We set off to sail Canary Islands to the Azores on Saturday 29th June, arriving in the early morning of 6th July. Read on for a full report of the conditions we encountered and the experiences we both endured and enjoyed.

Two years ago, we sailed to Porto Santo from mainland Portugal, arriving with a dead engine. At some point, salty sea water had forced its way into the engine from the exhaust, wrecking damage as it sloshed around for several days.

Porto Santo was only meant to be a pitstop on the way to the Azores, but what followed was the hardest and most stressful period of our sailing life so far. We chose to rebuild the engine on the island, with no previous experience. We did it, which was amazing, but it also took more out of us than expected, never mind the lost time.

Now we were back on track. Could we make "a successful navigation across an ocean to a tiny target?" (Thanks Mark for the quote).

During our months in Gran Canaria, we'd updated and upgraded Emerald's safety inventory and felt ready to head out onto the ocean.

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