Trucial Coast, Day 2 – an eventful start

The first log from Trucial Coast is going to be a short one out of necessity: I’m still finding my sea legs and anything apart from being on deck scanning the horizon makes me distinctly queasy! Our first day has been pretty interesting. The start was spectacular and our skipper, Rob, got us off to a flier. With a Force 7 blowing there was perhaps a little more close quarter sailing than we’d have liked! We headed down the coast of Gran Canaria in a Force 7/8 (one squall saw wind speeds of 45 knots!) with only our genoa out and were steaming along at 8+ knots, hitting 10 on a couple of occasions – not going to break records, but pretty good for us! Rounding the south of the island we had supper before the wind died on us. A couple of hours wallowing were pretty uncomfortable in the 2.5m swells – that’s when I went to bed!

When I got up at 3am for my watch, we were back up to a Force 7/8! In the dark – the biggest winds I’ve yet sailed in! So pretty exciting stuff. This morning, after I grabbed a couple of hours kip and cunningly missed the rain showers, we’ve got a fairly steady Force 5 from NE and it’s set to be with us for the next couple of days. It’s pretty decent sailing and not too uncomfortable above or below decks, although with the swells you do find yourself pinballing around a bit down below!

I’ll sign off for now and hopefully be back with something a bit more verbose in the next couple of days – right now, I need to get back on deck for some fresh air!