Tuesday 26th July
Whitesatin
Tue 26 Jul 2016 16:15
We left Madeira at 14.00 on Tuesday and motored out into into virtually no wind. Once out of the shadow of the island the wind picked up so we tried putting the Parasailor up, there was a bit of faffing as various bits of string were in the wrong place, but the time we finally deployed it the wind was too strong so it came down again.
We were on a beam to broad reach (wind coming directly side on the the boat) so we put up a reefed main and genoa, there was soon 20 - 25 kts of wind and quite big waves coming from the side so it was not comfortable.
David decided to follow Helen's example and took a fall (in the forepeak this time) just as the biggest wave we saw hit the boat. He is now hobbling round with a very stiff back - the joys of small boats in big oceans.
Otherwise a brisk but uneventful night, virtually no shipping to be seen and no wildlife whatsoever.
Things have calmed down a bit now with more comfortable seas and 15 - 20kts wind.
We have about 120 miles to our marina in Lanzarote so arrive early afternoon Wednesday we hope.
White Satin