Day 1 Canaries-Martinique

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 Sunday 9th Nov '25


After a couple of days in Las Palmas doing some provisioning, refuling, buying spares and doing a couple of repairs it was time to leave.

Belinda, the owner, decided that the big passages were not for her so she booked a flight to Martinique via Madrid and Paris.  She also took Coco the dog with her.  Now Coco is the cutest and most loving dog you could meet and she gives cuddles as good as our dog Tori so I am going to miss her!  

                                                     


We got some final items from the shop this morning, stowed everything, lifted the anchor and out we went.  Heading down and around to the bottom of Gran Canaria into 20-25ktrs of wind from behind and a decent little chop.  

After a few hours we finally managed to get the nose pointing down sort of in the direction of Cape Verde Islands.  There's a traditional saying for sailors heading across the Atlantic before weather forecasting got pretty reliable and that is "Head south till the butter melts then turn right".  Still true today.

If we can sail most of the way to Cape Verde we will just continue across the Atlantic but if we have to motor and use up precious diesel we may just pop into Verde for fuel and straight out again, but we shall see. 


An example of the sort of route across the Atlantic using the trade winds.  Time will tell if that's the route we follow........


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