Tenerife to Cap Verde

Eventually Dave got the generator working and we left Los Cristianos in the afternoon of the 17th. The wind was easterly and Hocus Pocus picked up her skirts and headed south at around 4-5 knots. We started watches, Dave had initiated a four hour system that gave us all 8 hours off and 24 off every four days or so when that person would cook and be responsible for domestic duties. We were all glad to be on our way and posted last posts to Facebook as we left the EU.

We soon fell into the routine of watch keeping and the cockpit speakers were given a workout as we listened to every number one single from 1952 onwards!

We soon began to feel the ocean swell, something which would become our constant companion for the next 750 miles. Catamarans are great trade wind boats however they do have an Achilles heel in a seaway, they are very noisy! The waves constantly hit the bridge deck between the hulls making it difficult to sleep for the off watch crews.

The course on the plotter remained very close to the optimum not deviating by more than 1 nautical mile. However electronics being what they are I borrowed Daves sextant and began to take daily sights. At first and until I had adjusted the instrument ( a Davies plastic frame ) my sights were out by nearly 50 miles! However I soon had them down to a reasonable degree of accuracy getting within 2 miles or so at times. Due to a happy accident the Sin and Moon were in the sky at the same time in the afternoon allowing a great two body sight.

Life fell into a routine, the fishing rods were deployed and the winds blew, we wee not quite in the trades but life felt good nonetheless.

The fishing was proving disappointing at one point we hooked into a nice Dorado and played it right up to the back ladder before it broke the line and escaped the gaff by inches!

 As the winds steadied we deployed our trade wind secret weapon, twin headsails. These proved to be stunningly efficient maintaining a hull speed about two thirds of wind speed. Two Genoa sails without poling out the windward one as catamarans are very wide, excelent stuff. Need to get a twin groove luff foil for Dark Tarn.

So we read books listened to music and generally looked after the boat as she eat up the miles.

As we got within a couple of hundred miles of Cape Verdes we began to see lots of flying fish and in the morning we found them on deck along with an occasional squid.

The boat performed superbly as did the crew. The watch system proved to work well and  we had a perfect trade wind passage in many respects. Lynne had proved to be a great crew member and all her fears about being on an unfamiliar boat were soon forgotten as she applied her knowledge to learning new systems, finding that basic principles always applied.

On the morning of the fifth day, the distinctive cone of the Island of Sal appeared over the horizon.

We piloted Hocus Pocus into the very crowded anchorage at Palmeria and aftwr a couple of attemts to sqeeze into the available space we were secuela ancho red along with a flock of other faded and slightly tatty ocean cruising boats. In Africa.