Passage to the Canary Islands

Last week we made the 600 nm passage from Gibraltar to Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands. After waiting for good weather window for almost a week, we set off before dawn for what would be about a 4 day sail.

Joining us for the trip was our friend Gunther, who is an experienced sailor with a number of long distance offshore deliveries under his belt. More importantly, he is "uncle Gunther" to the girls, so they we super excited to have another family member on board. And Mom & Dad are always happy when we have friends and family on board because the girls do a lot less whining!

The trip was full of amazing experiences -- shooting stars, bioluminescence, and a few we caught on camera below -- as well as a few challenges.

Challenge #1 was Ryan battling seasickness...again. We think (hope?!) we have it figured out the recipe of drugs and pre-prep that will for the Atlantic crossing, but Ryan was sick for the first two days of the trip. Keep your fingers crossed for us. That's one of the big concerns for the crossing.

Part of the reason Ryan wasn't feeling well was the conditionas a few hours outside of Gibraltar. We found ourselves trying to outrun a thunderstorm in 25 knots of wind with a nasty cross-sea left over from the previous week's weather:

(photo credit to Gunther here. He's multi-talented)

But things eventually settled down and sailed on through the night enjoying the incredibly brilliant stars as we sailed down the African coast.

And the next morning, after a few hours of pleasant sailing, we had some visitors!:

Day 3 saw us settling into our routines and enjoying some of the fastest sailing of the trip. In fact, Gunther set the current speed record on Luna Bay of 17.5 knots! Here's a little of the rocking and rolling as we clipped along:

Then it was time for a little more strife. Coming on deck just after dawn after a much needed sleep, I was told that one of our spinnakers had ripped in half. Doh! Well, that would create a challenge for the transatlantic that we would have to deal (read: are currently dealing with) with in the Canaries. But for the time being, it just meant putting up the other spinnaker and keeping on going. However, when we did get there, Mara and Gunther were kind enough to display the evidence:

With our arrival in the Canary Islands, the girls have now sailed over 1500 miles offshore. In less than a week, we'll add another 3000 to that. We are now in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, a different Canary island about 100 miles from Lanzarote busily preparing for our first ocean crossing (that isn't in an airplane). We're hoping for lots of moments like this one:

(another Gunther shot)