Captains Log: Gibraltar to Lanzarote, Day 4

October 18, Saturday 11.00am. After a good day yesterday in which we did approximately 170 nautical miles in 24 hours (11am Friday until 11am Saturday, conditions remain the same for a repeat performance.

We are headed straight to Lanzarote with an 19 knot wind at our back, the swell is a little choppy at about 2m, probably caused by a 1.5 knot cross current, but it is quite comfortable. We continue to sail under main only as that seems to work well in these conditions. We had tried the gennaker, but it tended to flog in the swell, the main with the preventer is very stable.

nd the swell

October 18, Saturday 7.00pm - *169 nautical miles to go!

*Our plan was to head to an anchorage down the south side of the island at Piedas de Cima Sud, this is right beside where Cheryl is staying. Unfortunately it is not going to be a comfortable spot for pick-up as it is exposed to the wind and the swell. Plan B is that we will overnight at a small island at the north of Lanzarote on Sunday night and then meet Cheryl at the sheltered south end of the island on Monday morning. This knocks off about 40 miles of our crossing distance.

The wind picked up again in the afternoon allowing us to make some good miles, surfing down the swells at 10 or 11 knots. It is always hard to capture the swell on camera, but this gives you some sense on the effect on the boat:

Stephen put out a fishing line and before long we had a fish on. This time we were able to land it, a very nice Mahi Mahi. Enough for four people here. We seem to have no problem catching fish!

October 20th, Saturday 1.20am - 119 Miles to go

The wind has picked up nicely and the swell has eased so making good progress. We are still running down wind with the main only. Hit a new maximum speed of 17.6 knots in short gusts at 34 knots. The swell seems to vary at various times of the day, I'm assuming this is current related as this is the longest spell of higher winds we have seen, but the seas are pretty flat. The boat is loving these conditions, no problem typing this update.

This is the wind history plot for the last hour, it shows an average of 23.8 knots and a peak of 34 knots. It also shows the wind is very consistent in short term direction, only varying by about +/- 5 degrees, but we veering to the west, putting us about 20 degrees off course. We will have to jib at some point, our first jibe since we turned south. Nice!

October 20th, Sunday 11.00am - 50 miles to go!

Another great night covered approximately 190 nautical miles in the last 24 hours (an estimate as we changed the destination so I messed up my logs, but we did at least this). Pretty impressive considering we were not pushing it at all. We jibed for the first time an hour ago and are now on a direct heading to our anchorage for the night. Conditions continue to be perfect, so we should get there around 6.30pm.

History snippet:

On October 19th, 1829, the Austrian Navy launched an expedition against Morocco to liberate an Austrian merchant ship and its crew that had been captured by Moroccan corsairs. This naval engagement successfully freed the ship, marking a significant action against piracy in the region