All is well on the good ship Lilli Mae. We are just 40 nm west of Lanzarote with about 60 nm to run to Las Palmas. Based on current speed and heading we will be there in about 9 hours. ETA is 1500 local time.

As we write this entry the time is 0331 UTC (0431 BST). It is dark and we have now to keep a sharp look-out. There are a lot more boats around as we approach the Canaries. The wind is currently north westerly with a speed of 10 kts. This is not enough to sail with out white sails so unfortunately we are motoring. Despite this everyone is in good spirits.

We took the opportunity with the light winds to hoist our new cruising chute. Lilli Mae 1 had her distinctive colours and Lilli Mae 2 now has hers too! 

Like the parasailor this this the first time we have flown the chute so it was a bit a struggle to get it rigged but we got it done. Even with this huge “light wind” sail we our boat speed was too low to persist too long. But at least we now know how it works! Great work by the drone pilot again!

The Lilli Mae crew are in good spirits despite a couple of set backs. I mentioned the spinnaker pole incident. Our planned twin head sail set-up is the only one we have not yet practiced on the water. Since then we have been having trouble with a few other items most notably the heads in the aft cabin have stopped working. We have a long list of fixes and improvements which we will start work on as soon as we arrive in Las Palmas. Our meal plans are working well and despite some early sea sickness the Lilli Mae crew are settling down into a good “life at sea” routine. Our shakes and smoothies blender purchase at Morrisons in Gibraltar have turned out to be a real hit! 

Not much else to report at the moment and so I will keep it short today. We will send our last update for this trip after we have arrived.

Hope you are all well?

Best regards, The crew on Lilli Mae.