We arrive in the Canary Islands!

1930Z 02DEC18, Day 6, Gibraltar-Canary Islands. We sailed and motored through the day. We had hoped to make the anchorage before dark, but watched the sunset over Graciosa and Lanzarote. We were safely anchored just after 1900, about an hour after sunset. It was a lovely weather day and we finished out the trip smoothly. 

Passage summary: 131.5 hours, 597 nm, 4.5 kts avg SOG — a little slow, but not bad given the slog against the current to escape the Strait of Gibraltar.

We were all happy to have arrived and there was excited energy throughout the day. We had a nice dinner with a celebratory glass of wine and then everyone went off for a good night's sleep. We were happy to have completed our longest passage yet. It was relatively smooth with some minor issues we will quickly sort, and as always, continuous learning. 

Day 5, Gibraltar to Canary Islands

0730Z 02DEC18, Day 5, Gibraltar-Canary Islands. We sailed all through the day yesterday with winds around 20 knots. The day was cloudy and a bit grey with a tiny bit of rain. We sailed downwind with the jib and made good progress. Overnight the winds went down to around 10 knots and we motored for a few hours. With the sea state and the low winds we were getting rolled around a bit. We really needed to be on our asymmetric sail, but it did not make a lot of sense to put it up in the middle of the night. Plus we needed to charge our batteries anyway, so on went the motor. The early morning saw some more wind and we went back to sailing with the jib. 

120 hour progress: 545 nm, 4.5 kts avg SOG. We are hoping to be settled in the Canaries for the night before sunset. Around 50-70nm to go depending on where we decide to stop. 

We are all in good spirits and looking forward to seeing land again. This has been our longest passage to date and we are quite happy with how it has gone. The highlight of the day was that we were finally sailing without using the engine (about 36 hours straight). The boys continue to do schoolwork, dishes and watches. Yesterday saw more rolly seas, so we weren't sure how much schoolwork they would get done, but they persevered.

Day 4, Gibraltar to Canary Islands

0730Z 01DEC18, Day 4, Gibraltar-Canary Islands. We are now consistently sailing! We turned off the engine around 1130 yesterday and have been sailing since. We are sailing downwind and were using our asymmetric until around 0300. By that time the winds were sitting around 20 knots, so in watch turnover Jon and I worked the sail change. We have switched to the heavier jib and continue to make good progress. We have gybed once and will likely gybe again today, perhaps a time or two. The seas have developed a little bit with the wind and we are getting rolled about at times, but it is still comfortable overall.

96 hour progress: 431.2 nm, 4.5 kts avg SOG.  We expect to make landfall tomorrow afternoon.

Whales! Jon spotted spouts in the water and we all came out expecting to see a pod of dolphins. Instead there were 3 whales at the surface. We sailed relatively close to them and they continued to spout. They seemed to be smaller than our boat and had a very small dorsal fin. We will have to look up what type of whale they might have been when we have internet again. They did not seem to mind our passing by. One picked up its head like he wanted to get a look, but they did not come over to the boat and we sailed on.

Everyone is well and we have all settled into a bit of a rhythm. The boys continue to make progress with their school work, stand watches, and play together. We've been cooking and eating well and are all happy with the passage so far.

Day 3, Gibraltar to Canary Islands

0730Z 30NOV18, Day 3, Gibraltar-Canary Islands. Not much wind again over the past 24 hours. We were able to sail off and on through out the day. The seas are still calm and we made ok speed in low winds. We have had the motor on for 12+ hours, all through the night. The wind is forecasted to increase enough to be able to sail sometime today. There was a decent amount of boat traffic as we paralleled the Moroccan Coast, about 30nm off, for a good part of the day. There are also a few other sailboats out making the trip and we see one from time to time. Otherwise things are quiet and we are ready to sail a bit more. 

72 hour progress: 319.6 nm, 4.4 kts avg SOG, passed halfway point! About 275 nm to go. 

Dolphins! Our big excitement of the day was a pod of bottle nose dolphins that came to visit us for about 20 minutes. There were quite a few and they swam and surfaced a lot whistling and clicking to each other. At some point most of them swam on, but 2 stayed at our bow, practically rubbing against the boat for awhile. We all enjoyed the show and morale boost. Earlier in the day, we had put out the fishing line, but this time the fish won and snapped our line; so it seems that fish was too big, and we need some higher strength line on our hand reels along with some more lures. Current score for the trip is Zephyros: 1, Fish: 1. 

Everyone is well, and watches and school work continue. Daxton is taking his DJ / watch standing duties seriously.

Day 2, Gibraltar to the Canaries

0730Z 29NOV18, Day 2, Gibraltar-Canary Islands. It has been a relatively slow but beautiful day. There has been a good deal of motoring / motor sailing. The winds were below 5kts throughout the day, which was forecasted and not a surprise. The seas have been calm with just a low, long Atlantic swell that has been very comfortable. Overnight we were able to sail from about 2200-0145 and then again from 0445 where the winds were over 5kts. We have been pleasantly surprised that Zephyros is sailing well making 3-4+ kts in 6-8 kts of wind! Generally she needs more wind to move so that shows just how calm the water currently is that we can sail (close hauled) in such light winds. The winds are forecasted to start filling in, in the next day or so, so we are hopeful that day 3 will include more sailing and less motoring/motor sailing. 

48 hour progress: 214.7 nm, 4.5kts avg SOG 

Fish on! The big news and excitement was that we caught our first fish underway!!! A nice sized tuna caught, ironically, right after we had just finished lunch - but we had a second lunch of tuna poke over rice anyway. The whole crew (except for the naïve cats!) was super excited and it filled up an hour or so of our otherwise uneventful day. The cats didn't touch their sushi - spoiled little buggers don't know what they are missing, but more for us then. There was also a nice fish dinner - broccoli, quinoa and seared tuna steaks - yum! And that was the end of our first tuna, it has been decided that we need a bit bigger fish next time, so fingers crossed and perhaps we will put the line back in soon. We were happy our first one was a manageable size, easy to store in the refrigerator and fed us 1.5 meals. 

We continue to be in good spirits and are well rested. The boys did school work and watches as well as dishes. We've listened to music together and played games.

Day 1, Gibraltar to Canary Islands

0730Z 28NOV18, Day 1, Gibraltar-Canary Islands. We departed Gibraltar 24 hours ago. Everything has been well. We motored through Gibraltar bay and then set sails along the coast of Spain. Winds were 15kts and we sailed for a bit before being set by the current so on the motor went to ensure forward progress with the sails still assisting. We made it past Tarifa and picked up speed, turned off the engine and sailed across the strait. We had good downwind sailing without the motor for about 12 hours. We even braved night time asymmetrical sailing - only to hit 20+kts of true wind and change to the jib. We moved along well until around 0230 when the wind dropped below 5 kts and the motor has been on since. Seas have been calm with a long period 1-2 meter Atlantic swell. 

24 hour progress: 107.1nm, 4.5kts avg SOG

Crew is all in good spirits. The boys did school work yesterday and watches have been easy. It was good to get moving again and have a gentle reintroduction to everyone's sealegs. Poseidon got a bit sick right as we left (likely nerves) but is back to being himself already.

Getting Settled

Well, we have been remiss in posting. Mostly we have felt that there has not been any exciting or noteworthy news that you would be interested in. But I guess hearing that we are alive and well could still be interesting. Plus there has been some news and progress: we have moved aboard, sailed her and are all settling in...so I guess it is time to catch up and show some pictures!

The keys to Zephyros!

First dinner aboard!

First sail - Daxton at work

First sail - Ronan at work

Jon at work

Sailing!

After Zephyros launched on the 12th we went to Le Mont St Michel for a visit and then back to Paris. The boys have each written a small piece on Le Mont St Michel that I should get posted with pictures. After about a week in Paris, we came back and moved aboard the boat on the 20th of September. We started regular, daily school work with the boys; we made Ikea and grocery runs; we set up with (spotty) local wifi; we did some sailing (Poseidon got sick, every time) and tested out systems on the boat; Megan returned the car back to our friends in Paris; we had some minor things fixed or changed; but mostly we waited. We waited for our shipment of things from Seattle. We waited for nice weather days that we could sail because the weather had turned cold and we didn't have enough warm clothes or the right safety gear with us. The boys also spent a rainy day playing with new friends - a boat with kids that was visiting for the weekend. It was a nice way to break up the days for Jon and I as well, as we all made a first cruising and cruising kid connection. We all spent time on their boat and ours.

We had thought that our things might beat us to France, then we were given an expected arrival to Antwerp of 2 Sep and delivery by 18 Sep. The arrival to Antwerp was then changed to 25 Sep and then to 2 Oct. Apparently the ship went from Tacoma to Houston to Antwerp - so Harvey, Irma, possibly Jose and some other hurricanes all continued to delay our shipment. So we waited and filled our days - some rainy, some sunny, which is still a far better fate then that of those who were actually hit by the hurricanes or then having our stuff get washed off the ship in a hurricane! Once our stuff did arrive, it cleared customs pretty quickly and was delivered to the boat yard on 10 Oct.

We took the shipment of our things to the boat in 2 loads, half arriving on Tuesday 10 Oct and then the other half came down on Thursday the 12th. We worked hard over the days trying to find a place for everything. Truth be told, school work went on hold a bit, because there was no table for a few days and Jon and I were both working to get things stored. Thankfully there was some nice weather to send the boys off playing (or to PE class if you want to be generous). But there was also rain so we tried to get things on the boat quickly so that they didn't sit on the pier or get wet.

A favorite cat spot - and the perfect height!

Low tide on top / high tide on bottom

Steep ramp at low tide (left) but easy at high tide 

Exploring cats 

Applying our boat name graphics

Name in Greek on port side

Name in English on starboard side

Christening the boat Zephyros officially!

Daxton gave champagne to the North god

Ronan to the West god - Zephyros!

Jon to the East and Megan to the South

A pizza ATM

We had to try it, and it was pretty good!

Sailing - testing out the Asymmetric Spinnaker

Stuff!

More Stuff!

Two cats in one cubby! 

We finally felt settled and set up enough to start looking to sail and then Ophelia was heading to Ireland - crazy that a hurricane headed to Ireland. While we didn't see hurricane force winds here, it was yellow sky (supposedly desert dust pulled into the atmosphere by the hurricane and/or dust from fires in Spain & Portugal) and quite windy on Monday. Also, as we are installing and setting up all the gear we are also finding a couple of additional tweaks and new questions. So this week we are continuing to get sorted and are hoping to start sailing a bit farther afield. There are really strong winds expected Saturday so we may settle for some more day sails or go farther quickly with a protected harbor to stay in.

We are anxious for our adventuring to get moving off the pier more, but we are getting sorted step by step. The kids have restarted daily school and we are working through the issues that we know about. We will certainly shake down the boat more and if / when any other issues arise we will get them sorted out as well.

Zephyros is truly becoming our home!