Captains Log: Aquilas to Gibraltar

Sunday October 13th

We set out around 8:00 a.m. and were pleased to find that the promised wind had arrived. It was coming from directly behind us, blowing at about 12 knots—perfect conditions to fly the parasail. We managed to get the sail up on our first try (thanks to David and Stephen). It truly is a beautiful sight, both in appearance and performance. The wind picked up to 14 knots, and we were running downwind at a very respectable 7 knots. Not sure how long this will last, but we’ll take it while we can!

By 5.00pm the wind dropped and by 6.00pm it had turned 180 degrees, we are headed directly into a 11 knot wind, so it is time to turn on the iron sail, hopefully the wind will turn again for us!

We plan to sail on through and all the next day, we will likely be close to Gibraltar at sunset, so rather than going into that busy harbour at night we will anchor off the Spanish coast and head to Gibraltar on Tuesday Morning.

David will do the 8pm to midnight shift, stephen midnight to 4am and I'll have 4am until 8am.

We are hading west, literally sailing into the sunset.

On Monday night we anchored off the Spanish coast, about 15 miles from Gibraltar, Stephen and David took the Dinghy to the beach to get some provisions, I stayed back to power wash the boat. Overnight we got an unwanted coating of red Sahara dust again. I got a really good long sleep!

Next morning we had a leisurely start, setting off for Gibraltar at 9.00am. We dropped anchor around mid-day and went ashore to get some provisions for the crossing to the Canaries.