Our sympathies to Auliana II and good to know that all are safe and well.
On day 1 the Lows appeared to outweigh the Highs, and that was in an 11 hour day from the 1300hrs start to midnight when I wrote the log. For a time it seemed today might follow a similar pattern but I'm determined to be upbeat, after all we sail for pleasure!
We changed the watch at 0200. I had just climbed into the bunk when John rushed on deck, swearing. Somehow the wind had got behind the mainsail but the jibe preventer had done its job and held the boom out with the result that we were effectively hove-to but didn't realise it. The boat was held by the wind, lost all speed and hence steerage. John pulled the main closer to midships but couldn't steer. At this point he called for me to come on deck! He was having visions of a lost rudder or snapped steering cables and had to dig under the aft berth to reassure himself that everything was O.K. We jibed the mainsail and set up the preventer again, the boat gathered speed and I went to bed.
The rest of the night was uneventful, the next problem arose when John tried to e-mail my log. In Las Palmas a couple of radio engineers had come on board because we appeared to have a problem being heard. They suggested how we could improve both the aerial and the earth then looked at the modem, said it was set up wrong and changed some numbers. Until then the e-mail system had been working well for several months, now it didn't work.
Now for the Highs. When group A reported their positions on the 1200 hrs radio net we discovered we were not the furthest behind, in fact we later found that we were even ahead of some group B yachts! Our day's run from 1300 yesterday to noon today was 124 miles and that included the very slow first hour. Sadly our distance to the waypoint only reduced by 52 miles but that was because the GPS draws a straight line and there was an island in the way. Once we cleared Gran Canaria and could set a course southwest the distance to go started reducing. Finally, after several hours testing, John got the e-mail system up and running.
We continue to eat well: Pasta Bolognese followed by homemade (yesterday) yoghurt with fresh passion fruit and honey. Now we only have 2,539 miles to go and are sailing well.
Joyce