The first leg is completed

3rd December

The first bunch of 4 young competitive sailors left Portimao on Sunday 16th November, Ian waited till Monday 17th and the last 3 left 24 hours after Ian.  They all took roughly a week to get to Tenerife but there was another huge storm system which stretched all the way from the African coast to Madeira.  For Ian it started on the Thursday evening, by morning he dropped all sails and trailed warps to steady the boat.  The wind was from behind so he was still drifting in the right direction.  Finally, on Saturday morning the wind dropped enough for him to start putting up a bit of sail.  It was still blowing hard and at one point he recorded a boat speed of 11 knots, which is ridiculously fast for a nutshell like that.  Then on Sunday afternoon he was becalmed.  He drifted over the line at 2am on Monday.  Not wanting to enter an unknown commercial harbour in the dark, he intended to drift around till daybreak but no sooner had he crossed the line than the wind came up and he roared up and down the coast much faster than he wanted, dodging ships.  Now he's in a marina with the other contestants, swapping stories.  Most of them sustained damage of one kind or another except Ian.  One of the guys had to fly back to work, another has gone home to see his family and one has had to fly home for medical treatment.  The next leg starts on 10th December.