Finally it went peppy in the right direction. In pleasant 15 Knots of wind we continued in the afternoon also the mainsail and ran with seven knots towards our goal.

Our Tiller was quite strained throughout the day. Again and again he got from ordinary seawater showers, he coped with not very good. So Dietmar had twice already need to replace a fuse after a short circuit. Particularly annoying was, that the Good simply silently quit the service, to give one last alarm signal from without yet. As our CESARINA actually sails at good trim of the sails almost by itself as if on rails straight, the withdrawal of Tillerpilot was noticed until the next violent gust. Das war immer etwas stressig 🙁

Gegen Abend durfte ich wieder als Erste in die Koje 🙂 Sehr zuvorkommend, the captain. But against twelve I was by myself awake again. Outside, the wind howled in the rigging. That sounded not good and we had the mainsail still above. After some back-and-forth, we decided, it to recover despite the adverse conditions. So we packed our fast and waterproof in our oilskins and equipped with lifejacket and lifeline we started to work.

The problem in our mainsail is firstly the size and on the other hand, the broken Lazy-Jacks. (For non-sailors: Lazy-Jacks serve, to keep the sail after the lowering in more or less folded form the top of the mast, so it does not blow around on the entire deck.) So the sail must be considered when CESARINA after lowering necessarily be fixed with sail bands on the tree. That's when a lot of wave a not quite simple and also not hazardous undertaking. Normally I can support Dietmar from the cockpit, when the reliable Hydra (our autopilot) the controller acquires. But that was not possible this time yes, since the Good somehow still spit out error messages. So Dietmar had to fend for themselves and he did his job very well. Nevertheless, we were both safely, that we did not want to experience a second time. On Gran Canaria new Lazy-Jacks or better yet a Lazy-Bag are high on the to-do list. And even as our beloved Hydra would receive a check through their paces.

The rest of the night was marked by several thunderstorms, which fortunately passed by but around us. Clearly you could see on the horizon the lightning and the lightning. At home on my couch with a nice cup of tea, I find storm really very nice to look at, hier draußen aber gehören sie nicht zu den von mir bevorzugten Wetterphänomenen 🙁 Gegen Morgen war der Spuk dann aber endlich vorbei und der Tag begann deutlich friedlicher mit einem tollen Sonnenaufgang.

If you know the captain a bit longer, then you know, that there is no holding back, if his “Port ceiling” fall on his head.

So we started on Friday afternoon despite clearly uncomfortable weather conditions. First, there was no wind at all in the game and from the afternoon we should get a lot of strong wind on the nose. Since we had thought us, first to go under motor south, thereby testing the watermaker and then easy to sail a blow towards the west at the onset of south wind, until the wind on Saturday morning finally would allow a direct course to Gran Canaria. Soweit also zu unserer Planung 🙂

Directly after leaving the Marina, we had already suffered the first setback. Although the new navigation works just fine and our AIS could really help us see ships in distance, but our autopilot – Hydra 2000 from B&G – had been angered by the new components probably somehow. Instead obediently to compete as at the last crossing his service, produzierte er nur noch Fehlermeldungen 🙁 So nahmen wir direkt unsere Windpilot-Steuerung mit dem Pinnenpiloten in Betrieb und erfreulicherweise funktionierte er ohne irgendwelche Probleme. So the journey could yet go further, because 650 Nautical miles without the autopilot we would not want to travel, nor can. A bit queasy us was two but still to Mute, so without any back-up with a yet untested system. That was not a good start for this crossing.

Contrary to the forecasts we had until the early evening and pleasant sailing wind good and so we set sail and moved the premiere of the watermaker to a later date. Then, when the south wind began, we were centered in front of the large traffic separation scheme, which runs along the Portuguese coast. So we had no chance, simply turn off westwards. When sailing Eight have to cross traffic separation schemes as possible at right angles. And it was a lot of traffic. Wir wollten ja nicht unter den nächsten Tanker geraten 🙂 So mussten wir unter Maschine kräftig gegenan halten und im Schiff fühlte es sich an, like on a roller coaster. Because in addition to the wind on the nose came the wave directly from the side – optimal conditions, to be seasick.

So I left the field, and Dietmar pulled me into our berth. Although it was not quite as bad and placed for emergencies within reach bucket remained unused, but from the feel-good sailing we were really far away. Thus, Dietmar had to fight alone through the night and actively monitor the wind pilot and possibly. correct. Only in the morning put the longed Northwind and under sail came finally some peace into the ship. After looking at the distance traveled, we were quite disappointed. If we continue to move forward so, wären wir bestimmt eine Woche unterwegs 🙁