No Stopping the Adventure until Las Palmas

This might be the final blog from the first leg of this Atlantic Adventure, but as you will read the crew will be taking home many happy memories…

We did not stop at Lanzarote as planned due to tidal restrictions, a mutinous crew, who demanded to continue sailing under starry sky’s , the idea of anchoring for a few hours before being able to enter, just staying one night and the prospect of having to motor to Gran Canaria on Thursdays due to no wind sealed the deal.

We are currently sailing at 6 – 7 kts under 2 reefed main no head sail, it’s sunny, warm with blue skies the off watch don’t seem to want to go off watch. We had a massive pod of dolphins around the boat for some time one of which was related to Flipper and gave a fantastic show almost leaping over the boat at one point… or so I’m told.

This will be my last midday position of this voyage, it’s been a really good one the crew have been amazing, with 2 chefs on board the food has also been far better that the usual standard.

As we will now have a couple of days in Las Palmas the crew are palming some exploration, that will almost certainly end up at the beach for a surfing competition.. now that will be worth seeing. J

A Spellbinding and Crew Binding Adventure.

Mixed emotions on Challenger 2 today, it has been nearly 2 weeks since that moment when we all met for the first time in Portsmouth . Us, a mixed bunch of ages, backgrounds and sailing experience brought together in the pursuit of one common goal… adventure!

We met our skipper Neil, mate Chris, watch leaders Iona and Dave went through many safety briefs before setting sail for the Bay Of Biscay

Since then we have spent many hours on deck discussing weighty matters such as, what do dolphins do all day? Just how many stars can you fit into one sky? Is there ever a time of day when eating a jammy dodger is not appropriate?

On odd occasions politics or religion have managed to sneak their way into the conversations only to be banished from our boat with a quick subject change, after all wind in its true form is much more interesting.

We have made new friends, laughed, joked, sunbathed, got wet, dried off. got wet again, had some amazing food and above all had loads of fun sometimes challenging sometimes a bit scary, sometimes a bit slow but defiantly fun.

Sailing this 72 ft boat has been an amazing experience. We were due to make a last stopover in Lanzarote last night but we, as a crew decided not to, when you are sailing with friends under a starry sky stopping is just not what you want to do.

We are still sailing just 15nm from our final destination Las Palmas where we will have a couple of days to explore before returning home to the normal world, memory’s will live on along with friendships made on the amazing voyage.

Get Your Own Atlantic Adventure

Ocean sailing is what all sailors are hankering after and if you haven’t yet tried it then these Atlantic Adventures have something for every level of sailor.
The second leg is of this trilogy is the ARC Rally 2017 and all berths are taken, however there is still space on the return leg from Antigua to Portsmouth, starting January 4th and last about 30 days.

Quite a voyage and definitely one for the bucket list. You can find our more details here:  Antigua to Portsmouth Adventure

Posted by: First Class Sailing