The first night out of Las Palmas was the most unstable. We started the race in 25 Kts downwind and it very quickly became 30 Kts down the side of Grand Canara near the airport. There is an acceleration zone here. We had 1 reef in the mainsail and 1/3 furled jib and repeated surfing above hull speed (7.2) for first 36 hours. I feel I can mention it now but in the fist night at 04:00 hrs and about 100 miles off Grand Caneria in 25-30 kts we lost our steering and have to switch to the emergency tiller. Thankfully we had practiced this in the marina the week before. Graham & Dan where on watch. When the steering went Arion rounded up and safely sat in a hove too position but with the jib furled and the mainsail flapping. We then managed the next 6 hours with the emergency tiller under mainsail with 2 hands and changing over every 2 hours (Strong man Alastair managed 4 hrs). At first light I set to work on the steering. The aft bolt on the steering drive that attaches through the quadrant on the main rudder post from the wheel had come loose and was missing. This also had disabled our auto helm. Thankfully the spare bolts I had bought from home as my emergency bolts in the event of loosing the forward hatch were the right size and diameter to replace it. It was then a relatively straight forward repair.

There are 3 known routes to St Lucia from Las Palmas, The great circle route the southern route and the middle route. The great circle route is approx 2600 miles and the southern route is approx 2800 miles and middle route somewhere in between. The great circle route which is 200 miles shorter is the higher risk as the trade winds can be less consistent the sea swell is also more uncomfortable, The southern route is longer more predictable trade winds and you can have up to 0.5 Knots favourable current over the ground. We have tried to stick to the great circle route but I think have ended up much closer to the middle route.

The winds over the last 2 days have been shifting about the rhumb line by about 30-40 degrees and you are not always the correct side of the rhumb line so in order to not sail by the lee we have drifted south of our rhumb line be about 30 miles. 

Until last night we have also been hand steering all the way due to it be predominantly dead down wind. However with our new course to St Lucia a beam reach on starboard gybe. With spinnaker it is far more stable and the auto helm is steering a better course than us.

The fridge on board has been excellent and is totally stocked up with chicken, lamb, pork & beef and need to be eaten in that order. With hopefully a fish day in between each change of meet. So yesterday was a first fish day and Dan managed to catch a Dorado within 2 hours of putting the line out. A truly beautifully yellow & green fish with blue spots. Danny oven cooked it with onion and lemon. It was a delicious feast and time to celebrate so opened our first bottle of red wine.