Bound for the BVI

After a month of watching the weather carefully and enjoying our time in southern England, we got the right window of weather to leave Falmouth, bound for Madeira. Just barely three days into our journey, we were faced with unfavorable wind that meant we had to sail close hauled to windward. We have a policy on Sila that we like to sail where the wind blows us and we like to avoid "unfun" sailing. From where we sat, it looked like at least five days or more of unfun sailing, so we altered our course and made landfall at La Coruña, Spain on January 16th.

We were thrilled to have made it unscathed across the Bay of Biscay in the winter but admittedly disappointed to be stopping as we were just getting our sea legs- settling into the routine of offshore sailing and feeling more comfortable with the motion of the boat, even while sailing close hauled. And it could be a lot worse than to be in Spain, home of our favorite padron peppers, manchego cheese, and delicious smoked hams. After ten days in La Coruna and Muxia, a lovely Galician town farther down the coast, we found our window to sail again, bound for Madeira.

We left on Friday, January 29 and have since sailed to our current point, 44 miles north of the Madeira islands. The winds have been generally favorable and as I write, we are zipping along, wing and wing in Force 6 winds, going nearly 8 knots. Wing and wing means we are sailing downwind with the main out on the port side and the Genoa on the starboard side with a whisker pole to hold it in place. It is a very stable platform and quite level as we surf down the ocean swell.

During crew meeting, we made the definitive decision to sail past Madeira. We are now bound for the British Virgin Islands. Our position today at noon UTC was 33°35'N 016°38'W. We have sailed 724 miles in 5 days and have 2,935 miles to go. This is likely to be our longest offshore passage and our last big one. We are planning to keep Sila and continue our explorations by sailboat, but it may be a few years before we have the opportunity to cross an ocean again. So for now, we are enjoying our time as a family of four, watching the odometer tick over, noticing the air and sea temperature rise, saying goodbye to our northern sea birds, appreciating the escort of various dolphin or porpoise pods, hoping to catch a tuna or two, eating our favorite passage meals, and sailing Sila home.