Day 2, Guernsey to Lanzarote

Stravaig'n the Blue
Sat 10 Oct 2020 14:42
Position: 46.45.10N 6.21.74W (North Atlantic Ocean / Bay of Biscay)
Timestamp: Saturday 10 October 2020 11:00 BST (UTC+1)
Distance travelled last 24 hours: 159 NM
Distance travelled total: 248 NM
Average speed: 6.53 knots
Distance to destination (Arrecife): 1175 NM (incl dog leg)

An uneventful 24 hours with good progress being made.

The wind has been F4, occasionally F5, from the WNW / NW until around midnight and from the N / NNE since then. There’s a one metre swell, the period of which has been steadily increasing (currently 10 seconds) so fairly gentle. It has however made Linda slightly nauseous so maintaining her 100% record on Biscay crossings. She had two Stugeron for lunch and has retired to bed for the afternoon.

Last night we reverted to our standard night watch routine of 3 hours off and 3 hours on starting at 20:00 with Linda leading on the off watch. I at least am feeling a whole lot fresher than I was this time yesterday and am hoping to grab a few more hours shut eye later this afternoon.

The next point of interest sailing wise is the notorious Cabo Finisterre (cape at the end of the earth, named no doubt when the earth was still believed to be flat) on Spain’s north west corner. Our passage plan had us going round it late on Sunday night / early on Sunday morning. However, this morning I downloaded the latest weather forecast for that area for the next 72 hours and we have decided to add a bit of a dog leg to our journey so that

1. we go round Cabo Finisterre in daylight
2. when we go round the wind will be 20 knots rather than 30
3. we will avoid a long overnight approach with the wind directly behind us (unintentional gybe territory)
4. the gybe we do need to put in for the next leg down the coast of Spain will be out of the way long before the wind gets up.

The dog leg will take us out to 45 30N, 10 W or thereabouts and add 40 miles to the journey. It will also involve crossing a major shipping lane and back again but more on that in tomorrow’s episode.

All is well apart from Linda’s queasiness.