Day 3 - Cascais to Lanzarote

Itchycoo
Tue 14 Aug 2018 08:24
Lighter winds yesterday so slower progress but we still managed 120 nautical miles in the 24 hours to 08.00 so we remain on schedule for a Friday arrival in Lanzarote. Current position 34:44.3N 011:04.3W

Digital Dave tells us we have 346 miles to run to our waypoint off the northern coast and the crew have decided we want to bring back Analogue Dave for the final leg (newer readers who have no idea what I am talking about should read back on the Biscay part of the trip to find out details). We have coped OK without Analogue (any fool should be able to sail one heading for 600 miles and we have plenty of fools on board) but Lanzarote and beyond is more interesting so we've installed an empty ash tray and tidied the chart table - all you have to do now Analogue is book a flight to the Canaries and join us on Friday for the last 5 days of our adventure. Go on - do it - you know you want to.

At 16.30 yesterday we logged our 1000th mile of the trip, a milestone in every sense of the word for all of us.

We are currently dealing with a problem that seemingly has no answer. We all know that the Canaries host tens of thousands of British tourists every year - a good proportion of whom eat corn flakes for breakfast which, we imagine, have to be imported - probably from Spain. There should surely therefore be dozens of ships importing corn flakes (and other stuff) on our route. So why did we see not a single ship traveling in either direction in the last 24 hours? We think they probably don't make corn flakes in Africa so where do they come from?

A highlight yesterday came when we were buzzed by a low flying aircraft which circled us for a while - ideas about its origins and identity include the Morrocan Defence Force and the anti drug traffic agencies but we have no idea who it was or what or why they were checking (we aren't planning on invading Morroco and as far as I know have nothing illegal on board).

Another highlight overnight were the shooting stars which of course are not stars at all but small particles burning up on entering the earth's atmosphere. They come down quite fast you know.

A couple of boat issues (some mentioned previously) have been fixed so that we no longer rely on bin liner technology for our night vision and all lights are working - even if you have to turn on the deck light switch to get the tricolour lights!

We have travelled recently through sea area Trafalgar - site of the famous battle. The crew member who thought the battle was just off the Belgium coast was confused by a mere decade and half a continent. But both Napoleon and Nelson do start with an 'N'.

Onwards and upwards. More soon.



--
Sent Via Iridium Sat Phone

http://blog.mailasail.com/itchycoo