Day 1  Slipped our lines at 10.14 having said goodbye to Ian, who lives on Springhill Lady in Gomera and Sandra and Chris who we hopefully will see again in Mindelo, Cape Verdes. We knew there would be plenty of wind, up to 20 knots and Zoonie broad reached with the wind coming from a wide angle to her stern. We were astonished at her speed after Rob has cleaned her hull, 135 miles in the first 24 hours.

 

Day 2 We were on a dead run with the wind directly behind us at 12 to 14 knots. Our first 24 hour plot on the paper chart I used in 2004 put us a few miles east of the track of the Stavvy on which I was a watch leader for the Atlantic crossing in January 2004 along with Kerry who was a deckhand and now works at Port of Poole Marina.

 

Both sails were poled out on opposite sides, Zoonie rolled gently from one side to the other in the sunshine, with little white puffy clouds. Deliciously warm and not another vessel in sight. That night it was noticeably warmer, on the midnight to three am watch I listened to Vittorio Grigolo sing his album In the Hands of Love, while I watched shooting stars and wondered at the brightness of the space station. Zoonie’s motion is soporific so sleep comes easy and we are well rested.

 

Day 3 Yesterday’s run was 118 miles of well won distance. We have taken off the bimini mid section so we can see the stars at night. We reasoned that as we are heading south the sun would pass over the sprayhood and we would still have some shade in the cockpit. In just over 100 miles we will be in ‘the Tropics’ from 23’ North of the Equator to 23’ South of it. It feels like we are literally going downhill. I can tell you from my astro tables that for you all, on the 22nd December at around midday the earth’s orbit will start to dip south wards making it appear that the sun is moving north to lengthen your days and warm you up. You certainly deserve it. I’ve always thought its one of the best Christmas presents.

 

This morning we played with the red, white and blue spinnaker (like a half balloon flying infront of Zoonie) Sadly in order to keep it flying we to had to go well off course. So now the pretty blue cruising chute is flying in front of the mainsail and giving us 4 knots of speed using 7 – 9 knots of wind.