Puerto del Rosario to Gran Tarajal, 36nm
Wednesday 4 November
We didn’t set off too early as we expected the wind to fill in later in the morning/ early afternoon, and we were rewarded with initially 7 then 10-12 knot winds from pretty much due South.
This meant we needed to tack to make progress down the barren, rocky shore of Fuerteventura. We started off with the Yankee as a rather compromised upwind headsail in the light airs, but as the wind got up over 9 knots we swapped to the stay sail which gave us a happier main and better pointing angle.
This made Kevin, on the helm, very happy as we were soon hauling in and passing all the other yachts, clipping along nicely at 7 ish knots.
The sun shone and the sea was as flat as a pancake – just like the Bay of Biscay but with a perfect breeze.
There were plenty of flying fish and Kevin took his enormous camera onto the foredeck to get some stunning photos.
He’s auditioning for the next Blue Planet series. They fly very fast so hard to capture.
Sadly the wind faded and then died so we motored the last few miles.
We thought about going into port at Gran Tarajal, but decided to anchor just outside for practice in the Caribbean, and we deployed David’s latest gadget, Little Boi, our anchor marker.
This is attached to the top of the anchor by a line so that it will float directly above the anchor. This is useful to let other boats see where our anchor is so they don’t anchor on top of us, and lets us see how the boat is lying in relation to the anchor. David has put a lovely pink flag on him so there’s no confusion of who he belongs to!
This is a very peaceful bay with a lovely sloping sandy beach and we all swam off the boat in a sea of very pleasant temperature. I am on the mend today, although Captain is feeling a bit rough.
Despite this he made us a delicious pasta dinner which was gobbled up gratefully by the hungry crew. We were a bit concerned when a band onshore struck up with enough volume to be heard in Africa, but fortunately it stopped – we think they are gearing up for the weekend. Glad we won’t be here then!
Tomorrow looks like there’s no wind at all so we are very glad we had such a beautiful sail today.