18 Nov - Day 2 Position at 10.20 hrs 26:52.52N 014:14.06W

Imagine Of Falmouth Online Log
Jon Constantine
Sun 18 Nov 2007 10:53
24 hrs into the journey and going well in relatively light winds.

Sunset Over Fuertaventura

The forecast was for south easterly winds nearer the African coast so, along with many of the other boats we decided to sail down the east coast of Fuertaventua leaving all the Canary Islands to starboard.

During the night, the wind strengthened to about 12 knots and we were able to turn off the engine and continue under sail alone.

Just after dark we were visited by several dolphins and we could just make them out as they surfaced.  We could also hear them expelling air.

As this was our first night, we were quite happy not to have too much wind which enables us to settle into a watch routine without both having to be continuously up adjusting sails. With just the two of us on board, we are doing 3 hour watches. Sam took the first watch at 21.00 to 00.00 but as we were about to swap, our new AIS radar system showed a merchant vessel approaching which was going to pass within half a mile of our stern. This new system looks like it is going to be a real help. We are now able to track any vessels over 300 tons on the screen and can even see their names. I decided to call "Maritime Friendship" on the VHF to see if they were able to see us on their radar. I got an immediate response from their radio operator who confirmed he could see us ok but I was not convinced he had seen us before I called him. The AIS has a built in alarm to alert us when a vessel comes within a set range.  We shall make sure we always have this on at night! What a great new gizmo.

After this excitement, I took over the watch at 01.00  until 04.00 but in fact Sam didn't wake me until 05.00 by which time it was getting light. A good first night for both of us. Let's hope it stays that way.

We hope to update the log each day at about 11.00 hrs.

Signing off for today - Jon.