We change islands

This morning is the pre-departure preparation. We explain the last points to Max and Andrea. The marina employee comes to see us to make sure we are leaving today and asks for us to pay our bill. If they had wanted us to leave earlier, it had not been written. If it had been for another reason, we will never know. He comes back, gives us the bill and that's it. The fact that the other two boats left at sunrise may have something to do with it. We'll never know.

We leave the San Miguel marina and the island of Tenerife around 10:40 am. There is little wind. So we're on the move. In fact, for about 4 hours, we expect to be mostly motorized because we have the wind in our nose. Louis is raising the mainsail and the genoa because we should have about 15 knots of wind further from the coast. Bad information but we will only learn it some time later.

Further on, the wind is at 35-40 knots sustained. We therefore roll up part of the genoa. Then Louis asks Max to lower the mainsail. It's not an easy task, especially right now, but it's like riding a bicycle, Max hasn't forgotten, it's just harder with the waves. It's not an easy day of sailing let's say. Louis often tells us that there are 30 minutes left, I know that is not true. Others notice it too. At some point, after a few hours, Andrea looks at me and asks me "how much longer?" and I tell her about 1 hour. To her face, I would have liked to tell her just 30 minutes, but that's why she asked me, to get a real idea. She is so good for her first time on a sailboat, on the ocean in addition, she does visualization to help herself.

I put the famous anti-motion sickness glasses back on because it seemed to work last time. We eat digestive biscuits that Andrea brought or pastilles and ginger candies. I work hard not to get sick. I told Andrea I wouldn't be, it's like my mantra: 'no, you told her it would be fine, you won't be sick'. I don't know by what miracle I got there, but with my expertise in seasickness, I ended up understanding my body and where it is at in its stages. As soon as I start to get cold, I ask Louis for my windbreaker and a blanket for Andy.

Max is in the back and gets several waves in the face, he's all soaked. Louis too, but he's going to take off his sweater, after a while, to put on a windbreaker. Max remains as he is. Louis asks us to put on our lifejackets. We run. It warms up Max and Andy a bit and it makes one feel safer given the winds and the waves.

I go down to the cabin and I see that the water has entered through the side of the boat and has wet Andy's clothes and their bed, but I wait before saying it because it is not the time, let's say. One test at a time ;)

We arrive in the bay of El Medio around 5:40 p.m., we anchor near the beach. The windlass does not work. I descend over 200 feet of chains and ropes by hand. Well, it still descends relatively well, but I'm already thinking about the ascent which will be less easy, it's not our first time with this problem either. The depth of the water under the boat is 23 feet, the tide is out. Someone comes to see us in his kayak to tell us something, in Spanish. We don't understand anything. In fact, we understand that he tells us not to stay where we are because of the current. We tell him that we are ok. We'll see later if we have to move.

I tell Andy her clothes are wet and we take everything out on deck to dry. She's so good, she has a great attitude. Wow!

We have a light soup. I eat the rest of the pasta, Andy a single sandwich and the guys double burgers. I don't even understand how they can eat all that. My body doesn't want to eat, but it has to, at least a little.

Gravol around 9:30-10 p.m. because I want to sleep but I'm waiting. Max is going to sleep. I'm staying with Andy and Louis outside. Louis wants to wait for low tide before sleeping. It's at 11:15 p.m. I don't know how I made it this far, but I held on. There is 15 feet of water under the boat. So we are ok.

Time to go to sleep, alone, Louis will stay outside to check that the anchor is holding well and that everything is ok. Since we didn't figure out the man sooner, might as well be careful. Good night captain!