21/11/11 – En Route (Again!) – 27:48.5N 015:19.8W

Having resolved the electronic glitch, we informed ARC control that we were planning to restart, and made our way out of Las Palmas marina around 1400. We also communicated with Chris Tibbs, who is doing the weather forecast for our boat position as we head south and west. Chris had commiserated with our predicament, and had provided us with another forecast for the coming days, which proved very accurate as we bowled down the east coast of Gran Canaria.

Given that there was only about 4 hours of daylight left, and the crew were settling in, we elected to stick with the twin poled out genoas for the afternoon and night as it is an easily handled rig, and quick to reef. Winds were gusting up to 30 knots in the Wind Acceleration Zone to the south of the island, so we reduced sail until clear of it. It is dark by 1830, so sail changes and sail plan for the night watches are organised in the last of the daylight before eating and hunkering down.

The pattern of watches is one crew on, 4 hour day watches and 3 hour night watches: this leaves 1 of the crew free from watch duty for cooking and tidying up. It worked well on the crossing from Portugal, but we will review it after a few days to see if it needs tweaking.

The wind bent round the bottom of the island, which helped us shape a course south and west, Chris Tibbs’ guidance being that we head deeper into the trade wind zone to get more consistency in direction and strength. It was certainly quite variable overnight, and dropped to below 5 knots. I fear we did a bit of motoring, but the slatting of sails is unpleasant enough on a first night passage, but much more so when the swell rolls the boat like a pig. Not much sleep was had, though.....

Most of the ARC boats are well ahead of us now, though we did see La Palapa close by as he motor-sailed past. Quite a few big ships and coasters around, so we are keeping a radar and AIS watch till we get away well away from the action.

A satisfactory day, after our false start, and fingers crossed for a decent weather forecast....

Alan