Into the acceleration zone

Sailing between the Canary Islands

Many people might assume that sailing around the Canary Islands entails balmy cruising in temperate sub-tropical latitudes. Saecwen’s experience of exploring the archipelago this August and September was far from the case. True: the Canaries at certain times of the year enjoy periods of settled balmy weather; but once the north east trade winds start to blow in earnest during the summer, it becomes a very different picture.

Firstly, these prevailing winds, which start as the Portuguese Trades almost 1,000 miles to the north, have nothing to break them before reaching the islands. This huge expanse of open ocean (or “fetch” to use the appropriate nautical term) results in a powerful south-bound current setting in - and a substantial ocean ground swell building up – which then channels between the islands in full force.

The Canary Island Wind Acceleration Zones

Secondly, the Islands are incredibly steep-to, with depths dropping down to over 2,000 meters often within 3-4 miles of their shores. This results in huge seas piling up as the south flowing ocean wells up from the abyss and piles into the steep underwater walls of the islands, creating very short and steep seas.

And finally, the peaks of the islands are in many cases very high (Tenerife 3,700m, La Palma 2,400m, Grand Canaria 2,000m, etc) creating the notorious wind acceleration zones between them. Here, the effect of the trade winds funnelling through the gaps between the mountainous islands can at times double the strength of the wind, sometimes to gusts that reach full gale force, which can often hit you without any warning.

NIght passage - Lanzarote to Tenerife

Over recent weeks Saecwen has become well acquainted with these Canary Island acceleration zones. For example, during our 140-mile crossing from the south coast of Lanzarote to the port of Santa Cruz on Tenerife’s northeast corner, we had to contend with a huge northerly sea with wave heights well over 2.5 meters coming in onto our starboard quarter. With the wind gusting to 30 knots Saecwen had an exhilarating sail as she flew along under the full moon at over six knots of boat speed with our sails fully reefed. This was a full baptism of fire for our new crew Jem and Emily who had just joined us from the UK and Ireland respectively.

Then during our 20-mile crossing from the southern shore of Tenerife to the mountainous Island of La Gomera, one moment we were gently sailing in 10 kns of wind under the shadow of Tenerife’s 3,700m Mt Teide and the next – BANG! – we were thrashing into 30 knots of wind on the starboard bow as the trade winds funnelled down the channel between the two islands in classic Canary Isles acceleration zone manner.

Passage to La Gomera

We have loved our stay in the Canaries and navigating through these very challenging conditions has made up for some exhilarating sailing, putting both the boat and crew solidly through their paces.

However, we are very much looking forward to returning to the open ocean and Saecwen is definitely feeling well prepared for the next stage of her adventures as we soon head back out into the Atlantic to continue our southward journey.