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Passing the Canary Islands
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Tom Gruitt has been finding things hot on Cape Breton Island... and enjoys pushing it a bit with some close-reaching under lightweight kite...
"Days and nights are getting hotter, last night I helmed for a few hours just wearing shorts and a t-shirt, this was about 0100 in the morning. The whole crew are very glad of the newly installed fans around the boat, they are making life down below a bit more bearable during the day.
"Since leaving La Rochelle we have only had hot days with sunshine, winds have been up and down and we are currently making about two knots through the Canary Islands, passing pretty close Grand Canaria. There are so many wind holes that we have been stuck in around here. Last night I was on the helm making great progress for a few hours, close reaching with the lightweight kite, which is rated for 10 knots apparent. The wind kept building and we were hitting about 11 knots of boatspeed with 16 knots of apparent, after holding this for a while our Skipper Jan popped his head up through the hatch and told us to put up a smaller spinnaker.
"With winds looking fairly light for the next few days, we are just keeping the boat going forwards and sailing towards the patches of wind we can see ahead. Other boats around us seem to be having the same difficulty is moving at any great speed towards Rio, some only making 10 miles in six hours. We look forward to more wind soon to hopefully drive us towards the equator and to try and catch up with the boats ahead."
posted by Hyde Sails at
10:39
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