Tenerife, Club Sail Sea School Review

Overall Rating

Sadly we entirely agree with the opinion of the writer on 26 april 2009. We booked to with Tenerife, Club Sail Sea School to sail from Funchal, Madeira to Huelva, Spain with Club Sail Sea School, Tenerife, the cost of which was advertised at 800' per person and we were told covered breakfast, lunch and dinner on board from 3 - 11 July plus the supply of lightweight foulies and bed linen. We were told there would be 6 on board and we would be working 1 in 3 watches. A week before our departue, an e-mail arrived saying 'bring sleeping bags and also foulies as they will fit you'. This was annoying as we were booked hand-luggage only but we didn't complain. On arrival in Funchal we received a text to say the boat was not in Funchal but in Porto Santo (an island 75kms away) and to catch a ferry which we did. We were told we would be met off the ferry. We were not so got a taxi as we had heavy bags and it was at least a 15 minute walk to the boat. We set sail next day and were working watches 1 in 2 (not 1 in 3 as we'd be told). These were 4hrs on on 4hrs off during the day, and 3 on 3 off during the night for the entire passage, as the skipper and first mate were two of the 6 on board an they both 'floated'. However most of the 'floating' seemed to be done from their bunks. The skipper complained all the time about not getting enough sleep and needing to get his head down. During the entire trip only 3 meals were provided. We lived on cereal, bits of cake and bananas. The wife of the other couple, who were Lithuanian, said she would cook some pasta which we had on two occasions. I was reprimanded for throwing 2 slices of bread over the side (it was dry bread, nothing on it but something to eat). I did this because they tasted disgusting and, on later inspection of the packet of bread, it was found to be covered in mould being 7 days beyond its sell-by date. The winds were F7 to lower end of F8 all the way, so it was extremely difficult to move around inside the boat as we were heeled over 45 degrees on port tack for the entire passage until about 30 miles off Spain. The skipper seemed determined to get to there as fast as possible and wouldn't bear away off the wind at all to make life a little more comfortable even though we were making good time. When we arrived in Spain, we were not offered any food at any time. Food was prepared on the sister boat on one occasion and the skipper and 1st mate went to eat it, but we were not invited. I opened a tin of frankfurters and baked beans for us. As soon as we arrived, the Lithuanian couple organized a taxi to a hotel and left. The skipper then complained to us that they had not remained on board to clean the boat. I offered to cook breakfast and said we would wash down the boat and clean the cooker but refused to clean out the bilges (which were disgusting). The skipper said he loved cooking (!) and he would do breakfast. However when we returned from the shower block he was frying bread and said "Don't take this the wrong way, but I haven't cooked you any breakfast. We (the 1st mate and him) thought that if you wash down the boat and do the cooker, you can then get away earlier and have the rest of the day off"!!!!!! So we bought our breakfast at the marina. We had arrived early in Spain and had paid to be accommodated on board until the Saturday morning,, so we did our best to provide for ourselves from what remained on board, which wasn't much, and ate ashore in the evening. We had cooked ourselves boiled eggs for breakfast but on our last morning, the eggs and some bread, which had been there the night before had mysteriously disappeared, leaving us just cereal. We sent an e-mail on return to Club Sail and received a reply that they would like to speak to the skipper before commenting. Since then, despite a follow-up from us, absolutely nothing.