Commodore
January 6, 2022

Ooooops – turning right, not left!

Oops error on my last blog, my dyslexic brain, I should have said we will be turning right not left!! Thanks David for pointing it out!

The wind died during my 12 to 3am shift, so we got the engines on to get us out of the lee of the largish island we were passing. Thankfully we only had them on for a little over an hour and we were back sailing in light winds just under 10knots, still with the Code sail up.

Just before 9am Rowan and Tom got the big WingAker up as the wind has come behind us. Very comfy sailing for a couple of hours but the wind kept swinging about so the big sail came down and the slightly smaller Asymmetric sail was hoisted. We had it up all day with winds hovering around 10 knots and us getting a very respectable comfy 8-7 knots of boat speed. It was a lovely sunny day, and besides Luke passing one tanker in the early hours of the morning we did not see a single vessel. We had thought we would see some fishing boats around the Cape Verde islands but we have not seen a single one.

Everyone has settled into their shifts very comfortably and we are keeping well fed, just a few too many beans for my stomachs liking! We finally have most of our fresh produce in the fridges. We are feasting on delicious avocados, and mangoes which are just ripening. Our evening pudding is delicious fruit salad, including Pawpaw (papaya), mangoes and giant granadillas, passion fruit, called maracuja in Spain. Rowan had read ages ago they were such a good fruit for passages as they last so well, and it is true, they don’t need refrigeration and add such exotic flavour. The greengrocer in Las Palmas couldn’t believe it when we bought his entire supply, but it has proved so worthwhile, with the added bonus that they are grown in the Canaries and involved no food miles.

Luke spotted dolphins in the distance in the afternoon, but they never came to play in the bow wave which was disappointing. Luke has been renamed Eagle Eyes as he spotted the whale a few days ago and the dolphins today.

We hope like crazy that we don’t hit too large an area of no wind tomorrow, as we have finally turned right, maybe 50 miles short of where the Router man suggested. But the wind was correct and we decided to go for it. Such fun seeing our next waypoint saying Saint Lucia. When we are hitting 10knots of boat speed it records 10 days to our waypoint, however we don’t want to get too excited until we finally hit the Trades after our lull tomorrow.