170 Miles to the Canaries
02 October 2011 | Off of Moracco
Rodney
We are still motoring toward the Canaries in very calm seas. The wind has come up a little bit but still too light to sail. I have enjoyed checking into the local maritime cruisers net in the morning to talk to some of the other boats in our area. There in one that is 50 miles ahead of us called Shooting Star. They left Gibraltar about the same time that we did and are going straight to the Canaries. Their last report showed them sailing at 0.5 knots over the bottom. So we spent two nights in Rabat and have almost caught them. There was a time in my life when I really enjoyed sailing at half a knot - and Jane is still with me!
We should be in Graciosa tomorrow morning. We are looking forward to putting the anchor down and doing some swimming and exploring. If the conditions are right we may go for a scuba dive. All of us are flying out on the 6th so we need to get to our new home in Lazorate soon. We are all really looking forward to making landfall. Cliff and Carrie have never done more than one overnight on a boat but are handling the new lifestyle well. Maybe they have found their calling?
Cliff - the mighty fishermen, made another attempt at hooking a big one. He only got one hit yesterday - the lucky fish got away just before he reeled it in. Cliff is amazed by the fact that you can catch your and fish and eat eat it too. He has still avoided the cleaning part though, but his day will come. There seems to be less fish as we head offshore. I am sure we will have some other opportunities as we get closer to the islands.