The Rally started on November 10th with light winds. We were excited to finally get started and felt we had done everything we could to prepare for this initial crossing to Cabo Verde ( Formerly known as Cape Verde). 

The winds were strong but behind us. The 1st night we set the Main and Genoa. Winds were 19 -23 knots with gusts to 27 knots. One the 2nd night we furled in the Genoa and left the main up. Around Midnight the Genoa back winded and once we sorted all that out, and were back on course, we realized th boom has broken even though we had the main sheets set to prevent a autogibe. 

On the 3rd morning we raised the parasail. It had always felt quite big, but we had never had a parasail before, so didn't have a reference for size. The boat moved along nicely, and loved that the Parasail stabilized the sailing. 

On the 4th morning. The boat was really going slow, so I looked off the back and realized we were dragging 200' of fishing net. We were still sailing, so slowed the boat down. If we didn't get rid of this fishing net, it could get wrapped around the prop, and we certainly couldn't start the engine if there was fishing net. 

Blair got in the water, which was very nerve racking for me, as if he somehow seperated from the boat, he would be impossible to find. There were also big seas and I was concerned that the boat would come crashing down on his head. 

Blair started by cutting away a lot of the net. Then I got out the gopro for the 2nd time to check under the boat, and took video of how the netting was stuck under the boat. Blair took some of the extra next and gave it to me, and asked me to wrap it around the port stern wench. Once it was wrapped, he then asked me to crank on it. Voila! The rest of the net came free.

It took us a total of 7 days to travel the 909 km at an average speed of 5.3 knots. We were really ready to get to port and try and boom and continue to do preperations for the longest passage of our lives.