Northern winds

25 November 2014

It took a while, but we have finally found them: the Northern winds! It was a bit of a search, but after the depression, the wind slowly turned to the north. The course could finally go up and we headed south with a nice speed.
We reached the Canary Islands very soon and it looked like it was going to be a calm leg. Unfortunately one of our guests received bad news from the home front and wanted to return home as soon as possible. We only were about 20 miles from Las Palmas, so we turned around. Luckily we have Daniël onboard, our Spanish sailor, who communicated with the harbour. Normally it is not possible to go to one of the big harbours on the Canary Islands without an agent. After a lot of calling and being send from pillar to post, Daniël managed to get us anchored in the harbour. After that, we got the required stamps from the authorities pretty easily and our guest went to the airport. We wish him all the best!
As we sailed towards Las Palmas, the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) was about to start. About 250 yachts sailed out of the harbour to race to the Caribbean. We took a picture of the electronic map to give an impression of a harbour that is being emptied..
Two hours later we took off and since then we enjoy the northern 4-5 Bft wind, which slowly pushes us south. Could it be that the winds against us are finally over?