Canary Crossing

 

The crossing from Gibraltar to the Canary islands is around 600 miles and takes about 5 days and is a great rehearsal for crossing the Atlantic and testing all the boat systems as well as the crew. We left with 4 other boats in a convoy, friends from our Atlantic crossing group, to get across the straights of Gibraltar as quick as possible to avoid getting our rudders chewed off by the orcas.

Day 1 - 126nm

We all had our anchors up by 8am and just had to wait for Ralph to go the toilet. Ralph is Matt and Hanna's dog. Goodbye Gibraltar. It seemed like everybody agreed on the weather window as a few other sailboats joined our little flotilla increasing the size to about 12 boats. We planned to hug the 20m contour, as recommended to avoid orcas, to Tarifa then shoot perpendicularly across the Straights to Tangiers then hug the coast again to get around the corner and be free of orcas once and for all. One of the good things about travelling in convoy is you get some good pictures of your boat sailing. (Thanks Emily and Ryan)

Halfway across the straights, while playing frogger with all the enormous cargo ships, and just about to bite into a sandwich, we get a call on the VHF from Matt. "All sailing vessels, All sailing vessels, whales spotted 200m of our port side. Engine on, orca pole deployed and fire crackers at the ready and all crew on the lookout. After 10 worrying minutes we get another VHF call, the whales are pilot whales, nothing to worry about. I didn't even taste my sandwich. That was enough excitement for the day. We got to the corner and turned on our course to the Canaries, about 500 miles all downhill. I got out my fishing gear and caught a plastic bag and in the evening we had a great view of comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS not far from venus. The cook's first comet.

Day 2 - 122nm

First overnighter went well, the cook did 8 'till midnight, Mandy did 12 'till 4am and I did 4 'till 8am. It is so good having 3 people on watch, you get 8 hours sleep and none of us feel at all sleep deprived. It's going to be a breeze going across the Atlantic with 4 of us doing watches. Around 10am I caught my first mahi mahi. 2 hours later our mate Matt on Pangea caught another.

I have learned so much from my new antipodean mates, not just about sailing. There is a way to hold the fish when you catch it to make it look bigger. You hold it away from your body and point the head towards the camera as demonstrated so well by Matt. His fish looks much bigger, but it ain't, it's a matter of perspective.

The funniest thing about catching the fish was Mandy's reaction. Listen to the audio.

So day 2 was a success and all was well with the boat and crew and we were doing great with our jib poled out wing on wing flying downwind. 

Not as good as the other boats in our gang though, them med boats go like stink, at least a knot faster than us.

Day 3 - 115nm

The most memorable think about day 3 was getting visited by birdies. We had a few stop off for a rest one of them was definitely a black backed wagtail.

We also had a VHF call from a US warship warning all shipping that they were conducting live fire of their starboard side. It wasn't much of a worry for us as they were 20 miles away but for some of our friends they were a wee bit worried.

Day 4 - 148nm

Definitely settling into a routine now. Only problem today was no wind so we had to motor for quite a while. I hammered the cook at backgammon, admittedly he's still learning how to play but he still owes me £4 and Mandy £13.

Day 5 - 87nm

All is good and we are due to arrive at the anchorage in the charming island of La Graciosa at 2am. The cook gave the autopilot a rest. It had been moaning away for 5 days continuously. So he hand steered for the whole of his watch which was much more comfortable than Moana, the autopilot, over correcting and using up precious power. We also got another view of comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS a lot fainter than the other day as it sped to the outer reaches of our solar system.

As we were about 9 miles from our destination our friends, Paul and Opel, who we first met in Torrevieja back in January, came flying past us at 8 knots and beat us into the anchorage. We hadn't seen then since leaving Gibraltar. It was pretty cool coming into the anchorage at 2am down the channel between Lanzarote and La Graciosa. It was pitch black and turning the corner the anchorage looked like a city with all the anchor lights on. And it looked full..... until you actually ventured in and there was loads of space. The cook slept through it all as he was off shift. After dropping the anchor we had a celebratory drink at 3am, watched the moonrise then slept. Woke up in a lovely anchorage with loads of friends in it. For most of us it was our first offshore passage.

Went for a walk up the yellow mountain nearby and had a few beers on the beach with our buddy boats.

A great end to a successful journey and as I said, a great rehearsal for the coming Atlantic trip. We are so ready for it.