Passing the Canaries

Jean-Luc van den Heede continues to forge south on solo round the world attempt

Day 7. Position at 1300: 28°05'N / 19°09'W
11-knot easterly wind. Calm sea. Temperatures: day 29° / night 17° / sea 23°
Distance covered in the last 24 Hours: 193 Miles.
Distance to Cape Horn: 5629 Miles.
Lead over P.Monnet: 14 Hours.

Hi there,
It's already been a week since I left. I haven't noticed the time going by. This morning, I crossed the latitude of Palma, the island the furthest north west of the Canaries, and this afternoon I went down below the latitude of Hierro. I didn't want to get too close in order to keep the wind going, and I am too far away to be able to see them.

Adrien could certainly do with a little wind! Yesterday afternoon, the trade winds almost completely gave up the ghost again and for several hours I sailed along with between 4 and 6 knots of wind. Sailing down wind with the spinnaker out, it will take more than that for Adrien's 30 tonnes to get a move on! Fortunately, the wind got up again in the night, but 10 to 12 knots is still not really enough to get a good average speed going.

I'm now beginning to feel the heat, except at night, when I have to cover myself up. When I'm sailing along with the spinnaker at night, I'll be sleeping aft out on deck. In that way, if anything strange happens to the spinny, I'll be woken up immediately. Moreover, when the weather is like this, it's a real pleasure to sleep out under the stars!

See you on Sunday.
JL VDH

A day in honour of " Milie Doudou, the little green cuddly mouse from " ATLAGEL ".