Canary Islands
The 5th of July would prove to be quite an eventful day. Sailing from Punta de Antiquera, Tenerife to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria would be approximately 50 miles. A day sail, but a long one (for me!). Therefore, we were up relatively early and got the boat ready. We turned the engine on, picked up anchor, and slowly began heading out of the bay. I was at the helm, Richard had raised the voile d’etai (main staysail), when suddenly the engine over-temperature alarm went off. Richard quickly shut off the engine and raised the mainsail, but because we were not yet out of the bay, the flukey bay winds put Issuma into irons. This was rather alarming as being in irons meant that we had no control of the boat. Richard instructed me to center the tiller as he raised the trinquette (fore staysail) to help balance the boat, while we waited for the winds to turn Issuma back to sea. Luckily, the sails filled, and in spite of no engine, we made it past the arms of the bay, headed out to sea and set sail for Gran Canaria.Issuma was sailing beautifully on the crashing sea, moving anywhere from 5.2 to 6.9 knots during the morning sail. Richard raised and trimmed sails while I stood at the helm. After the first hour of the sail, I felt strangely sleepy and sick. I thought it was indigestion, but Richard recognized my symptoms as seasickness. Mortified (how could I get seasick?), I sheepishly agreed to take the medicine, and promptly passed out on the deck of the boat flat on my back, bundled in 3 foulweather jackets and two hats, with a checkered dishtowel covering my face from the seaspray. I was unconscious for nearly 2 hours, but it was very restorative as I woke up feeling quite chipper and ready to be a crew member–rather than an invalid–again.