Friday 12 April 2019

We got up to a glorious morning with clear blue sky; no clouds at all. I hadn’t slept well. I think the different noises of the boat at anchor, as opposed to those when moored in a marina, and the slop of the boat from side to side because of the swell, disturbed me. I got up in the wee small hours and tried to look out of the window to check we were still roughly in the same place. I had to clear the window of cloudy condensation and then couldn’t see anything except the stars. There was no light on the land at all. Checking more properly would have involved getting more awake, going on deck, so I decided that the noises and motion were sufficiently similar to earlier, that I was happy we hadn’t dragged the anchor into danger and I could just go back to bed.

A huge German catamaran had also moored in the bay overnight and they waved and shouted greetings as they left, just a short while before we left too. There was little wind for most of the morning so we chugged along under engine. Several yachts, who must have been in much more of a hurry than us, passed us. They were all gone by lunchtime, when the wind filled in and we were able to have glorious downwind sailing all afternoon. We were trucking along at 6 -7 knots with no stress or strain and enjoyed the warm, sunny conditions. The land we passed was majestic in a baron sort of way. There are no trees, with only vaguely green covered earth. We also had the delight of dolphins ducking and diving in front of the bow for about half an hour. They were smaller, bottled nosed dolphins. It is always such a delight to see them.

I had time to admire, not only the world champion’s splice but also the rope whipping; the neatest I have seen. What stars the riggers have been: absolutely sensational.

By early evening the wind had changed direction and was dropping so we couldn’t make our course or a decent speed so we motored the last five miles into a small bay, behind a big hill, so well sheltered. All the fishing boats had gone back into port too, so it seemed we had this little patch of sea to ourselves. So far, there is little swell so we should have a more comfortable night.

Distance covered today	51	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	76	nautical miles
Distance covered 2019	76	nautical miles
Tricia (and Steve)