Underway just south of the Canary Islands and making excellent progress under sail with a strong NW breeze guiding us southward. We left Las Palmas shortly after breakfast yesterday and it was something of a baptism of fire for crew members unused to the violent motion of the vessel in rough weather. We battled our way around the north of the island (gaining some rather green faces along the way) and back down its western coast. To great collective relief in the lee of Tenerife the weather calmed and remained so much of the day. This allowed everyone to relax into the ships routine and enjoy the sight of Tenerife in the distance shrouded by thunderheads.
Today has been mostly fine weather with a few scattered showers allowing us to set the majority of our sails and we have been cracking along ever since at between 4 – 8 kts. Both wind and weather look favourable for the next few days and reaching Cape Verde almost entirely under sail seems realistic at this point.
Rob, Bjorn, Pauline, Sean, Ali, John Stretch: Fwd Port
