Malua is at 27:27.574N 15:43.32W at 1800 on 20/11/2012 50nm from Canaries 2705 to go

Malua is shipshape and Bristol with full diesel and water.  Things are generally in their correct place.  I have moved out of the main cabin and now sleep in the quarter berth aft of the navigation station so I can see the instruments when I am in the berth.

We had just finished the morning MOzzie net when I spied an official vessel visiting the yachts anchored in the bay adjacent to the Marina.  He was collecting the Euro 50 light dues payable by every yacht visiting the Canaries.  We had not payed it yet although we had been in two marina's who’s responsibility it is to collect this tax.  With post hast we upped the anchor and headed off, passing the fellow as we exited the bay.  A goodbye wave was all he got from us that day.

We were finally off on the long 2755 nm to Barbados in the Caribbean.  It took Bernard Mortessier 33 days and Beth Lennard 26 days so our estimate of 16 to 20 will be good going.

Our first day was spent with no wind so be turned on the engine and motored out of the Canaries local wind.  My sunrise on day two the trade winds from the NE had come up to 10 knots and we were sailing along down wind with the genoa out on the spinnaker pole.  The seas are calm and it is easy to move about the boat getting all the lines and blocks adjusted to reduce chafe.

During the period that we had the motor on I did an inspection of the engine and noticed one of the fuel filters had a lot of gunk in the collection bowl.  I immediately switch to the other filter and drained the bowl.  It must have come from the aft tank when I ran it very low.  Thankfully the design of the fuel system permitted me to take action before anything serious occured.

Another magical moment on Malua