The start of the race at 13:00, was very spectacular with two main groups, the first with all the racing boats and the second with all the cruising. A fleet of 216 boats, in total. We were doing well, crossing the line within the first 30-40 boats on the windward side, on the port tack but we just realized that our auto pilot was not working so we decided to steer by hand two hours each of us. I entered the lazarette and tried to fix it but in vein.

Fifteen minutes later our gooseneck felt and we had to do some work for half an hour. George and Pantelis  repaired the problem while I was steering trying to overpass some other boats. Most of the bigger boats were going on a starboard tack so the fleet started dividing. I had decided to keep on the port and tack later to keep away from the airport area and come closer to the African coast. The wind was light with medium waves. Our progress was good and we good see that boats passing us were bigger.

The racing class had disappeared In front of us, close to Gran Canary.

At 18:00 UTC the sun went down and I wish I could send the picture I took, sun and around it small boats with their sails.

It is 18:30 UTC and we are heading towards the African coast, we are 88 nautical miles away, making 7,5-8,3 knots and plan with this wind to gybe towards Cape Verde ( about 850 nautical miles away-too far!). The sea is moderate with a swell of 2 meters. Our SPOT is working so you could see our course and progress. George has gone to sleep at 17:00 and Pantelis now at the wheel. I had a light dinner, jamon, cheese and a fresh salad with lots of wine vinegar and olive oil. I will continue writing the diary then I will stay for a while in the cockpit and then try to get some sleep. We can see from the A.I.S. two boats about 4 and 6 miles away having the same course with us. I hope they don’t follow us....because we don’t know where we are going :-) hi hi!! I am only joking.

The temperature in the boat is 23C and out side a bit cooler, you need a light pullover to stay and humidity not that much. While I am writing I see in the radar screen about 15 boats around in a radius of 24 nautical miles. Where are the remaining 201? are they in front of us or behind us? Most of the fleet has completely gone.

Time to go out in the cockpit and I will write later, the wind has dropped and we are going 7kts.

So 20:45 time to wake up George and I will go to sleep.

It is 21:50 and it is very difficult to sleep. It is the first day excitement, very difficult to write about my thoughts and impressions. One thing I know for sure is that the whole thing makes me feel nice and is intriguing.  The speed is around 7+ knots but the boat rolls and the swell has increased maybe to three meters. There is a boat next to us around 100 metres away, we believe it is number 147 an Oceanis 46 that we passed at 19:00 but now he is getting closer passing us.

I have to try to sleep because my watch starts at 23:00, I am using Katerina's berth (the starboard stern one) so I may change to the bunk in front of the Navigation table. It is protected by a lee cloth and it is very narrow so I may stay without rolling. Well 10 minutes of sleep and then just lay down to get some rest no real slepp. At 23:00 up prepared coffee and back for 2 hours steering. The wind has increased to 21 knots sometimes up to 22,5 and the wind veered from 63 to 83 degrees for an hour then veered back to 73 degrees. George kept me company for half an hour and we decided to make a gybe to see if we can change our course to our original waypoint 20.00N 25.00W.  This didn’t work so we decided to come back to our previous course and gybed again. The new moon is giving so much light that you can see the white caps of the waves, the sea is well lighted and the sky even with some clouds is full of stars.

The swell has reached 3-4 meters but the rolling is still bearable. This is a long mail....excitement makes me write the diary for the first day. The crew is in good spirits although we still have problems with the B&G instruments, they go on and off and the auto pilot. I wish Michalis, my son, was here to fix it  within minutes.

Time to say good night to you all

S/Y ARMENISTIS