I woke early on Sunday at 5:30am feeling a sense of anticipation at the day ahead, my thoughts drifted back to 29 years earlier when I had set out on the very same journey from Las Palmas to the Caribbean only to be thwarted by a storm that devastated our sails and forced us to abandon the journey in preference to a Summer sailing the Canaries. 29 years later here I was about to set sail again, it had been a long time coming and this time I felt considerably better prepared, having spent the last two years preparing myself and the boat for the crossing.

My first call of the day was the bakery to ask for 2 baguettes and 6 large loaves much to the surprise of the lady behind the counter, however I thought this was nothing to the surprise of the lady behind the bar in the Sailors Bar when a few days earlier four ninja turtles had walked up to the bar to order four beers in their very best Spanish.

Back to the boat for an early shower before off and already all the crews were piling into the facilities in anticipation of their last shower ashore for 20 days or so. James, Ian’s stepson, arrived at 9:30 and he had turned out specially to see us off on our way laden with two bottles of the finest Canarian wine to keep us going on the crossing.

Shortly after ten boats started to move and the spectacle of 300 boats moving out of the marina was quite a sight to behold, we had already decided that we would hang back to avoid any potential collisions. The entire harbour wall was full of well-wishers waving us off and cheering, a real carnival atmosphere. I had never in my life participated in a sailing race let alone skippered a yacht across a start line so I was unsure what to expect when the horn blast went off at 1pm and the cruising division, being the bulk of the fleet, headed for the start line between a Spanish frigate and a marked buoy. We sailed across the start line cheek and jowl with our fellow competitors, a little too close for comfort, and once over the line everyone turned 90 degrees to port and I realised that there was a headwind that had not been forecast so we joined the group and tacked back and forth southwards down the east coast of Gran Canaria, painful at times as the winds decreased late in the afternoon to leave us doing 2.5 knots but keen to conserve fuel for the long journey ahead we decided to just plod along rather than motor.

As my night watch arrived at 9pm the wind picked up a little to 7 knots and we were able to raise the trade wind sail and manage a respectable 3.5 knots which increased as the wind picked up. By morning we were managing 6 knots and things were looking up, by 8am we had managed 85 miles and could see the island disappearing into the distance, only another 2,815 miles to go.

As the sun came up we had a nibble on our fishing line and caught a beautiful green fish which, much to our dismay, dropped off the line as we lifted him onto the transom, there goes our lunch! We were compensated by a family of dolphins who played by the bow of the boat for 15 minutes before moving off.

All in all a good start, crew in good spirits and we are getting into the routine of our watches as we head offshore. Forecast is a large wind hole above Cap Verde which we need to try and avoid which may mean going south for a while before heading west.