Falkor of London, Jeanneau 54 DS; Lagos,. Portugal – Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain; May ‘25
Friday, May 23rd
As I left Midnight Sky in Lagos with a broken saildrive, I boarded Falkor of London, a beautiful Jeanneau 54 DS.
I’d met the owner, Peter, while Midnight Sky was on the hard. Since Sopromar couldn’t source the parts in time, I had no choice but to leave her there.
Eventually, I managed to track down a distributor in the Netherlands who could ship the parts, but delivery would still take two weeks. Pawel, the owner, drove over from Málaga so I could introduce him to the Sopromar team and to Augusto, who had been a huge help towing Midnight Sky in and arranging everything.
In the meantime, Peter invited me for a barbecue at his nearby home. He and his wife Sam had recently moved there permanently.
He told me about their plan to sail down to the Canaries. It would be their first real ocean passage, joined by a few experienced friends.
A few days later I met one of them, Ian. We clicked right away, and when he mentioned that one of the crew had dropped out, it didn’t take long before I offered to step in.
So instead of flying home today, I’m sailing to Gran Canaria.
Monday, 26 May – Position: 33:30.914N 011:38.958W
We’re flying! In the first 24 hours, we covered more than 190 Nm. On a broad reach with 15–18 knots of wind, we averaged 8 knots SOG.
The weather is glorious. Some high clouds this morning cleared by the afternoon. The seastate, though, is a bit challenging for Peter, Sam, and Chris, who aren’t as used to timing their movements with the boat. It always takes a little while. Still, the atmosphere on board is fantastic.
This morning the wind freshened slightly and shifted, making it harder to keep the genoa full. Two options: furl the genoa or drop the mainsail. Peter went for the latter, and it proved the better choice. Under genoa alone, we’re still doing 8 knots and the boat rolls a little less.
Fishing didn’t go so well at first, but once Peter swapped lures, he had a strike within minutes—a small but beautiful tuna. That’ll be lunch tomorrow.
By evening, the swell eased a little, promising a calmer night.
Wednesday, 28 May – Las Palmas, Gran Canaria
At 11:30 we tied up at the visitors’ pontoon in Las Palmas. Always easier when you know where to go.
On our last day at sea, the wind dropped enough for us to hoist the asymmetric. It was Peter’s first time flying it, and the conditions were perfect to learn.
Ian and I had prepped everything, and after talking through the manoeuvre, the hoist went smoothly. The sail was a perfect fit for the boat.
Dropping it was trickier—literally. Chris hadn’t realized the snuffer line to pull the sock down
was running both ways. While Peter pulled one end to snuff it, Chris was pulling the other. Peter was a bit stronger, but still… Things went much faster once I noticed and Chris let go.
The final stretch we sailed under genoa alone, still making around 7 knots SOG.
Earlier that day, we also had another bite—this time a small spearfish. After a couple of quick photos, we let it go.
Saturday, 31 May – Pasito Blanco, Gran Canaria
During the passage, it became clear we had a leak in the freshwater system. The watermaker worked fine, but the tank wouldn’t fill beyond halfway—and the bilge was taking on water.
At sea there wasn’t much we could do. No obvious leak showed up.
It took most of Thursday to track it down and fix it. The most time was taken by unscrewing and re-screwing the benches and floorboards. Eventually, we found the culprit: the seal on one of the tank gauges was leaking, and the gauge itself was faulty, stuck at half full. So while the watermaker kept building pressure, it simply pumped water straight into the bilge.
A bit of silicone paste fixed the seal, and that solved the problem.
On Friday we continued to Pasito Blanco, on the south coast. Peter and Sam had booked an apartment there for a week before sailing back to Lagos.
The next day, my trip was over. Via Madrid, I was back home by 23:30.
It was an unplanned passage—and definitely one of the most fun and relaxed I’ve ever sailed!
