Firefly is now back at sea again. Unlike our departure from Salcombe, there were no fanfares and flotillas to see us off at Puerto Calero on the first ocean passage of our adventure. We did not slip out completely un-noticed a nice Irish lady took a picture of us and wished us a good and safe voyage. Not sure what she made of Grateful but he is now an important member of the team so needed to be in the picture. We have left behind some great memories of a very friendly and hospitable Puerto Calero- this was heightened last night by our invitation to an RC 44 racing keelboat after racing drinks party (they are having their world championships here). No expense was spared, drinks were flowing and after a 'few' we had to make an early retreat to finish jobs and keep a clear head for our departure. Actually, we gave in to temptation, and ended up having a last night curry and a couple more! Luckily, we didn't need to get up early as we were awaiting delivery of an elusive vertical jib batten (lost in Biscay and replaced by Hood) before we could leave. All the final jobs have been completed and a few teething troubles ironed out. Murray and Peter spent a day driving around the island to give Paul a clear run at his job list while the crew enjoyed the sights and unique local architecture of Cesar Manrique.
As we set out the wind was light and we were hopeful it would increase as we approached the East coast of Fuerteventura. It did and for a while we had 15 knots from the NW. Its dropped down to 10 knots now and we have the Gennaker up and are zooming along towards Fuerteventura. For those looking on the tracker and think we are going in the wrong direction we have decided to sail South staying close to the African coast for a while in search of more stable trade winds before we steer West.
It has been mentioned that the crew for the Atlantic crossing, Peter, Paul and Murray, sound like a 60's folk rock tribute band. To keep up the theme we will try to slip in the title of a song into our daily blogs to make sure our readers are paying attention! We left Puerto Calero with very light winds and a flat calm sea. A bit of a feeling of deja vu following the light wind trip down past Portugal. Fortunately, things changed in just over an hour, so now we are blowin' in the wind!
Paul, Murray, Peter and Grateful