Captains Log: Gibraltar to Lanzarote Day 1

Listen while you read!

Wednesday, 16th October

Woke up Wednesday morning to rain and a cool wind blowing at about 22 knots. Our plan was to set off for Lanzarote around 11.00am, this should have us arriving in Lanzarote on Sunday morning. That will be four night watches. The wind was forecast to drop in the afternoon, but in order to beat the current in the Strait, we needed to be on our way by 11.

Stephen dropped David on shore; he was going to overnight in Gibraltar and fly out the next day. Thanks, David, you were a great crew member.

So we set off at 11.00 and, as expected, it was a little bumpy. We were headed straight into the wind, and it was gusting to 27 knots. But we persisted, and by about 1.00pm the winds had dropped to 16 knots, and the choppy seas had flattened a bit. We are going up the Spanish side of the Strait as the current is lesser on this side.

Right now, the winds are coming from the south (the direction we want to go), but they are forecast to turn around overnight and make it good conditions for sailing (we hope).

We have company, this guy has been drafting of the back of the boat.

As expected it was a tough first day, coming out of Gibraltar we had a foul tide, maximum 3.5 knots and a strong south westerly wind (the direction we were headed). We elected to stay on the spanish side of the straight as the currents were significantly less than on the African side. We new this was the conditions when we set out, but we wanted to position ourselves for the wind change that was expected in the evening.

lt was a very slow and bumpy experience, the combination of the wind, the tides and some relatively shallow patches (100m) that you have to cross made for an angry sea. All of this while surrounded bu 300m ships doing 18 knots! As always, the boat was solid and handled the conditions very well. I realize this is not for everyone! At one point the wind hit 35+ knots and we had to run with it, going in the opposite direction that we wanted to go. You can see this on out track on the chart plotter. Also note the commercial traffic!

Le bumps:

By 4.00am the promised wind shift had arrived, all be it about 6 hours later than forecast, so we started heading south.

The net of all this is that after the first 24 hours at see we have only made about 95 miles made good IE miles in the direction of the Canaries, but with the new wind we should do much better over the rest of the trip.

History snippet:

On October 16th, 1943, the USS Pompano was reported lost in the Pacific during World War II. The submarine had been on its ninth war patrol and was believed to have been sunk by enemy forces

In the traditional sea shanty “The Mingulay Boat Song,” Mingulay refers to a small island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Mingulay is located in the Atlantic Ocean and is part of the Bishop’s Isles. The song, though not a traditional work song from the era of sailing ships, evokes the imagery of fishermen returning home to the island after a hard day at sea. The lyrics capture the rugged beauty of the Hebrides and the life of seafarers, yearning for the safety and comfort of home.