on november 7 at 4:00 am they departed at last. the weather conditions were not prefect but they did not want to wait any longer. the more you wait this time of the year, the harder it is to leave. we watched the weather patterns and there are strong gales forming every week. so with a not so great day, and very cold weather they finally left and unfortunately had a very slow progress leaving the strait. there is normally a strong current flowing from the atlantic towards the med of an average of 2 knots. in addition every time the tide rises, the speed of tide against increases. so, to have the weaker current against, one must plan the departure carefully to hit the worse 10 miles of the strait of gibraltar at exactly 5 hours after high tide, or when the tide is coming down. i helped with the calculations from shore but unfortunately the progress was never more than 2 knots. maybe we missed the good timing, or we simply were doing the best possible and it could have been worse. we will never know; but the good news is that they left. the route followed the Spanish coast and then after cutting across the strait they would continue hugging the moroccan atlantic coast for a few days. for me, being the first crossing not being on board it was very difficult. i was constantly thinking about the progress of the boat and following the weather closely and tried to communicate whatever i saw. in the meantime all was good on board, they caught several fish, mostly tuna. peter got a very good looking fish which he liked so much that he put back in the water. after some hours esteban got another of these pretty fishes, which turned out to be a mahi. this one they ate. after peter ate it and liked it so much, esteban says he will not put them back on the water again, no way. they are better looking in the pan!!
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