Five days at sea with a stowaway on board

On Friday afternoon we left Rabat to the sounds of people being called to prayer echoing around us followed by the smashing of waves on the breakwaters due to the strong swell. It was clear that the lack of wind would force us to use the motor but this gave us time to get some of our gadgets working, such as the extremely important water maker for all my showers! I sat up at the bow with my feet dangling in the water catching the waves and watching the sunset when a few dolphins came to play. This was pretty magical as I could see them weaving and turning as we bounced along through the waves. Although admittedly times on the boat are often quite boring, tense, dull and lonely the good times make up for it. I did think what a spectacular way to leave Morocco and begin our five-day passage to the Canaries.

The next day was a nice sunny with a steady breeze so we set about rigging the boat for down wind sailing. We rigged the gybe preventer (which stops the boom swinging across especially in rough seas which can be very dangerous) differently, running it around the bow, which worked well. We also polled out the Genoa (a big foresail and this makes it easier to fill) so we were goose winged. This all took a while but once set up the boat sailed well. We sighted dolphins jumping and playing in the distance but sadly they did not join us this time. To round off the day nicely we had a spectacular sunset with stripey clouds-it looked like something out of a painting. At almost the same time as the sun went down the moon rose. It was bright and shining and although it sounds stupid it felt like it was coming to guide us through the night as our watches began.

We spent the following day with very little wind resulting in spending most of my time sunbathing on the deck trying to improve my tan and whale watching. We did see a fin the distance although we were not very sure if it was a whale or a dolphin though I like to think it was a whale. That night as I was around half way through my night watch I heard sounds of puffs of air surrounding the boat and was excited to see that a large pod of dolphins had come to join us in the moonlight. There were loads of them, far more than usual and they were very calm, not like when they play at the bow. It was lovely to have them come and provide some welcome company in the night.

When I woke up on our fourth day of the passage I found that we had an extra passenger, a stowaway, a little bird. It was about the size of a finch and was just sitting at the stern. We thought this was very impressive for a bird to be so far out at sea but we realised that it may well have been with us the whole way without us noticing. It would generally spend most of the time with its claws clinging to a rope, I guess for better balance and only shutting its eyes for a few seconds at a time, which must have been exhausting. It stayed with us for the remainder of the passage and left us about five miles out from the coast of Lanzarote.

Feeling quite tired, very hot and in desperate need of a shower we arrived in sunny Arrecefe on Tuesday morning. Overall, it was a good passage with some good sailing but exciting and interesting wildlife. I hope our bird made it to land but I wondered if it would survive much longer in the desert of Lanzarote!