Day 3: Our Passage from Gibraltar to the Canary Islands

Sailing Uno: Our Passage from Gibraltar to the Canary Islands

Day 3:

Today was the worst day so far of our crossing. All day long Rich and I felt nauseous and the only thing that kept us going was something our friend Renee on a boat called Zatara had told us, that sea sickness always subsides after day 3. All hope rested on the idea that our bodies & minds would adjust by tomorrow. Luckily there was not too much going on during the day.

The wind was blowing a steady 15kts so we continued sailing, and we put big red up towards the late afternoon. Then as darkness came we furled in big red, rolled out the genoa & put 1 reef in the main, just to be safe. I made my first sourdough mix tonight, then let it proof for 13 hours to be baked tomorrow morning - fingers crossed!

We had a few ships on the radar tonight, huge oil tankers that gave us space. But early on at 9pm we had a sailboat get very close to us. This was a sailboat that we had seen criss-crossing behind us a few times a day, for the last 2 days. We were both under sail, and they had the right of way but as they got closer and closer it became apparent that no one was on the helm. They must have been on autopilot with a wind hold, because we beared away as much as we could from the wind, but they kept coming closer. We could only guess the captain was sleeping, as they did not respond to the radio calls. In the end we had to bear away and bring our boat nearly to a standstill and as they sped past our bow - within just a hundred metres - we could see the lights on and detail down inside their cabin. Very scary! 

Ironically, many months later we would meet the couple on board that boat - we remembered their boat name well! It turned out that during that crossing, she was sick with food poisoning and he was downstairs getting some rest. They had no idea that they had even come that close to us! We also learned that lots of sailors at nightfall just set their autopilot, put on their deck lights to light up their boat, and head off to bed.. A big “Look out here I come!” to everyone else out there on the water.. So not cool.