Day 8. 190 Miles from Lanzarote.
We cleared Gibraltar two days ago on a nice force 5 Northeast wind. I hadn’t sailed in that kind of traffic since passing through the Torres Straits, between Australia and Papau New Guinea back in 2004. Tim actually took a picture of the radar screen on his watch, with more than 12 targets (ships) in a 6 mile radius. But the run passed without event, no one ran us down, the purple Atlantic lay before us calm and welcoming.
We’re making slow, albeit comfortable time south to the Canaries. As we’re running just 50 miles off the African coast we get a bit of usable land breeze in the evenings, making 7-9 knots under sail, but by day we resort to the engines with no wind at all. The highlight yesterday was catching a small Albacore tuna and getting another brief visit by a large pod of dolphins. Otherwise, our days consist of reading, maybe a chess game, a comment on the weather, a hope for more wind.
But it’s pleasant going. We’ll make Lanzarote for New Year’s, which is still great time
