Update from the Alpaire (Day 1)

We left the marina just after 11:00 on Sunday morning. There was a great fanfare of boat sirens and a band playing as we exited the narrow entrance.  Wind was 20 to 25 knots from the NE. Our course was to leave Gran Canaria to Starboard and then to head Westwards at the Southern tip of the Island. There was a lumpy sea running so most competitors stayed under the shelter of the breakwater until the last moment. We started on the line just SE of the Marina and Breakwater. We were 20 seconds shy of the line, because Des did not want to set the jib to be sure to be sure. There is a three hour penalty for being over early. Our intended rig for the voyage is to have two identical jibs goosewinged out for blue water downwind sailing. We had each sail hoisted in the groves of the forestay. At the start the wind was too much on our port quarter to carry that configuration. We tied the two clews together. So we were off to a stormy start at 8 knots, under doubled jib and full main. Th  e sky was overcast and the temperature about 20 degrees. We had the odd shower with a squall.

We are in very good shape. Alpaire has been thouroughly checked from stem to stern. We are fully provisioned with scrumptious frozen food, enough to get us to the Antartic and back! But I want to turn right at the bottom of the island. I think that the others want to go South. Angela, Eleanor, Margaret and Joe have prepared the most delicious meals. So thank you to everyone who has helped.

AS we sailed down to the East of the island we got to the wind acceleration zone at the airport. The largest mountain on the island rises to 1700 mtrs. It is a feature of sailing here that we can expect zones of accelerated much stronger winds and then also wind shadow effects. These extend to 150 miles South of each island. So at times we have had 30 knts down to six. Our highest burst of speed down the 4 mtr waves was 11.2 knots. At the corner we dropped our main and set the two poles. The boat is very stable with that rig.

By dawn the fleet began to seperate. However we see our neighbours on the AIS.

We have limited email capacity on satellite phone. So no need to reply to this or acknowledge it. We get weather up dates daily as well as the position of each boat. We can download a weather grib file and run our own routing thanks to Jan who is our external router. We have a scheduled Radio call with the fleet controller at 13:00 each day. Each boat has a YB Races tracker device. If you download the App you can follow our progress and the fleet.