Indeed, we´re still on the Canaries, Tenerife this time. We tried to leave for Barbados from Puerto Bianca, Cran Canaria but... We got our ´cohones´ kicked, in a bad way.

We left in a pretty decent wind, with a slight swell. But as soon as the sun dropped over our waypoint, we got the worse case scenario: Bigger, restless waves and hardly any wind.
Now that was only for half an hour or so, because it went from worse to terrible: As the night continued, we got up to 40 knots of wind (about 8 beaufort), in an ever increasing swell. The most annoying thing about it was that it was a very dark, clouded night so the waves were constantly hitting us by supprise from unknown directions. And KeeS was rolling, tumbling, clashing over them.

I was the only one who had gotten some sleep that day, and the only one who could take, and hold, some food. (The cheese-fondue from the night before departure had even knocked out André´s much more experienced sea-stomache.) Around 00:30 most of us were virtually exhausted already. We all didn´t really feel like keeping this up for at least a couple of days to get us into the calmer waters of the Trade Winds, away from the Canary Islands. So we decided for what was going to wreck up my scheduled Christmas return for sure: This was to be a false start.

In our heavy weather gear, with only a small stamp of a sail on our forestay, we sailed the yacht towards Tenerife, where we arrived just after sunset. Luckily, nothing was really damaged that night except for our expectations, and our personal energy resources. KeeS held up just fine and I for one am confident about her holding up during the crossing. So did the crew, although we did learn some about the need for discipline in terms of mental preparation, eating, heavy weather clothing, and our watch-system.

Tomorrow we´re probably going for another try. Keep watching for updates!

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