Having decided that our best (though not perfect) weather window to travel the 300Nm to Gran Canaria meant leaving Porto Santo on Weds morning, we spent Tuesday preparing!  More laundry, more food supplies and more general checks. A couple of swims around Cassini to cool off, dinner, yet another delicious Portuguese tart and a glass of Madeira to toast our stay here. Porto Santo has been a safe and useful stopover for us and all for less than 7 Euros per night, but we are all ready to move on.

Weds morning and after an early dinghy trip ashore for a shower we were off.

The anchor came up perfectly which was a relief as the harbour anchorage had a reputation for seabed detritus to foul any unwary anchor layers!

Not much wind so more engining. We did manage a couple of hours of sailing but as we (at least Catherine and I) have come to expect, wind is hardly ever in the 'right' direction or the 'right' strength. The old sailors adage about 'not being able to change the wind direction so alter the set of your sails' is all very well but not particularly helpful when you have a deadline destination!

At least engining kept us fairly stable so Catherine decided rather than reheat one of our prepared casseroles she would dish up salmon and veg. Not salmon we caught I hasten to add.

A very tedious and noisy night then ensued, motoring all the way, as I write at 0430 we are still awaiting the Goldilocks version of the forecasted wind, although it is now a beautiful clear starry night and I have seen a few shooting stars.

0440 update, the engine has just been turned off and we are sailing - and almost in the 'right' direction, fingers crossed it lasts. I’m off to bed now, leaving Simon the last hour till 6am when team Langhorn take over.

It’s 8am now and I’ve just had the strangest dream - it was about half an hour after I’d gone to bed. We all 4 were up again, engine back on, chasing a small very, very, very expensive floating torch around the sea. Round and round it we went until finally Nigel managed to scoop it up - top work.

Or maybe it wasn’t a dream after all!

To top that off we are now back motoring, it is all very frustrating. It would be good to finish the trip on a high with some decent sailing.

Sally