We sailed along the east coast of Fuerteventura at 2.5 knots trying not to go to fast overnight. We had a beautiful sky and lots of banter. Stuart did a great job of keeping us on track. We went to bed happy at midnight.

On Thursday morning we were woken with the sound of the anchor being dropped before breakfast – a delicious breakfast of bacon egg and mushrooms and our thanks go to Ali. We prepared to disembark and go in the ships Doti boats to get ashore to Playa Blanca and whatever pleasures awaited us there.

Having failed to find jet skis for Wayne and Logan (-whew!) we found ourselves a nice place to have a drink. We had a leisurely lunch there and wandered back to the marina to the pickup point to get back to the ship.

A German couple wanted to know all about the ship and were very interested to learn that we had wheelchair users on board. The wife was a wheelchair user so maybe some new voyage crew for a future voyage. Our ship also attracted the attention of two ladies, who thought she was a pirate ship! They were very interested and we invited them onboard to see for themselves. They then faced their first JST challenge, getting back down the ladder and into the boat to get back ashore; of course they succeeded in true Lord Nelson style.

In the evening the engineers provided us with a super punch and all were very happy – some were even merry! Dinner was served on deck as it was a beautiful evening. It was a typical Ali meal, scrumptious and healthy. It’s the best food that we have had on our voyages to date. Please come back again next year Ali. We retired to the bar for the rest of the evening and had a quick kip before coming on watch at midnight. All is quiet and we expect a very quiet watch.

Aft Starboard Watch Penny, Stef, Stuart, Iain, Siobhan, John, David PJ, Andrew and Steve