They say that time and tide wait for no man and so it proved when we left Lagos for Gran Canaria, as we had to leave at 6am to catch high tide and this meant being up at 5am. We need to do this, as the easterly winds over the last few days, had created a large onshore swell, which if we had left at low tide, would have put us at risk of grounding. As we motored out into the swell, all of us felt relieved at finally being under way again and that the repairs had been successfully completed, or at least we thought. Although Lagos was an enjoyable place, as I had said in an earlier blog, we were getting frustrated and stuck in a rut. We set sail for the Canaries and although the sea was a tad lumpy, with the favorable 25 knot easterly wind, we were making good progress. We settled quickly into our watch system and all was going well, but a few hours into our journey, as we were heading for the shipping lanes we need to cross, Andy decided that the layout down below needed rearranging, especially the saloon table. As he sat at the navigation station, we hit a wave and he was thrown onto the table and ended up wedged against it, with his feet up against the skylight. At first Steve and I hadn't noticed predicament, because we were busy up on deck, but when we finally heard his cries for help and saw him, after checking he was alright, I am afraid we did have a good giggle. With the table now lashed down, we carried on at a good pace. However, just as we thought we would have a fast passage, Mother Nature decided otherwise, the wind swung round to the south, to head us and it stayed like this all the way until Gran Canaria. This meant for the next 3 1/2 days, we had to motor sail and because of this, we had an uncomfortable time slamming into a confused sea. This puts huge demands on your body both mentally and physically and it was great to have Steve and Andy there to help me along. The weather was also not particularly pleasant, as we had heavy downpours and spectacular lightning shows. I found it a really humbling experience and just a tad scary, to see Mother Nature at work like this. The other thing that hit me on this leg was that for most of it we had the ocean all to ourselves and this seemed strange after the busy shipping lanes/routes we had crossed/passed through. With Gran Canaria now in sight and us closing in on Puerto de La Luz, which is a busy shipping port, we decided to give the atuohelm a rest and steer manually. We hit the standby button and surprise, surprise it would not disengage, so much for the repairs that were supposed to have been done. At this point, with ships coming at us from all sides, we emptied the port locker and Andy performed a contortionist act to get in and disconnect it. We then safely motored into the marina and safely onto our berth and another eventful leg had finished. We all hope it will not take as long to complete our repairs this time and we will soon be on our way again. This time the pond is calling.