We are currently at position 35 21N 007 49W sailing under double-reefed main and single-furled yankee. We're doing about 6 knots in a 20G25 NE wind and 1.5m sea. It's sunny but cool. Air temperature is 17C and water temperature 22C. Our first 24 hour run was 129nm and we currently have 444nm to go.
We departed La Linea at 0820 local time yesterday morning. We had a great stay there, receiving the spare parts for our RodKicker, exploring Gibraltar and meeting a number of cruisers. We are sailing towards Porto Santo in the Madeira Islands which are on UTC, so our ships clocks are now on UTC. We departed with FSC yacht ReVision II and also with UK yacht Matusadona. We're currently within 10nm of each-other in a line N-S.
After clearing Gibraltar Bay we motored along the Spanish coast towards Tarifa. We kept inshore to minimise the current which flows into the Med most of the time - at least 8 of each 12 hour cycle. There was no wind at that stage. Once past Tarifa the conditions became more interesting with patches of broken water and a 2 knot current with us, and others with flat water and 2 knots against us. A N breeze came in and we reached W to stay north of the shipping channels. At the end of the traffic separation zones we bore away towards Madeira when a gap opened up in the shipping traffic.
The breeze quickly built up to 20-25 knots from the NNE. We reefed and furled steadily until we reached 2 reefs and 3 furls. While still in the contrary current the seas were quite steep and we took some spray aboard and one 'greenie'. As the evening wore on the current dissipated and the seas settled. Throughout we were within a mile or two of ReVision II.
The night was clear and starry. Jupiter was very bright and we saw a number of shooting stars. In the small hours we saw distant lightning over Morocco which was quite spectacular. Glad it's not coming our way. It feels good to be out of the Med and back in the Atlantic.
Overnight the wind eased to 15G20 and we unfurled a bit more yankee. There were a few ships and several fishing boats but none came close. It was cool with air temperature down to 16C plus wind chill.
This morning we spotted ReVision II a few miles to our N, and from our PredictWind buddy GPS tracks we could see Matusadona was a little further N. We called both on VHF and had a quick chat with Matusadona.
Trust all's well where you are.
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