Vilamoura to Las Palmas Canaries November 26 to 2 Dec 2009

We set off, planning to make for Madeira to avoid a large area of high pressure with near perfect wind from NW at 15 kts and made 50 nm in the first 10 hours despite increasingly large swell and confused seas. The wind then deserted us and after trying the large drifter sail which made little difference, we motored 60 miles to find the wind. At this point weather data received via the SSB radio on sailmail necessitated a change from the original planned destination to the Canaries.
Dolphins came to play and stayed with us riding the bow wave and having great fun together for half an hour. Theo captured the scene with his new very impressive camera as you might expect a budding film director would do. On most days dolphins would visit and the bigger the seas and the faster we sailed the more it seemed they enjoyed the encounter. Some rather lonely looking turtles difted by occasionally but not many birds were about.
Most of the time it was possible to maintain a course for the Canaries. The wind did vary from ENE to N, before settling at NNE at 15 t0 20 Kts gusting occaisionally to 28 kts. Given an inexperienced crew, the sail plan was modest with yankee, staysail and double reefed main, yet we were able make 6 to 7 kts despite the swell. Our best 24 hours was 130 nm during the passage of 654 nm.
The passage was a great introduction for Theo and Charlie before the much longer and testing Atlantic crossing. We are currently enjoying the warm weather and the company of a very interesting collection of sailors. Some minor repairs are being tackled and a review of food stocks and stowage is underway. We plan to visit a couple of the smaller western islands in the group before setting off for Trinidad. In all probability we shall enjoy Christmas at sea.