She Runs Along Through the Waves, on... Sails Reefed Down as Far as They’ll Go :). How the Captain and Lady Mary Sailed from Morocco to the Canaries.

She Runs Along Through the Waves Part 2. (Part One — Wind, Wind, Mighty and Strong ) By morning it eases off; thirty knots already feels like a light breeze, and I unfurl the genoa halfway. Our speed immediately rises to 7 knots. I record our coordinates and distance covered—130 miles in twenty-four hours. At 11 o’clock, the AIS alarm goes off for the first time. We pass a container ship at a distance of 4 miles. The wind is still 27–30 knots. During yet another afternoon snack—tea with fig jam—I watch the following scene unfold: on one of the oncoming waves (which, thanks to the wind, have grown to a respectable size), the boat heels so far that the water covers about 20 centimetres of the leeward side deck. This is hardly the first time it has happened yesterday or today, so I barely pay it any attention, merely striving to keep both myself and my mug of boiling water upright. A Wave Usually the wave passes, the water drains away, and that is the end of it. But the next wave comes at a shorter interval and strikes the windward side. Torrents of water sweep over the coachroof, fountains of spray fly in all directions... Beautiful. Good thing the hatches are battened down! Otherwise we’d have taken about five hundred litres of water aboard. A comparison with a gigantic vice immediately flashes through my mind. How many tonnes of water must there have been on either side?!? And yet, not for a moment do I doubt the strength of the hull. After all, there’s a reason Nauticats are called “tanks at sea.” Anyway, what was I talking about? Ah! Yes! Singing the praises of my beloved Lady Mary ! It grows dark. We are approaching the first of the Canary Islands —the northernmost one, Isla de Alegranza. We approach it from windward, pass it a couple of miles off, and then adjust our course slightly. From there, it is straight on to Gran Canaria, to the marina at Las Palmas. (From the captain’s notes) Conclusion — Past Buyan Island, into the realm of the glorious...