27:07.54N
15:33.66W
Course bearing: 220
Engine hours: 5
Distance travelled: 140
24 Hours: 140


We set off from Marina Rubicon at 11.30 on Saturday 23rd and plan to upload the blog daily at this time. The watch system rotates and so the authorship of the blog will rotate too - it's Margaret today (with improvements from all) and will be Bryan tomorrow. Having four aboard means the watch system is very relaxed, with plenty of time for sleep.

24 hours out, we are still in sight of the Canary Islands: Fuerteventura is almost out of sight, but Grand Canary is well in view; with Tenerife behind and one other island on the horizon - either La Gomera or El Hierro. In the other direction the African coast is only 85m away.

The sun is hot and there's very little breeze now, so the engine is on. What wind there has been has been from a very unusual direction - instead of the twin headsail sail that would come with the NE trade winds, we've been sailing with the wind between 60-90 degrees. Unprecedented! We did have a very nice first 18hrs with the wind between 10-15knts, our 24hrs run was looking like 155+ miles but then Roger lost the wind when Lucy handed over the watch at 0300hrs. Chris on Zepher this would constitute a session in the veg locker. We were down to 1kt before the engine went on!

Little excitement other than for Bryan who had a close encounter with a big cruise liner in the early evening watch - it passed just half a mile behind. Other than that we've seen three tankers, and a couple of yachts in the distance. Lucy has seen dolphins, but they didn't linger - the boat speed wasn't fast enough to encourage them to play with the bow wave. There is minimal pollution and so the shooting stars were clear.

All is well!