I made it to the Canarys!, finally!!
We had a really fast passage. 700nm in about 5 days. That’s blazing for Goldilocks. This is the first time I’ve had such a downwind run, but granted the first bit was motoring because there was no wind near Lisbon, then last morning there was no wind and we motored about 6 hours. I keep the engine speed down around 1700rpm so boat speed is just about 5 knots.
When the wind did pick up it was about 12-19kts apparent. When you are running your boat speed is subtracted from the apparent wind, so true winds were about 6 knots more. We spent a lot of time over 6 knots and quite a bit at 7 and 8. Hit over 10kts once but that was surfing for a couple seconds so doesn’t really count. In the end, very good speed.
The start was pretty rolly. Far bigger waves than our modest wind could provide so I think they were from storms to the west. They started at about 2m and later were 3-4m. Nothing outrageous, but we were rolling a lot and especially as we were wing and wing (mainsail one side and genoa poled out the other side) the sails didn’t stabilize the boat very well, so cooking was hard. Sleeping was mildly uncomfortable, but no problem for me. Jean didn’t sleep well, but he never did at sea.
We saw several pods of dolphins, and I saw one pilot whale, take a breath one time. A sparrow or two flew around us but never managed to land. One did land, but not for long. Poor, tired creatures.
Overall a great trip. Last one for Jean though. He got off in Las Palmas. Good at steering and on watch, but otherwise not great crew.
Layla is coming aboard for the rest of the trip to USVI, so with her to stand a watch and allow me to get some decent sleep, we’ll be all set.
Now it’s time to provision and make sure the boat is ready for the next ~2400nm.