As we come to the end of the delivery trip, the crew have hijacked the blog from the skipper today as we don’t want our readers to be sucked into the reality distortion field that is Dave Sturrock! The eternal optimism of the skipper has always kept spirits high, but there has been quite a lot of burble along the way and while the crew were trusting in his ‘wise words’ at first, there was soon some scepticism among the ranks.

Some of these now mistrusted phrases were:

“The swell is going down!”

“The wind will shift very soon”

“The wind will drop off in the next few hours”

“This snuff bag works really well”

“The Canary Current will kick in soon!”

And finally “Trust me, I know what I’m talking about”

Well, we can safely say that the swell did not go down, the wind did not shift or drop off, the snuff bag did not work and we still have not found the Canary Current!

However, this trip – and the high spirits throughout – would not have been the same without Mr Burble and his limitless good humour.

 

And now to the news:

Yesterday afternoon we had the Momentum Gennaker hoisted (we decided that since this beast had already been tamed on Flyer, it was best to keep the Blue Beast safely tucked away), and despite a few problems when we had to gybe with the tack lines and the snuff bag, everything went very well and we managed an average of 7 knots.

It was one of those elusive champagne sailing days. There was minimal swell, the sun was shining and the boat seemed to glide through the water with little effort – plus the auto helm was still working which always makes things seem a little brighter!

We decided to take the gennaker down just after dark as, knowing the luck we have had, it was better not to take any risks with it! therefore, the engine went on and we were  able to sail a direct course to Las Palmas at 7.5 knots.

 

Again, we are happy to report a very boring watch for all last night, with Zoe on her first solo night watch.

We are planning to keep the engine on all day today as there is very little wind forecast, and with the rest of the Ceilidh Crew already in Las Palmas, we think its best to go full speed ahead with the ‘donkey’. Plus we think that Neil D might want his clothes!

At 0930 this morning we were 152nm from the Canaries, and we can now see the Northern most islands of Lanzarote off our port bow.

We are hoping to arrive in Las Palmas by 0700 on Wednesday morning, just in time for a full English breakfast!

 

So there you have it. Hopefully our last full day of sailing on the delivery trip of Ceilidh of Lorne from Kos to Las Palmas. There have been very few dull moments, and I have to say that when one has occurred, they have been greatly appreciated!

 

Zoe Pritchard