Ground Rush

Kirofbrixham
Wed 8 Oct 2008 16:10
Atlantic Adventure - Part 1 - Day 4. Position
30:21.706N 012:54.733W
We are now a couple of hours into day 5 and the
ground rush of arrival has begun. Lists of things to do when we get to Las
Palmas are being written and the e-mail announcing our impending arrival to the
ARC team has been dispatched. But we still have 200 miles to
go.
Over the last 24 hours we have been blessed with a
following breeze of varying intensity, between F3 and F5. This allowed us
to put on good mileage with the minimum use of the engine. We are not
using the wind driven self steering gear, the Hydrovane, because the bimini
interferes with it, so we are using the electric autopilot. That, together
with the fridge means that we are using more electricity than the solar panel
and the wind generator can produce. The net result is we have to run the
engine for a few hours each day to top up the batteries. I am writing this
in just such an interlude.
Alongside the good breeze there has also been some
wildlife interest (and no I don't mean Ian and Richard fresh from the
shower). Aside from the sea birds that have always been around we had a
brief encounter with 3 or 4 small dolphins. I would guess that they were
Common Dolphins but I'm not sure - about 1m long. Later, in amongst all of
the waves and spume, I spotted a whale 'blowing'. Again, we're not sure
what species it was but it was something over 10m in length and was cruising
north about 150m away on our starb'd side. As we are cruising south the
encounter with one of natures gentle giants was all too brief.
Back to the ground rush. We are now just 64nm
from the nearest point in the Canaries, a small island off the tip of
Lanzarote. We should pass 20nm to the west of it at about 0100 tomorrow
9/10. Our passage then takes us parallel with the west coasts of Lanzarote
and Fuengirola before our destination of Las Palmas on Gran
Canaria.
Before we get there, the weather forecast indicates
we can expect winds up to F7. This has its positives and negatives.
On the plus side it means we will be moving relatively quickly. On the
downside it means sleep is difficult to get in choppy, rolling conditions. If
all goes to expectations we should arrive in Las Palmas sometime between 1800
and 2359 on Thursday 9/10. The forecast for Friday is for gale force (F8+)
winds so we are keen to get in on Thursday (so much for all that philosophy
yesterday!).
We can't smell land yet, we can't even see its
effects in the sky but we know it is close now.
|