Thursday 15 November 2012

The Crossing Part one of 3


Hi All, 
this blog has to be broken down into 3 parts, it's heavy going otherwise.
We left Gibraltar on Tuesday 6th of November after checking the weather forecasts and were looking forward to going out into the Atlantic at last to the island of Graciosa in the Canaries. roughly 650 nautical miles non stop.  On the way out we stopped to fill up with fuel and by chance met up with  a couple on another yacht "Quilscene"we had spoken to in the marina, who said they were going to the same place as us and we can keep in contact along the way. So off to a great start however we knew that the Straights can be tricky with the tides and heavy traffic, huge ships carrying all kinds of goods. The Force 4 prediction grew bigger and bigger into a Force 8, 45 knots of wind together with a washing machine sea throwing us about like being a rag doll in a dogs mouth. Don thankfully took down the main sail in time and our headsail worked a treat but boy were we glad to be out of there, it seemed like an eternity. Quillscene called us up on the radio to say they had to change course as the conditions grew worse their mainsail was shredded and had to return to land somewhere and couldn't continue. 

Don went below for something and discovered a bit of a mess, I must have forgotten to secure two cupboards and the floor and sofas were covered with batteries, glasses (plastic) and bits and bobs, my little digital scales were floating in the sink, oh well! 

My fault, whoops I didn't take a photo of all the glasses and serviettes on the other sofa.
BFN Agua Therapy
Don and Glenys

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