Sailing without sails

Anastasia
Phil May and Andrea Twigg
Fri 28 Oct 2011 21:48
28:07.75N 15:25.51W
 
In the end I took all the sails down to try and slow down enough to avoid getting to Gran Canaria before dawn.  That cut the speed down to 4.5 knots but it was still a close thing.  We arrived at 8:30, just after the sun rose.  We have calculated that, in the worst case scenario where we lose our mast and all our sails, we can still make it across the Atlantic in about six weeks with food and drink to spare.
 
Anyway here we are in Las Palmas, ready for the start of the ARC (assuming we can get everything that broke on the way down here fixed in time).  The wind instruments can't be fixed because they have disappeared completely, presumably lost at sea, so I have ordered some new ones.  Bertie has to go up the mast tomorrow to fix the deck light, which means my priority is to fix the hydraulic winch first, or else I will be winching him up manually.