As predicted, the final day’s sailing was a disappointment, but not without incident. We had been ‘serenaded’ by the crews of Serendipity and Leviathan II until about 0100 so the 0530 alarm was not welcome! Just before we started getting … Continue reading
Friday morning we went on a coach tour of the Oeiras area, starting with a visit to the Poets’ Park where they commemorate twelve of their best known 20th century poets. It is quite a pleasant stroll in the sunshine, … Continue reading
A successful day’s sailing Sunday dawned sunny and windy! The wind was not as strong as it appeared. Today’s leg from Oeiras to Sines started at 10.00 a.m. for the 50+ nautical miles including Cabo Espichel where we might expect … Continue reading
Our trip in a very modern electric Tuk-Tuk to the Graham’s Port Wine Lodge was quite comfortable though the cobbles were very noisy. The tour was interesting and the dinner afterwards was superb. Thursday we went on a tour of … Continue reading
We finally left Figuera Da Foz on Wednesday morning. This was definitely our best start ever, second over the line. We had a cracking sail to Peniche, averaging 6.9 knots through the water, more over the ground when the current … Continue reading
The past few days have been rather mixed in a variety of ways: weather, wind, sailing mishaps and race starts. We left Baiona on Tuesday morning with a gentle breeze just outside the marina, pulled up the main, unfurled the … Continue reading
Thursday proved to be a very busy day for the team of Rally Control with the majority of the boats arriving during the day including us! The nightmare of a six and a half day crossing, as in 2003, was … Continue reading
This has been a constructive day with nothing else getting damaged. Our vital statistics: day’s run, noon Wednesday to 1320 Thursday was 140.3 miles. In case you hadn’t guessed, we arrived 15 minutes earlier than our guesstimate and are now … Continue reading
Day four – drawbacks and advantages of sailing double handed Penultimate blog for this crossing which compares most favourably with our two previous southbound trips, but more of that later. Vital statistics: we sailed continuously, noon to noon, and covered … Continue reading
This blog will attempt to dwell on the positives we can take from this passage. Firstly, the statistics: day’s run to noon was a wonderful 152 miles through the water, of which 150 were towards the waypoint. The wind has … Continue reading