34:22.1N 11:51.7W

Thursday 9^th, Friday 10^th & a bit of Saturday 11^th September.

Left the anchorage in Gibraltar at 6.00 am on Thursday and made our way carefully in the dark through the big ship anchorage with Scott Free about half a mile behind us. By 7.00 am we were just clear of Gibraltar bay and entered the straits hoping for a favourable tide to whisk us out into the Atlantic. Sadly the timing was awry and we had an adverse current all the way to Terifa where we were braced to  expect the usual gale force winds. So instead of flying along with the tide under us, we struggled at times to make 2 knots across the ground, but the sea was flat and the wind non-existent. Even at Terifa there was no wind and so we continued to motor due west until we reached the end of the big ships traffic separation scheme when we turned southwards to cut across the streams of massive ships heading in and out of the Med. We had a good break and as soon as we cleared the area, we set a course for Porto Santo just as the wind began to rise and by 2.00 pm we were rattling along with the cutter rig set, managing 6 knots in just 10 knots of true wind. The wind kept building and soon we were flying along at 8 knots and by nightfall Scott Free were some 5 miles behind us.

The wind came and went during the night and we managed to set the wrong sails pretty much every time, but we were still making very good speed until the wind veered to blow over our starboard quarter. This slowed us down as we were also now experiencing the first big Atlantic rollers that were coming ahead of a storm further out. These were hitting us broadside and rolling us alarmingly and causing the sails to flap and flog as there was not quite enough strength in the 15 or so knots of wind to keep them filled. Scott Free fared better with their big genoa filling and so by the morning we were pretty much alongside each other.

Friday was a very dull day really as we rolled our way on a broad reach in biggish seas making around 6 knots which was fine but less than exciting. The sea became increasingly confused with two big swells running at right angles to each other! So some would roll us over at quite a crazy angle whilst another set would march up behind us, towering over us, before passing under us and carrying us forward  as we powered down the backs of them. Sounds fun, but it wasn’t! Did see some flying fish, but no whales or dolphins.

Scott Free gradually edged ahead of us although they also were heading rather west of the required course in order to keep their larger headsail filled. By nightfall we had considered shaking out the reefs in our main sail to help us keep up the pace, but prudence prevailed and we left the reefs in and the stay sail set. During the night the wind increased to force 6 and came round onto the beam again and so we were perfectly prepared as it happened and we flew along under this conservative rig and overhauled SF passing them just at dawn.

Grey skies greeted us at dawn on Saturday, but these began to clear by mid morning and as we were still making 7 knots with the reefed main and stay sail we decided that today was the day to put Henry (the Hyrovane wind steering system) into real action. This was fairly entertaining as there was a big learning curve involved and SF were very confused by our very erratic course, however things settled down and before long Henry had things pretty much under control. Clearly we have a bit to learn about the fine tuning, but it was a real thrill to see the wind vane steering in full action. This kit steers the boat using the wind to provide the power to move its rudder and the wind direction to set its course. Completely silent and nil power useage.

Very hard to type this log as we still have quite big waves tossing us around, but things are a lot more settled now we are so far out into the Atlantic that we are getting the steadier winds. Making brilliant time and are ahead of our schedule, the downside being that as things stand we will arrive in Porto Santo (island close to Madeira) in the dead of night.