but by Saturday afternoon I was using the 5.3m². This was much better windsurfing than I would normally expect at this time of year.
After that, the wind was disappointing, and went Westerly. Westerly winds mean flat water, and also confine you to the corner of the bay unless you want to risk being blown out to sea.
It was hot and sunny - a great contrast to the cold weather back home.
We arrived in Tenerife just in time for the wind to pick up. I sailed on 20 days out of 21, usually morning and afternoon. The wind was not very strong, so most of the time I was sailing with a 5.7m² sail on the Naish Hybrid.
Even with this moderate wind, there were fairly large waves, and some shore break, so sailing was more interesting than in the sheltered waters I sail at home.
I also sailed the Naish Hybrid with a 7.3m² sail. It works fine, but the sail is rather heavy. The Hybrid is an 89 Litre board, fast and light weight, goes upwind like a dream, and flies off the waves if there is sufficient power.
I also sailed the 69 Litre Naish wave board, but almost entirely with the 5.3m² sail. The board works fine with this sail, but only if it is correctly rigged. It is easy to rig these sails with too much downhaul, too much outhaul, or too much mast extension. I spent a lot of time re-rigging sails!
As all the existing small waveboards had been booked, South Bay had acquired another. I had the pleasure of sailing a new board.
South Bay received new 2007 Naish Force sails while I was there, which will replace all their existing wave sails. I was the first to take out the new 5.7m² sail. I sailed all the way up into North Bay, then in the waves off the harbour for a while, and then around South Bay. After a couple of hours, I returned to the hire center with dry hair, having not fallen off the board at all.
The new sails work fine. They have a large amount of reflective metallic coating, which can be unpleasant in the strong sunshine.
The council waited until 22 June before starting repairs in Red Square and along the waterfront. So we had noise from the generator for the concrete mixer from 08:00 every morning. In Britain, you would expect such things to be done outside the main tourist season, but the council clearly wish to be seen to be taking an interest in the place.
The town and beach were much busier than I have seen them before, especially at weekends. There was very noisy 'entertainment' in the main square on many evenings.
A 'Canarian Waveriders' wavesailing competition took place at Cabezo beach from 14 July to 16 July. They had hardly any wind for the first and last day of the competition. Everyone involved would have been greatly disappointed.
A two-mast yacht came loose from its moorings around the time of the full moon and high tides. It ended up on the beach. The efforts of a tug only succeeded in breaking the jib mounting. The wreck was taken away a couple of days later, probably by the beach cleaners.
On the day of our departure, we saw the remains of a large wooden boat being removed from the beach. Boats such as this are used to transfer illegal immigrants from Africa.
This year, most of the wind was Westerly, which brought high temperatures and flat water. When we had wind, it was gusty, and generally didn't last long. One day, a period of wind was followed by heavy rain, with thunder and lightening. This brought floods, washed away part of the beach, and put the electricity out of action over part of El Medano!
In warm westerly winds, we were sailing in beach shorts. The water was very warm out in the bay.
For a time, it seemed I would not get any good windsurfing, but the wind turned NE for the last 3 days of the holiday.
On Sunday, I sailed 5.7m² on the Naish Hybrid in the morning, but the wind dropped at lunchtime.
On Monday also, the wind dropped at lunchtime, but came back later in the day. I sailed 5.7m² in the morning, and 7.3m² on a larger board later.
On Tuesday, the wind strengthened at lunchtime, but was very gusty with some shower activity. With dense cloud cover, it was colder than previously, and I wore a summer wetsuit.
I hired from SurfCenter in South Bay. I sailed 4 days in total.
OTC-windsurf is a new English-run windsurf center in South Bay. The staff could be seen out on the water, sailing together and taking flash photographs of each other with hand held cameras. I very much hope they are successful in attracting more English-speaking windsurfers to Tenerife.