It's been a tough couple of days since leaving the Moroccan coast on Tuesday afternoon. The wind then was south but forecast to veer SW-W and moderate at about midnight so I decided to head off early and make the most of the strong southerlies to beat as far west as possible before tacking down the coast when it veered. In principle, it was a good plan and worked pretty well but it meant that for several hours, I was beating onto 30knot gusts and a very short, steep swell (and in the wrong direction!). It was fast upwind sailing at last though but it took a while to get comfortable with the constant slamming and belly-flopping into the waves and I'm regretting not taping up the forward hatch that I know is leaking badly in those conditions. I would have fixed it in Casablanca but in the entire city, there was not a single ship's chandler! It was raining heavily too and the Norwegian boat I'd set off in convoy with, didn't turn his VHF radio on and either motored down the coast or turned back to Mohammedia. I lost sight of him though. Several other boats were all waiting for the strong winds to pass before leaving so maybe I should have waited too but I'm afraid I was getting a bit impatient!

So, after the strong winds came two hours of good sailing before the wind died completely. And that's really how it's been constantly until it started to get dark tonight. Since then it's been an incredible night that started with a stunning Sahara sunset and has continued with easy, fast, beam reach sailing under a clear sky. Honestly, yesterday was a right-off really. It was so frustrating when, after a period of windlessness and some intolerable drifting around with flogging sails, there would be a thunder storm, squall, rain and I'd put a couple of reefs in the main. No sooner had I finished putting the reefs in, the rain would stop, the wind would die and I'd be drifting again (and wet!) - infuriating! It was an exhausting 24hrs with a lot of sail trimming. Well, hopefully this nice beam reach will hold up for a couple of days as I'm making a comfortable 6 - 6.5 knots without too much effort.

I managed to swap six of my reading books in Mohammedia marina so at last, I've got something to read! I've started to develop a bit of a routine too. I can run all the electronics through the day and the solar panels will keep the batteries charged. Then, at night, I can run the navigation lights, autopilot and instruments until about midnight before I need to run the engine and charge the batteries for an hour or two. I'm sleeping on deck now that it's a bit warmer and have made use of an egg-timer to wake me every twenty minutes to check the horizon, the radar and the sail trim before going back to sleep. It's not a perfect system but it seems to be working ok for now although I am very tired most of the time. I can't take any chances though in these coastal areas as the fishing boats don't always display any lights and I nearly hit one on the way in!

So, I've still got another four days at least to go before reaching Las Palmas in the Canaries but it's been a voyage of contrasting emotions so far. Frustrating at times and incredibly rewarding at others. I've seen so many shooting stars (and one exploding one which was odd!) and when it all comes together; good sailing, good music on the MP3 player and a warm balmy night, I feel so privileged. But then, when it's raining, windy and cold, I really do wonder what I've let myself in for!

So that's all for now.

Bee