The trip from Tangier to Las Palmas with 8 days at sea was really tough.
As we left Cartagena quite late to reach Las Palmas on time, we didn’t have much time in Tangier to wait for good wind. The weather forecast showed almost no wind along the Moroccan coast. We had to sail against the wind a long way west and later south, making the trip in 7 days. The wind was coming from south almost straight from the Canaries, i.e. we had to cross against the wind, which our boat is not very good at. We prepared and provisioned with food and water for at least 10 days plus a lot of emergency food like protein bars and canned food.
With 4 adults on board we had scheduled watches with 2 hours for each with half an hour of overlap at each end of a watch and an hour alone on watch.The day watches were for three hours. This gave two night shifts and one day shift for each adult.
Sailing out of Tangier was difficult. The wind was strong and the port of Tangier is not very well protected. We had a hard time getting out due to the wind blowing the boat into the dock.

When we finally got out, there were quite a few waves and I got seasick pretty much straight away. We got the sails up quickly and headed west. It was a headwind and the waves were pounding the boat. Martin also got seasick in the evening. We took seasickness pills and I got a sea-sickness patch on, but unfortunately that doesn’t really help once you are seasick. You have to take them in advance to get the effect. Anton got sick too, but held on and took all his watches. Victor threw up a couple of times and got a patch on. Luckily the patch worked on him and he got better. The only one who could cope with the sea was Ian, who didn’t get seasick and helped take some of my shifts and prepare food and so on. It was great to have him with us. He was also good at spotting dolphins and showing them to the kids. Elliott got a little seasick at first, but wasn’t too bothered by it and was able to help with food and day shifts so those with night shifts could get some sleep during the day.

Here is the only picture of us we have from the trip. Ian took the photo while we all were seasick and wished for it all to end soon.

I got really sick after my first night shift and had to stay in bed, and Martin had to take double shifts to make it all work out.
I had to stay in bed pretty much around the clock to avoid being sick. Every time I had to go to the toilet or have something to drink or eat, I got sick and had to lie down again. On the third day, the waves got even worse. There were some big ocean waves coming in from one direction and because of the wind there were some shorter waves from another direction. As a result, no matter which direction we sailed, we had waves on several sides of the boat. It was really unpleasant. At one point, I couldn’t take it anymore and persuaded Martin to sail towards land. Then I would fly home with the kids and Martin could go across the Atlantic with Anton and the guests. The boat would be sold in the Caribbean and we would experience the world with anything but a boat. We headed backwards towards Rabat, which we had already passed.

About a day’s sailing inland, the wind died down and the waves became much milder. People felt better and the mood on the boat changed. We decided to sail to Las Palmas anyway. The rest of the way to Las Palmas was pretty much windless and had to be sailed by motor.
Even though the engines caused a lot of noise and poor sleep, I felt better and was able to be a bit more involved in the watch schedule again. The engines also charged the batteries, giving us plenty of power to use the microwave to make quesedillas and popcorn and listen to music.
On the fifth day, our water tanks suddenly ran out of water. We have two water tanks that are connected. One was completely empty and the other had only 40 litres left. We also have a 220 litre tank connected to the watermaker. Fortunately, it was still full. And last we also had some cans filled with water. The problem was that we didn’t know if there was a leak on a pipe or at the water pump, and didn’t wanna run the water through the pump and thus through the filters that clean and remineralize the water. We also didn’t wanna drink the Moroccan water directly, and ended up boiling water to drink and doing the dishes in saltwater.

The last days of sailing by motor without wind and waves were better for us seasick sailors although there was engine noise and the smell of exhaust. We saw some beautiful sunrises and sunsets. 8 days after departure from Tangier, on 26 October we once again saw land shortly after sunrise. It was a great feeling to see land again after 8 days at sea. Here in Las Palmas there is a large organization around the transatlantic crossing and there are social activities like drinks in the evening, tapas and fine dinner, which we went to Monday. Our friends in Cartagena gave us a lot of advice for sailing. For instance, that when you are in it, you can have a really bad time and curse the sailing life far away, but when you get out on the other side and have reached your destination, everyone forgets how bad they had been.
We haven’t forgotten how hard it was, but it was a good feeling to have achieved your goal. The next stretch seems more manageable with a lot of others both nearby and with more guests on board. We already have a new crew member, Peter on board since sunday and another two crew members will join us on Cape Verde.

Since we were all seasick, we didn’t get much pictures from the trip, but here’s a video of Dolphins, that Ian shot one day. Even though we were sick, it lifted the mood for the whole crew.