Last 48 hours we set sail from Las Palmas, Spain at 1230 on Sunday the 24th. Dan did an excellent job of leading us across the starting line. The crew is in great spirits and full of respect for the voyage. We are composed of four Brits, three Americans, and a Dane. The first day of sailing was very exciting as the fleet set off and quickly split up on multiple routes on our way to St Lucia. The winds were strong and stirred up the sea state. We began the watch schedule, which is three on six off. As we set into day two, the seas began to settle but the skies were overcast. We made good time sailing about seven knots on south by south west heading, working our way down the west coast of Africa in the direction of Cape Verde. It was a bit chilly on the 0200-0500. We worked our way through an area with multiple large ships using a navigation program called AIS. A small number of the fleet are still in sight scattered across the horizon. We are keeping pace with boats in our Class and with a small number of vessels in the racing. The real numbers will start to come into focus when we make the turn west. On day three we started by putting up the spinnaker, some practice on line handling, and getting used to life aboard Skyelark as well as the watch system. We began the fishing competion and pulled in a nice Mahi Mahi on Kittys lure named Pretty in Pink. See attached photo.
DJ
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