FIRST COUPLE DAY'S AT SEA

We left Lagos at 10am on Wednesday 12th June around 0830 am we motored out of the cut and stowed all fenders ropes and bits and pieces , i decided to leave the anchor on the bow roller and lashed it down firmly , blocked up the chain hole with some rag , ( Which turned out to be inadequate )  but more of that later , As soon as we cleard the cliff and started to head west we found a nice south westerly and sailed along the coast towards Cabo Vicente , by the time we had got there we had tacked onto starboard and got lifted as the wind was coming from the north , we intended to get a little North before bearing away to cross the traffic lanes ( TSS ) at right angles , we were had the no 1 genoa and half a dozen rolls in the main and doing a steady 4 knots into a rather large north westerly swell , not sure what time we bore off but by mid afternoon we were half way across the lanes with very little shipping to worry about , The AIS was working fine now and we had ample warning of ships long before we sighted them

going across the lanes on starboard 

our AIS gave good warnings of big ship's

We were now steering around 270 degrees with nearly 1000 miles to go , it was to become clear just how big the ocean is if you boat is only 25 feet long + a bowsprit , the wind continued to cme from the north during the first day I suppose it must have been about 16 knots the big swell continued through the day and occasionally we would get a dollop on board but it was all harmless fun ,

always a cuppa to hand 

 

a bit rolly

lee cloths are ready

wet decks already, the swell is deceiving

4/5 knots just the ticket 100 miles a day love it

 we had a nice lunch of salad and ham sandwiches and were in pretty good spirits. Cups of tea were plentiful and we even had a few biscuits. Planning for dinner was pretty easy and we had steak and kidney from a tin beefed up with peppers and onions boiled potatoes and green beans and carrots , it was all done in the pressure cooker and apart from saving time/gas it was a sealed unit that could not spill , we had brought some plastic bowls for the purpose of having our evening meals and serving up time was around 8 pm and even if i say so myself it was delicious and filling  cooked on our little two burner cooker 

our little perfectly formed galley

unfortunately the cooker was fixed and not gimballed and sometimes things proved a little testing but all in all we coped well. Dinner over we had not really sorted out the watch systems and that first night we kinda did two on and two off David had not done a great deal of night sailing and I was reluctant to leave him on watch for a longer period , following the first night we both agreed on four hour watches. The wind was fairly constant that first night although we took a lot of water on board and you needed to fully kitted up for your watch , and we made it a rule that you wore your life jacket when on watch in the cockpit and also you did not leave the cockpit without the other person watching over you. we were well out of the shipping lanes before dark so it was just a matter of setting up the Hasler vane and keeping our eye on the wind , the first night went by without incident and Thursday's dawn was welcome, it had been a roly polly night on starboard tack with the odd wave breaking on deck , nothing too harsh but the decks leaked a tad, all in all a great fist night for both of us , breakfast was an orange for David and cornflakes for me followed by a couple of cups of tea,
more later !!!!!
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