A delayed start to the blog
Christine's Atlantic Circuit
Peter Lansdale
Wed 17 Aug 2016 09:22
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36:01.5N 10:54.4W
It's Wednesday the 17th August and this is the second
day out of Lagos on our trip to the Canaries with a stop in Porto Santo and
Madeira if all goes well. We are on coarse for Porto Santo with about 320 miles
to go.
On board are Peter Newland, Gary Catterall and myself
and all being well we 3 will be crossing the Atlantic with the ARC in November.
Having arrived from the UK on various days last weekend, Peter N hired a car and
collected us from the airport and together we made the first stab at shopping on
Sunday in a huge hypermarket in Alburfeira. Although the plan had been to leave
Lagos on Monday inevitably the List was too long so we did most of the jobs and
also managed to chill a little despite the heat. Peter acquired some fishing
line and lures to go with the reel which he had bought on ebay. A I write Peter
and Gary are having a go at putting it all together. Fresh fish for dinner
then!!!
We left the marina just after 10 am on Tuesday with a
forecast of very little wind for most of the way to Madeira. In fact we started
the trip doing 9 knots once we had cleared the coast until common sense
prevailed and we reduced sail so we were proceeding at a more stately 6 to 7 and
at least had control. By the evening we just had the small genoa up with a
couple of rolls in. Overnight the wind eased so we continued gently until this
morning when we added the double reefed mainsail and are sailing at 6 to 7 knots
in very variable wind. We also appear to have a considerable current
against us.
Everything is going well apart from the winch on the
mast which fell apart last night. It was discovered when Gary heard a bang on
the deck above his cabin where he was trying to sleep. The top had come
unscrewed but we found all the bits and it is now back together and working
fine. We need to establish a proper checking
regime.
The sun is shining, its warm enough to be in shorts and
all is well. Peter L
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