Day two
Starcharger
Tue 13 Aug 2019 12:48
We left Reunion at 06:45 yesterday, our friends Kimi and Trevor from Slow Flight came to help cast off our lines, which was lovely. Motoring out into the wind shadow of the island we were rewarded by a whale breaching 20 metres from the boat, and blowing a beautiful water spout! A great omen for our passage.
Soon we were in the acceleration zone with winds over 30 knots. Fortunately that moderated and we had a great first day of nearly 150nm.
Today I thought I would sort out a couple of spare halyards that had got tangled overnight. Of course I dropped one and off it went. I was standing on the granny bars (while the rest of the boat slept) trying to catch it with the boat hook when I realised I was more likely to fall in than catch the thing. So gave up and pulled it to the top of the mast out of the way. After all this passage is not downwind. Two hours later the wind has gone round and we want to put out twin poles....so Piero offered to climb the mast and retrieve said halyard. We are now rolling quietly along at nearly 5 knots in glorious sunshine.
Fair winds
Alasdair, Gill, Peter, and Piero