Kissed by a flying fish

Sailing from El Hierro to Sal, Cape Verde Islands

Distance 717 miles

Time taken 6 days and 8 hours until we were hove to outside the harbour

Weather sunny

Wind speed between 12 and 20 knots over the deck (once clear of El Hierro's acceleration zone)

Fish caught - none, though something took one of the lures

Wildlife seen - lots of flying fish (amazing how far they fly). Scruffbag thinks the ones that land on deck are depressed and suicidal. I think they are show offs who attempt more than they can achieve in jumping over the boat. - some storm petrels and a few shearwaters.


So we finally left Europe. Jaques, the Frenchman on the neighbouring boat, was sounding dire warnings about 45 knots of wind forecast in the acceleration zone that runs down the side of El Hierro but we had waited long enough and, besides, it is always windy in that zone and we knew we would be clear of it in an hour or so with a good forecast of around 15 knots from behind for the whole week ahead.

It was windy in the acceleration zone and it was heavy on the helm before the wind vane took over and it actually took around 3 hours to get clear. From then on the sailing was downwind and straightforward, though the windspeed did drop for a few hours on several occasions, which made sailing, slow and wallowing. We were goosewinged for most of the trip with 2 headsails poled out.

The worst thing about the trip was the tiredness. Neither of us got much sleep as it was very rolly and trying to sleep was like being rocked in a cradle by a sadist on speed so we were utterly exhausted when we arrived.

We tried a new watch system on this trip - 4 hours on and 4 hours off between 8pm and midday and time together in the afternoon and chance  to eat lunch and dinner together. It seemed to work well, giving the opportunity for longer sleeps when the sadist loosened his grip. One night I was on watch 12-4, just meditating on the stars above when suddenly I felt a flash of wetness pass over my lips. I jumped, startled, and then realised that a flying fish had just flown across my face. It landed on the coach roof. After that kiss what could I do but pick it up and return it to the Atlantic?

Scruffbag and I had agreed that if we arrived after dark we would not enter the harbour till the next day and although we put the mainsail up to try for more speed, it became apparent that we were not going to make it (by only a few hours, which is very frustrating and leads to lots of what ifs).

By eight o'clock, European time (6 o'clock Cape Verdean) we were hove to about 15 miles away and, although we drifted with the current, we had peace, quiet and some sleepthat night and by 6 o'clock in the morning we were ready to put the anchor over the bow and motor 10 miles into Palmeira harbour and drop anchor on our first African island.