Good evening web browsers...(hi mum!). We were woken this morning by the tannoy with the joyous news that it was a glorious sunny day in Las Palmas. Unfortunately, on arriving on deck, bleary eyed at 7.45am we found it chilly and overcast-it was merely a ruse to get the green sailors out of bed on this first day of our voyage around the Canary Islands.
Thankfully by the time we had forced an enormous breakfast of cereal, toast, bacon, eggs and beans into us the sun was shining and we were ready to work it all off again climbing up the rigging. Almost everyone had a shot at climbing, much to the delight of the crew of the cargo ship berthed next door, who obviously weren't so busy that they couldn't spare a couple of hours to stare in astonishment at us dangling( not literally) from the yards (not to mention taking numerous pictures of the sight on their mobile phones to send to the folks back home).
This excitement was closely followed by the news that it was lunch, another colossal square meal to be had on deck, in the sun.
Afternoon saw us set off from the harbour in Las Palmas and then set sail, but not before having a few lessons in rope pulling. 2, 6 heave. (Not yet established what happened to 1, 3, 4 and 5, but guessing that comes tomorrow.)
It was great sailing weather for our first day, so great that we left the courses furled and sailed on with just the two topsails!
Oh yes, and dinner was pork with apple, gravy, roast potatoes, carrots, green beans and then pear crumble with custard- a Ferrero Rocher on top of all that would have just been too much...
Sarah AP