It was an early start as we navigated our way out of the Santa Cruz marina to La Gomera. The sun isn’t rising until eight o’clock. The wind was blowing a very comfortable 15 knots on the beam. We unfurled the sails and enjoyed a pleasant hour of sailing. Unfortunately the wind died and what little breeze we had was right on our noise. As we motored around the southern end of the island, we came across a pod of pilot whales. We turned off the engine and Crispy took the opportunity to take some photos. They were just floating along without a care in the world.

Aura was 12 nm from San Sebastian de la Gomera and I spotted some white caps in the distance. The wind strength increased from 5 to 15 knots and then to 25 knots all in a matter of 10 minutes. We reefed both the main and the genoa just as the wind started hitting 35 knots with waves crashing over the bow. Aura had hit the “Acceleration Zone” and was speeding towards a cloud covered La Gomera. I was extremely happy by the time we brought in the sails and were safely behind the port break water.

San Sebastian is spectacular as you approach the town from the ocean with large cliffs with buildings that look like they are going to topple into the sea. After the ritual of docking and cleaning the salt from the decks, we caught up with a few other rally participant’s to discuss the excitement of the passage over a few drinks. We then headed out to dinner to celebrate Anya’s (Le Mischief) birthday…another great night eating tapas and Paella.

San Sebastian is a lovely village that hasn’t been impacted by an excess of tourists. We visited the local fresh produce market, walked around town and went for a swim at the local black sandy beach which proved to be very refreshing. The bus trip around the island revealed a treasure trove of deep ravines, steep cliffs with varying vegetation as you pass through the many micro climates. A walk through the cold, misty rainforest was really special with its moss and lichen covered trees, a canopy so thick that it blocks out all the light from reaching the ground cover, hence it is called a hollow forest.

Photos San Sebastian

It was another early start as we made our way to our last island, Las Palma. This time we were prepared for the wind acceleration zone with two reefs in our main as we headed out of the port. The wind was blowing 30-35 knots but it did not take long before we were out of the impacted area and sailing in a very pleasant 20 knots of wind.

Photo Passage to La Palma

La Palma is another beautiful volcanic island that has not been adversely impacted by tourism. It appears to cater for the adventurer, hiking, diving, mountain bike and horse riding. We visited a lovely water fall that is testament to the higher precipitation. We were treated to a fabulous local lunch that consisted of goats cheese, pork skin coated in a local flour (maybe not so fabulous), chick pea soup, potato bravo and pork and chicken that had been bbq’d on a charcoal fire.

Photos La Palma

Like all good things that come to an end, so to had Crispy’s time with us. It is hard to believe that a month went so fast. During the trip, Crispy took some amazing photos as well as photos of the other yachts. To ensure that everyone got to say goodbye, Aura hosted her first pontoon party. Basically anyone that did not fit in the cockpit (and we can accommodate a lot of people), had to stand on the dock. It was a great evening with plenty of food, wine and laughs. After everyone retired for the night, Crispy and I decided to visit the charter boat next door to chat with the guys from Prague. We probably did not need that extra drink but it is always fun to meet new people.

Photos Aura/Dock Party Farewell for Crispy

The next day we said a sad farewell to Crispy. It was great having him on board and he will be missed by the entire fleet. We had to finalise the provisioning for the passage to Cape Verde islands. Our schedule was to depart for El Hierro, the most southern and westerly island in the Canaries chain. We decided to bypass El Hierro and go directly to Cape Verde's so to avoid the strong southerly winds for the day that we were scheduled to depart El Hierro.

As the day progressed, it became apparent that what I had assumed was a hangover was the beginning of the rally flu. It had already disabilitated a number of crew and I looked to be its next victim. With the provisioning completed, the laundry done, sailing magazine article completed and dinner prepared, I could finally fall into bed and have an early night in preparation of our six day passage.

There was no urgency with our departure the following day as we knew the 800 nm passage would commence with motoring with an expectation that we would have wind to sail later in the day.

Apart from the first 24 hours of the passage that I was really unwell, the passage to Cape Verde was great. As planned we missed the unfavourable southerly winds and had plenty of time to tune our downwind sailing techniques. We left with two other yachts and it was nice to know they were within a 10nm radius for most of the trip. It was fun to have both Kerpa and Tourterelle in VHF range to talk about weather, fishing and of course, what’s for lunch. We eventually lost contact with Kerpa the morning of day 5, Paul had kept us informed of his new fishing success, landing plenty of tuna and mahi-mahi.

Unfortunately we only managed to catch a small mahi-mahi. Normally we would have thrown him back however there was excess damage when removing the hook. He would not have survived so we honored him in the best possible way by eating him for lunch. The other catch was a flying fish that managed to find its way through the small bath room hatch and land in our shower. Fortunately Si was on watch and had to clean up the scales and battered remains.

Other high lights included two separate pods of dolphins that came to play. When the first pod came to visit, we were having a relaxing lunch when we saw this almighty splash at the stern of Aura...obviously their way of saying “look at me”. It was a big family pod with a lot of young. The babies were so sweet playing at the bow of Aura while glued to their mothers. The second pod was just as big but without the babies and a lot more playful. I sat on the bow for about half an hour cheering them along. In the end I was the one that had to break up the party as some guests just never want to leave. I was actually surprised that once I got up and moved away from the bow of the boat, they took off.

During the last five nights, we pretty much had a full moon. Now that the moon is starting to wane, you forget how totally black it is. I am hoping that the slight cloud cover will clear and we will be able to see the stars. Tomorrow we will arrive in Cape Verde's around lunch time. For now, we are enjoying the tranquility of downwind sailing with 15 knots of winds and very little swell…bliss!!

Photos : Christian Sprogoe (the professional images not those taken with my iPhone)