Wind, Wind, You Are Mighty! How the Captain and Lady Mary Sailed from Morocco to the Canaries.

Wind, Wind, You Are Mighty! The Storm Begins At dawn we set out from Agadir ( Morocco ). Ahead lay 340 miles of Ocean. I mean, 340 miles is how far we have to go—the Ocean itself is boundless :). We motor for about an hour and a half, making our way out of Agadir’s wind shadow, and then His Majesty the Wind appears. 20 knots. On the beam. According to the forecast, we’ll be on starboard tack all the way to Gran Canaria. We set the genoa; our speed is around 5 kts. After lunch, the wind gradually strengthens, and by nightfall it is blowing a steady 35 knots, gusting up to 40. I leave a third of the genoa unfurled. In the 3–4-metre waves, the boat periodically rounds up and the sail starts flogging. The windvane self-steering brings us back on course, of course, but sometimes with a delay. I should have set the reefed mizzen to balance the sail plan better, but it’s dark and wet back there now, and those waves... brrr... I switch on the electric autopilot; fortunately, we have electricity to spare right now—the wind generator is putting out 12–15 amps. The boat is much steadier now. The sudden round-ups stop. It’s a good thing the first mate and the young sailors flew home—they don’t much care for weather like this. But for Lady Mary and me, it’s just right. At around eleven, I go to bed. In case any ships appear, the AIS alarm and radar detector are switched on. The alarm clock beeps every two hours. A glance at the monitor, a glance at the sail, a glance into the cockpit—no lights are visible on the horizon. I go back to sleep... At around three in the morning, I record gusts of up to 50 knots. Nothing much changes in the boat’s behaviour, except that the whistling in the rigging grows louder. With so little sail set, we are not moving quickly—around 5 knots. Lady Mary is perfectly under control and holds her course. Every so often, an awkward wave slams into the bow quarter, drenching the entire deck in spray. The autopilot buzzes away furiously, holding us on our set heading. Several waves sweep right across the deck, creating the impression of a submarine surfacing... (From the captain’s notes) On she runs through the waves... To be continued>>>