The colourful Parasailor spinnaker we had hoped to deploy at our start from London, finally came into its own yesterday. A welcome southerly breeze filled the large sail and Aventura took off like a colt tethered for too long by the stable door.
As the wind kept creeping up, and our speed with it, so did our electricity generation. In spite of having the autopilot on, and also the fridge, instruments and radar, to our amazement we were soon generating more electricity than we were consuming. And, to my great satisfaction, it was produced from renewable sources: a large solar panel, a D400 wind generator and a Sail-Gen hydrogenerator. As with all my previous boats, Aventura has no diesel generator and, in line with the Blue Planet Odyssey’s mission, we are trying to do our little bit to save this planet.
We were rewarded for that by a magnificent sunset, with a new moon hovering above the top of the mast. With Nick and Ivan we then enjoyed a delicious dinner and toasted the gods of the sea with a glass of rosé wine from Provence. Life is indeed beautiful.