We are now fully loaded and a few kilos more than expected due to a vegetable related incident so will have to start eating through provisions vigorously and urgently after departure. Katy is down to just above her waterline but the scuppers are clear so we should be ok. The departure looks to be challenging with a force 6 forecasted and up to 2.5 metre waves for the first 24 hours. This is further exacerbated by the Canaries acceleration zone. We'll aim to go offshore a few miles and clear the island before putting more west in our course. Paul from Pelican (a 50' cat opposite) has recommended clearing the island and striking out on a course of 250 degrees. This also keeps us away from the higher winds which could gust to beyond force 7 around the airport. He has completed this crossing about 7 times so has very good credentials. Hopefully come Monday night things will calm down to a force 5 which carries us at a fair clip through to Wednesday when it should all calm down further. By Saturday we should be past the Cape Verde Islands all going well before finally turning more to the west to aim directly at St. Lucia with an arrival about 3 weeks later. We're looking for the trade wind conveyor belt which once we're on we won't get off til we hit the Caribbean. This is the point where people say head south til the butter melts then turn west. Our start time is at 13:00. The YB Tracker has stopped working and I'm told they will fix it but not sure when so only the Garmin tracker is working right now. The YB should be fixed before departure. If anyone is interested, due to over ordering, there are plenty of free potatoes and peppers on pontoon T. Not us but a couple of boats have over ordered. We managed to snaffle a free cabbage and lots of peppers. I am though guilty of a bit of over ordering as I thought I'd ordered 160 litres of water and 480 litres turned up. I didn't realise they came in packs of three! The nice vendor totally understood and took the extra away. Until tomorrow - Gary
Katy Loaded