It was confirmed that bad weather in the UK meant 7 people could not join us and we made the ship ready to sail out of Las Palmas. Climbing the rigging to practise setting sails was exciting but a bit scary, hanging backwards to get up to the platform. Once out in open sea, the ship began rolling about in the swell and sadly some of us felt seasick quite quickly but things still ran to schedule. Unfortunately the wind was not blowing in the right direction for sailing between the islands so the captain decided to motor north till 20:00 hours and then sail southwest to gain a better course to reach Santa Cruz, Tenerife. The wind proved unreliable so plans had to keep changing and throughout our night watch we became very familiar with the twinkling lights on the coast of Gran Canaria. Next morning we started with another emergency evacuation drill and then experienced ‘Happy Hour’ which involved cleaning the various areas of the ship ~ bunks and heads for our watch. This was followed by ‘Smoko’~ a choice of drink and slice of iced fruit loaf. A talk from David on sail setting was followed up with practical application in anticipation of good sailing. After Cookie’s delicious fish pie we were ready to take over the watch again! The appearance of the sun lifted our spirits and for a while some were able to sunbathe until we changed course and blocked out the sun.
Fwd Starboard watch