Six day sail from Lisbon to Graciosa

We spent six long days crossing the Atlantic from Lisbon to the small island of Graciosa, just off Lanzarote. No one managed to get more than 3 hours sleep per night, so we were all exhausted when we arrived. The original plan was to stop off in Madeira for two nights on route, but the Easterly winds weren´t helping and i think the skipper was secretly keen to get rid of us both. Although we were a little sad to have missed Madeira, Graciosa turned out to be a beautiful spot, with pristine beaches and turquoise seas. There´s very little tourism here, except for a few regular Spanish visitors and daytrippers from Lanzarote mainland. From here, we leave yacht Yemaya (after nearly 3 months of sailing and over 3,000 miles) and will make our way to Northern Lanzarote for a few days.

The sail from Lisbon was surprisingly smooth and we even managed to catch a tuna for dinner one evening. We got becalmed half way across the Atlantic and Sam got a chance to test the blow up fish again. Hanging onto a rope while sailing at 8 knots was also a favourite pastime in good weather, but the fun and games stopped when the skipper slipped off and we had to perform a man-over-board manoeuvre at top speed to get him back. We also lost the rudder from the wind pilot one evening, but amazingly managed to find it again in rough weather (no small feat, as its only half a metre in length and we sailed a mile away from it before realising). A few pictures from the sail..