Course 218 degrees
Speed 6.5 knots
Wind North East 15-20 knots
Distance in last 24 hours 143 miles
We left Marina Gomera just after midday yesterday and headed out in to a flat calm, beautiful sunny day. The weather forecast was for light winds and swell for the first 24 hours and that we should find wind if we headed south….
We had a perfect afternoon motor sailing with a gentle rolling sea as the islands of La Gomera and Tenerife slowly disappeared into the cloud. Andrew always feels a little sea sick on the first day out, but had taken some meds so was feeling pretty good and played with sails and the navigation equipment. I decided to polish the stainless and really enjoyed sitting on the bow in the sun as I reflected on the journey ahead…. It was a really gentle way to start the trip. We spoke to Serenity via the SSB radio at 3pm who are still in the marina and then Blue Roger at 8pm who left the previous day; they had just started to get some wind. Fenua, our neighbours in the marina left about an hour before us and we can see them clearly on AIS following a similar course; Katharina and I spoke on the VHF for a girly chit chat!
Just after dinner (Lasagne made in port) the wind started to pick up and was coming nicely from the north east (which is what we want). We set the sails and eased right back on the engine, then within half an hour the wind was 12 knots; which is just about enough for us to sail slowly. So we turned the engine went off and had a magical sail until about 2.30am when the wind died and the sails were banging around in the swell, so the engine was on gently again for a couple of hours. At 4.30am the wind was back and stronger so we started sailing again, and have been trucking along nicely since at between 6 and 8 knots.
All is well on board, we both got some sleep and had a shower, it's a lovely gentle motion so I managed to make a nespresso coffee with breakie. The sun is out and the ocean is truly beautiful - only about 2,466 miles to go as the crow flies!
 |
| Selfie as we leave La Gomera |
 |
| Bye bye La Gomera |
 |
| Our last sight of land - Mount Tiede Tenerife peaks out of the cloud |
 |
| Looking back |
 |
| Look at that shine...... |
 |
| Heading South in perfect conditions |
 |
| Sails up at last |
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment