Day 2: Our Passage from Gibraltar to the Canary Islands

Rich and I both woke up feeling VERY groggy today, like a hangover except it's really the knock-on effect of the 3 hour on/off night shift rotation. But it’s day 2 and our sails are still up, the wind has slowed to 15 knots and the swell has decreased a little too making it a bit more comfortable on board.

We said goodbye to the coast of West Africa, and decided to switch out our headsail for our big red Gennaker towards the afternoon. We were sailing at speeds of 5 -10 knots all day, and making really good progress towards our destination. Everyone felt a little nauseous today, but no one was actually sick. We read books and napped during the day. Jacques had a fishing line out and I made nachos for dinner and we all ate, in a row of 4, in the helm station.

We love our helm station for this exact reason, the seat is big enough for us all to be able to squeeze in and keep an eye on the action. It’s also the nicest place to sit if you’re not feeling great - forward facing, with a cool breeze, and an eye on the horizon. We were still heading straight West at a bearing of 270°, with a plan to make a turn to head South during the night, close to 11 pm or midnight. That will be us turning towards the Canary Islands, and hopefully finding the Tradewinds. No wildlife spotted & no fish caught on day 2. We did have to run the generator for 2 hours today to make up for a power shortfall because we have our sails up and are not running the engines at all, which would charge the batteries. Also because our solar panels are not getting a lot of sun because it was overcast today and the days are getting shorter too.