Our first two days out have been largely about finding our rhythm and getting into the new sleeping and watch keeping routine.
We left Gran Canaria with high winds and big seas as one of the first boats to cross the starting line just out of Las Palmas marina. Once we had survived the wind excelleration zone east of the airport and after we cleared the south of Gran Canaria it was high time to put in the second reef.
The next day or two went by in a blur of sleeping, trying to eat and drink enough, and helming. We have opted for 'ze Zjerman' watch system: with Ronald, Frank and Thomas alternating every three hours and with a parallel watch of Maria, Fritze and Ingo alternating every three hours but having started 1,5 hrs later. Thus each watch member sees his co watch member change after 1,5 hrs.
Davide and Edo are running another parallel watch system alternating every four hours.
Only this morning we all seemed to have adjusted: coffee was drunk again after a hearty breakfast. After two gybes in the previous days we now were heading out happily to the west under cloudy skies but otherwise perfect sailing conditions: averaging well over 7 knots. We have opted for the northern great circle route since our weather forecasts show plenty of wind in the northerly part of our Atlantic Ocean and with less winds further to the Cape Verdes islands.
Frank finally had a chance to try out Lady Ann's newly bought fishing gear. He managed to catch one tuna and one dorado but both fish swam off once Frank had reeled them in close enough for us to have a good look at them. All day we had been chasing one of the other ARC contenders: Soulmate. By 'happy hour' time we had caught up with them and briefly arranged a photo shoot over the VHF. We would circle them and they us for a good round of pictures. Once done we bade them a safe journey, and continued on our westerly course. Just after that we found ourselves between several whales, the first of which were well spotted by Maria.
Spouts around us, an unidentified large whale back close by (we must have just missed it with Lady Ann's keel), breaching small whales further out. We were not sure if they were sperm whales or Pigmy or Dwarf Sperm whales, and decided it must have been one happy mix of them just showing up to entertain us.
Just after this whale show another fish was reported on the end of the fishing line. Frank had more luck this time: a flaming yellow dorado of about 70 cm landed on deck after a short struggle and an ample spray of cheap gin it its gills. Frank had just been preparing his favourite dish: baked bananas wrapped in bacon and topped with melted cheese and now we had oven baked super fresh dorado to go with it. No better way to end a super day out on the ocean.