Lanzarote to port
Rich's 2025 World ARC PatBon Blog
Richard Hurd
Sun 13 Oct 2019 03:56
29:26.757N 013:55.860W
Hello from the Big Blue⛵️ - or perhaps not! Just come up on watch at 0500 to see the orange glow of shore lights about 24nm away on the port beam! We’ve not seen these since leaving the Moroccan coast 2 days ago. These are lights on the small island called Isla Graciosa, to the north of Lanzarote. The moon is still bright overhead and there are a couple of large ships visible to starboard too.
We’ve got about 110nm to go and if we keep up the 7.5 knots, we hope to arrive in Las Palmas at around 2000 tonight. Sadly the wind, as forecast, died overnight so we are under engine once again! It’s been a bit frustrating, as we had hoped to pick up the NE trade winds during this passage so we could have got used to the sailing conditions during the ARC, but the weather has stubbornly refused to cooperate. There is a depression that is stuck in the Atlantic west of Portugal which is disrupting the norm. I have to say that the forecasts we’ve received during the trip have been very accurate, almost to the hour, which is reassuring.
Since I last wrote, we’ve had loads of dolphins come to visit Xplorer, just having fun on our bow wave and at times it seams if they are waving at you with their flippers😁 I’ve managed to capture some on video, so yesterday was spent trying to learn iMovie on my phone to edit everything down - I’d like to think it’s been quite successful😜. I’ll post the results of my labours on FB when we get a mobile network service later today probably.
So as we come to the end of the delivery trip from Gib to The Canaries, it’s been a great opportunity to get to know Xplorer, Peter and David better. It’s such a shame that Dan was unable to join us for this shake-down, but safe to say we’ve got a great yacht & team to sail her. We’ve got some things to do when we return to prep her in 4 weeks for the Atlantic Ocean, but she’s a very well equipped & comfortable yacht indeed. David’s menus have successfully passed muster, as we’ve eaten very well over the last 4 days. I’m tasked with learning how best to catch fish during the voyage, so if anyone has any ideas on lures, lines, or any other fishing paraphernalia, please let me know! Tuna steaks or a Mahe Mahe sound like excellent additions to David’s planned grub - no pressure then🥴
Enough for now, as you’re probably getting bored, so tata for now and I’ve got to keep watch! Out.