Toulon France to Antigua - Tosca Gunboat 68

We left France 2 days before the Mistral was due to start blowing and managed to pull out some good miles west and make our run for Gib before the next big blow from the west. This did mean a stop in Spain on route to fix our door seals and wait for one day of strong west wind forecast and wait for sea state to improve. Then also required fuel stop in Cartagena. We then headed off to squeeze through Gib into some downwind to the Canaries. Lovely sailing downwind! Made it to Lanzerote in good time arriving in time for a beer! Then it was time for quick job list turn around, provisioning and get ready to hot foot it South towards the Cape Verde Islands to find breeze and try to keep ahead of the dying trade breeze. That we did! We made the call to head south rather than N to go through Cape Verde and hook into trades. Worryingly we almost thought at some point that we would be motoring a fair amount and suspected a fuel stop in Cape Verde however because we were able to keep the boat moving ahead of 85% polar speeds we were ahead of the wind and had absolutely glamour down wind 15-20Kt trades. Great sailing with a great bunch of people. Good work to Mikey the Captain.