In 24 hours we’ll set sail for the Cape Verdes!

And I’m feeling the nerves! We’re facing an 800 nautical mile passage, our longest passage to date.

I’m nervous and excited. I’m really looking forward to new, exciting places. Coming down from Gibraltar into Morocco was such a cool experience. Morocco felt exotic, different, exhilarating.

The Canary Islands on the other hand, feel familiar, Western and safe. While the landscapes here are foreign and dramatic, the culture is known and within our comfort zone. I can see why it’s easy to spend long stretches of time here.

And while I care for a feeling of safety a lot, I also feel I long for the excitement of new cultures, new foods, new lands and new people. I want to explore!

And lastly, I really really long to see GREEN. You learn something about yourself every day while cruising and I’ve learned I really enjoy seeing green around me. The Canaries so far have been so barren.

We planned at first to also go to La Gomera, because the little that I knew about that place was that it had forests and waterfalls. Unfortunately, the weather messed up our plan to go there in time.

We’ll have guests coming to visit us in the Cape Verdes and that deadline means for us to skip la Gomera and set sail south, if we want to get there in time for our first guests.

Today we’ll do the last prep, buy some fresh fruit and vegs and get the boat ready.

Tomorrow around this time, we’ll pick up anchor.

But those nerves man… will they ever go away before a passage?