Our first real open ocean passage in our performance cruising boat Paikea. We chase the breeze down the Moroccan coastline on our way to the Canary Islands. The new modifications stand up to the rigours of life at sea and we couldn’t be happier.
In Cadiz we’ve ordered a heap more solar panels but the question is where do we put all this extra power!? The solar panels weigh exactly the same as our entire carbon fibre hardtop. It’s hard to deliberately double the weight on the boat’s hardtop but we need the solar capability. We don’t have a lot of time to mount it all either before our weather window opens up.
Our plan was to repair the existing solar frame as it had been damaged in Portugal. Our anchor lifted out of the mud and the boat dragged after we spun around with the tide. The chain wrapped around the shank of the anchor and pulled it out! However, we cannot seem to find anywhere in Cadiz that sells aluminium in lengths of more than 600mm. We decide instead to use some of our spare carbon fibre C-tech sail battens for the nee frame and mount it directly over the existing one.
A favourable weather window means that we are able to make our way to the Canary Islands and begin preparations for our Atlantic Ocean crossing. We use predictWind’s weather routing tool for our passages. The true wind speeds for downwind sailing look favourable and we are hoping to use our fractional spinnaker for the entire journey. Downwind with the kite up is our favourite point of sail.
This video shows family life on board Paikea as we journey along the Moroccan coast towards Lanzarote.