After a couple of days with just too little wind to be able to put up the sails, finally it strengthened enough on New Years Eve for us to turn off the engines and hoist the sails. Well hoisting isn't really the right term as everything is done by hydraulics, but it doesn't change the fact that four of the five sails were out.
The boat is a fantastic sight when all the sails are up and we are cruising across the ocean under wind power. With the boat being so new the crew are still learning how it handles, in particular under sail, and especially so since some only came on board in Barcelona at the same time as we did.
Most of the time we are on automatic pilot, but earlier on in the day Maria (my wife) was allowed to steer for a while - see the picture above. It took a time for her to get the hang of the sensitivity of the helm and we did a bit of zig-zagging, but soon we were going (nearly) straight and she has a story to tell when we get back home!
Mark is currently on board the Rainbow Warrior 3 sailing towards the Canaries. You can catch up with some of his other blogs onboard the Rainbow Warrior 3 or Rolling on the waves.
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