Running down to Las Palmas

Anastasia
Phil May and Andrea Twigg
Fri 28 Oct 2011 03:53
28:19.4N 15:3.9W
 
Lanzarote to Gran Canaria is 110 miles and, given our record so far, I decided it would be a push to do it in a day sail so we are travelling overnight.  The only problem is that we set off at a conservative 4pm and covered the first 30 miles in 3 hours, giving an ETA of 3am.  It is not a good idea to arrive at a strange port in the dark.  So we have dropped the mainsail (which always complains about downwind sailing anyway) and now we have just got the genoa up.  We are now averaging about 6.5 knots and should arrive at about 8 am.
Our berth in Lanzarote was right next to a 250ft superyacht, Hetairos, owned Swiss businessman Otto Happel, 350 on the Forbes list and worth $2.8 billion.  Here she is arriving back from a day sail.  Take a look at the Hetairos web site if you want to see how the other half lives.
 
Otto had 20 crew members all in matching shirts/shorts and was very busy telling them all what to do, which is I am sure why he didn't get round to inviting us over for cocktails.