And then there were two...

After spending a much needed rest at Madeira for two days and a bit,we
departed at ten this morning.We missed our crewmember when he flew back
to SA due to a hernia that was flaring up,or down as the case may be.We
missed him even more this morning when we sat down to have some crumpets
that Brad prepared,and Pieter's place at the table is a huge void,and we
miss him now even more.

A lot of people sail single handed around the globe,and far more so sail
two up.Both Brad and myself are more than capable to do the next leg
without compromising our safety.Our comfort zone is a bit impeded,but so
be it,a lot of people do it like this.We are hoping to have a
replacement crew by the time we approach Gibraltar,if not and if the
weather is good to go through,we might just push on through to Greece
which is only about two weeks away from today.We are expecting some
strong winds on the 4th and the 5th which may push us down south a
bit.Besides that it looks like we will be having good weather to make
good speed.

If the weather is not good for going through Gibraltar,we are planning
to sit it out at Cadiz in Spain,which is where we are sailing to at the
moment.It is just about 50 nm north of Gibraltar and we will play it as
it falls.Currently we are sailing past the last headland of Madeira and
the wind is from the north as the weather reports predicted.We have our
mainsail on the second reef,and the genoa furled in about two thirds as
the wind funneling over and around the island varies between 20 and 27
kts.We are making excellent progress and sailing at 5kts plus.We prefer
to take it a bit slower than what we can,always easy to furl out a bit
more genoa should the wind drop enough to justify it.Our COG is traight
in the direction we want to go.

We can expect more traffic from here on and will be extra vigilant.we
posted a lot of photos on our Facebook profiles,150 + of the trip from
St.Helena up to Madeira,including a lot of photos from Madeira.Should
you like to view these,you are welcome to send a friend request to my
Facebook profile and Lizette will accept on my behalf.

Wishing you a pleasant and restful weekend.

Paul