We left Grand Canaria at 6 pm yesterday. The wind piped up to 25 knots from the north so we have had a very fast sail so far. All last night we averaged between 7 to 10 knots and traveled 190 miles in 24 hours which is a new Azure II record. If all goes well we should be in Grenada by December 21st - before Christmas.

We have been very busy getting the boat ready. Eric and I arrived in Las Palmas on the 30th and it has been non-stop boat projects ever since. Jamie and George arrived on the 1st to help us get everything ready. Jamie arrived right on time at 2pm so it was easy to find him. George on the other hand had a flight on American, which I guess just filed for bankruptcy. Instead of arriving at 3pm he was redirected and did not arrive until 11pm. We took several walks to try to find him, but with no luck. After exhausting the docks until midnight, George befriended some Russians on another boat who spoke a few words of English. Luckily George can count to four in Russian so they became instant friends and invited him on their boat for some vodka and a place to sleep.

Provisioning for an 18 to 20 day passage can be a bit intimidating. Thankfully Jamie was here to take charge. He inventoried all the food we had onboard, we made list of all the meals that we would cook and he set off to try his best Spanish. George, who does not speak Spanish, also brought his four words of Russian just in case. Two cabs and 500 Euros later we had what we needed. I always like to cook meals ahead of time and freeze them so they are easy to heat. This passage will include beef stroganoff, Turkey soup, curry chicken, chili, and lots of pasta.