23 Jan: Wind was gusting to 25 knts in the early hours. We are back to full speed 7-9 knts, occasionally 11, with a big wave up our bum. Twin headsails as usual. Definitely a favorite downwind set up. The only improvement, in winds 15 or less knots, would be a code-zero taken from bow-sprit to end of boom rather than the small cutter sail.
Good news this morning. The only marina on the island has a place for us. Yippee! The only anchorage is apparently very uncomfortable and we don’t want yet more of that, thank you very much! So will be nice to be tied up in a safe marina. We had tried to book before leaving Lanzarote, but they said “fully booked till March”. Let’s hope they don’t change their minds by tomorrow!
So we change course to go around the top of the island. But after an hour the wind has other ideas as it turns slightly northerly. Damn! Dead downwind leads us the southern tip. Ho-hum we go where the wind takes us, at the fastest speed. We’ll zip up the back of the island on a fast beam reach on nice flat water, to the marina in the north-west.
Today the waves are big, so anything other than dead downwind produces horrible rolling plus we wouldn’t be able to fly the twin head-sails. Glen and Oana spend a few hours sorting through the hundreds of video clips. Lots of material for a nice compilation but quite a head-ache (literally) to sort out. Watch this space… in a week or 2.
While chatting and looking through some photos, we notice a dark cloud behind us, so on goes the radar to monitor the rain cells. Looks like it will be an eventful night for last night in the open ocean.