Start and Day 1
Kirofbrixham
Mon 24 Nov 2008 11:55
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WE HAVE LEFT GRAN
CANARIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Final stow of the fruit and veg forward when Ian
moved out of his cabin into the saloon and then breakfast of bucks fizz and
bacon butties followed by topping up the water tanks and tidying up ready to
leave. Spotted an apparent gap in the traffic and left a little earlier than
planned then spent about an hour loitering well out of the way of the melee
until just before the 10 minute gun. Crossed the line with full main and motor
running (just in case) - all boats were required to remove bow anchors or fender
them to lessen the damage in the case of collision.
Headed off along the coast following Enrique's
advice as soon as clear of the main fleet (which went more offshore) and ran
under full genoa for a while until decided to pole the genoa out and run
goosewinged. The promised acceleration zone around the airport turned out to be
a bit of a myth and we are now doing about 6.5kts through the water in a
generally southerly direction. We'll keep this course up all night to avoid the
wind shadow at the bottom of the island and then jibe in the
morning.
Dinner is scheduled for 6ish and then Ian is doing
the first watch (8 till 10).
The fleet leaving was pretty spectacular and a lot
easier than anticipated, everyone was being pretty cautious and no made dashes
for the line with everything up. Some spinnakers and parasailors in use in the
cruising fleet but it looks like most (including us) left them down expecting to
have to work harder through the acceleration area where we were promised up to
35kts of wind rather than the force 4 that we got.Still doing a decent speed
without out it so no problem.
It's been a lovely sunny day but is still quite
cool out in the breeze, we are in for a lovely first sunset at this
rate.
We are all glad to be at sea after so long in the
marina although it still doesn't really feel that this is the first little bit
of such a long trip.
Skippers note:
Its very good to be away at last after so
much effort to get as to this point, this why we are here, and the feeling
is great.
Having been advised by a local well known sailor to
go close inshore going down the east coast of the island, we felt very smug when
we were up with the 80ft boats who had gone offshore to avoid the acceleration
zone and were coming back on the correct course heading for the Cape Verde
islands.
Our course towards the Cape Verdes was advised by
Enrique, but as it turns out the weather is playing its hand with the Azores
high well north of us and a low pressure mid Atlantic which is causing a
lack of wind on the direct shorter route across.
Had starlight night, a tad chilly but quite
mesmerising looking up at all these little dots.
Today 24th, we have already had 20 Bottlenose
Dolphins playing around the boat, just great.Its sunny and quite hot. The
parasailor is flying (Its like a spinnaker with a specially designed hole that
has a wing that inflates as the wind blows through it.)and we are managing
6.5kts plus. Still need to go faster
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