Like a salty sea dog, my tail was wagging wildly, not only was I getting the Plenilunio promotions day, and the CD Tenerife v Cadiz game, the tell tale sign of tall masts told me there were also some interesting ships in Santa Cruz for me to check out.

Down at the old dockside, two majestic ships were moored toe to tail with the Holland flag fluttering proudly on each. The first, Morgenster was a particularly lucky find for me as I had not been able to fit in a press invite to see the ship a few days previously. There was just a few crew attending to maintenance needs and I was offered a brief tour, clambering up the gang plank, I was struck by the neat, sparkling condition of the deck, well it had been in port for two weeks of scrubbing. This was a ship with a mission called Clean To Antarctica which involved the active promotion of recycling plastic. From its Den Helder base, the ship was travelling on to Senegal, Cape Verde, and the Caribbean before the epic trip to the South Pole. In that frozen wasteland they would be trying out a special vehicle, Solar Voyager, made from recycled plastic. The regular 8 strong crew were being joined by 25 volunteers being sponsored by a Chinese company. It’s a very modern project for a ship built in 1919 as a fishing vessel and later rebuilt from just the original hull into the clipper design it now has, including a 30 metre high main mast.

The Europa, just behind it had a slightly different mission, sail training for a mainly young volunteer crew from Canada, Sweden, and the USA. There was not much between the ships age wise, Europa was built in 1911 but after dropping out of service had to wait until 1994 for a refit from the hull upwards. The main mast was a tad higher at 35 metres and the cheeky design on the bow of the ship was sure to create interest at each port they called at. The 56 metre long ship, based in Den Haag, was more about team building and character building for the paying crew who would be pitching in on all the on board tasks, including scaling the masts to set the sails.

Contrast is always a big feature of Santa Cruz port, over in the modern harbour, the cruise liner Celebrity Silhouette dominated the skyline. The 315 metre long palace, launched in 2011, has 2,886 passengers, you wouldn’t catch them climbing more than a couple of stairs, certainly not inching out along the yardarm. The latest cruise had brought them from Southampton, via Portugal, and the Azores. Up on street level overlooking the port, the port authority had a display of info on old ships and nautical equipment, including some heavy diving gear that looked like it had come out of a Jules Verne novel. I wonder what awaits my next call.