26:17.93N 17:54.36W
California Blue
Mark Bashforth / Jayson Bashforth
Mon 26 Nov 2007 10:11
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Hello Everyone. This is Blog entry number 1 from
the crew of California Blue. It is Monday, November 26th, 2007.
Just before the start Ruth, Ann, Carol, Christan
and Luis (our family living in Maspalomas) stopped by for a quick tour of
California Blue and to say good-bye. We waited patiently for our turn to get
through a busy marina entrance to the outer harbor which was full of sailboats
and well wishers travelling in every direction. It was a challenge not to get
hit by another boat! Axel from the Norwegian sailing magazine Seilas was out in
his RIB and took pictures of the crew and Cal Blue in motion.
After yesterdays chaotic start, things calmed down
a bit for us onboard. We took an East - South East heading out of Las Palmas and
managed to pick up some good wind hitting up to 10 knots at time as we surfed
down the backside of 3-4 meter swells. Some of the waves were so high that our
dinghy was resting on the crest of the waves!
Elliott fell asleep shortly after departure,
probably as a result of the sea sickness tablets. Spencer managed to stay awake
and was rewarded by the sighting of several dolphins that swam and played around
California Blue for almost an hour!
Vic took his cat nap to prepare for his midnight to
04:00 watch. The wind got up a bit in the afternoon reaching about 25-30 knots
on occasion with a few squalls getting us wet.
We had a great spaghetti dinner at 19:30 prepared
by Vic. Kudos to Jayson for making wonderful garlic bread from the half baked
bread we have onboard.
Mark and Elliott went to bed around 20:30 in
an futile attempt to get some rest before my watch at 04:00. Unfortunately the
weather changed, the wind was in every direction and then suddenly not there. As
a result we ran the engine until the early hours of the morning when the wind
came back. I tossed and turned for most of the night trying to hold myself in
bed and keep Elliott from falling out. The swells were pretty big and it was
quite uncomfortable at times. Fortunately I managed to hang on to Blue Kangaroo,
Hannah :)
Spencer stayed up with Jayson for his watch playing
suduko on his iPod touch.
I got up at 03:30 more tired than when I went to
bed. Vic put the Vietnamese coffee on and we tuned the sails, managing 7 knots
on average. I filed our first position report at 04:30 with Chris Tibbs our
expert weatherman and look forward to getting his advice later this morning.
There has been lots of chatter on the VHF - channel
77 and it is interesting to hear how others are doing and if they are
experiencing the same conditions as us.
Jayson just woke up a short while ago and after a
hearty breakfast of honeynut cheerios is busy doing dishes while I get this blog
entry done. The boys are still fast asleep.
Our position is 26:17.93N 17:54.36W as of
08:25 UTC. The wind is blowing between 15-20 knots and we are managing about 8.5
knots. We estimate that we have now covered about 140 nm since the start
yesterday.There is only 1 other vessel in sight and she is about 3 nm off our
starboard beam. Otherwise it's just us and some occasional squalls. Well that's
all for now. I will write again tonight.
Damage report: we lost a batten for our furling
mailsail as a result of a torn pocket. We have it stowed safely on deck and hope
our mainsail won't know the difference.
Best wishes from the crew of California
Blue
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