The weather has been sunny during the day but still chilly at night - sailing kit has been needed.
Roo has finished his first book but is reluctant to start another yet - wouldn't want it to become a habit this book reading!!
Distance traveled on Day 3 - 110 miles (this is more like what we would be hoping to do every day - ideally we would want to be doing 120 miles a day)
Total distanced traveled - 289 miles
After our fight at the end of day 1 with the fridge lid we decided to start the engine as there was no wind. We noticed that the batteries weren't charging properly again so Jonny had to change the alternator back to the new alternator and disconnect the charging booster ... touch wood things seem to be working properly now.
We carried on motoring into the night as there was still no wind. Just after watch change at 02.30 the engine stopped ... we had caught a huge piece of fishing net round the prop. We tried to get it with the boat hook but it was stuck. Jonny tried manually turning the prop shaft and this seemed to free it slightly and we managed to get it from round the rudder so it was all on one side of the boat ... in the end we had to give up and wait for daylight so that one of us could go into the water with a knife.
In the morning we decided that i should go over the side as Jonny had hurt his hand on the engine and had it all covered with plasters. I put my wetsuit on, put on a harness that Jonny tied some rope to to attach me to the boat and tied the knife to me .. luckily there wasn't much swell and when i got the hang of things it was quite easy to cut the net free. The water was quite warm although i got abit of a shock when i first got in as i nearly landed on a fish ... not sure who was more surprised ... Roo was very disappointed i didn't have the net handy to catch it!!
The wind is now a good 12 knots on the beam and we are making good progress with the main and genoa out. The swell isn't too bad. Hopefully this will continue for the rest of the journey??!!
For Roo's friends: i forgot to mention yesterday that the colouring set came out in the afternoon of Day 1 - there are now 2 pictures proudly displayed on the cupboard doors - one by Roo and one by me!!
Distanced traveled Day 2: 79 miles
Total distance traveled: 179 miles
The winds were light initially before we got into the wind acceleration zone where we we doing 7 knots with just the main up ... we were really pleased with this til we radioed a boat behind us and they were moving quite slowly - only doing 10.5 knots - they were 3 times the length of us though!!
The wind strength died again night so we were only doing about 3/4 knots. A few ships were sighted and Jonny saw some orange parachute flares going off but got no response to his radio calls asking if anyone needed assistance??!!
Just before lunchtime we got becalmed and then had a fridge disaster .. between the 3 of us we managed to get the fridge lid wedged and couldn't get it up... luckily Jonny has managed to fix this and we still have a fridge full of food to eat.
A slow and eventful first day - hopefully the next 20ish will be better!!
Distance traveled Day 1 - 100 miles
I have been trying to update the journal but the internet at Rabat was playing up before we left and Graciosa doesnt have wifi - there is an internet cafe that i am hoping to get to otherwise will update in Lanzarote. Have updates about our trips to Meknes, Marrakesh and the journey here.
Will try update the at sea page until we can get the journal updated.
Not much shipping to note, but have seen a couple of other yachts headed our direction (all were much bigger which explains why they overtook us!).
Seas building quite steadily making for a rolly downhill ride!
The wind picked up a little this morning and we turned the engine off at around 5am. Good sail all day, although the wind has been light - speed varying between 3.5 and 5.5 knots. We are still around 25 miles off the Moroccan coast, but bearing 225 towards Lanzarote.
A 450 mile trip - just under 300 to run as at 18:30 today (16th).
Camarinas was very nice with lots of foreign boats cruising down the coast stopping off here. The landscape was fantastic and it was our first taste of the Spanish Ria's. Unfortunately Kate ate something that disagreed with her so we spent the following day on the boat lazing around, but it was nice to be in the sunshine doing not a lot. We planned to leave after 2 nights, but the following morning the sky was as black as thunder over the notorious Cape Finisterre so we stayed put. The following morning we again black clouds but decided to set off anyway as it didn't look as bad. We left with blue sky and sunshine, no wind. We soon got a little rain, then head winds, then thunder and lightning, then beam winds upto 30 knots, then stern winds, then no wind, and then fog so thick we couldn't see Kishorn (Trevor and Leslie's boat) even though on the radar it was only 0.15 miles away! We rounded into Muros and finally saw the land when we got within 0.2 miles of the coast.
We anchored off the town in Muros which was nice, went ashore in the dinghy to explore in the evening (no where to land really and ended up on a horrid slipway covered in creepy crawlies - Kate and Leslie not impressed!). We wondered around the tiny streets and found a bar just before it started to rain - then the thunder came - the loudest thunder I have ever heard! We darted back to the boat in between rain showers, but the thunder and lightning lasted 10 hours into the early hours of the morning! The next day we had calm weather but horrid muggy clouds and whilst not cold it wasn't warm either. We went over to Kishorn in the evening for card games and drinks.
We set off early the following morning despite more fog, both determined to get back to the sunshine. No wind again, we motored round to Ria De Arosa and found a beautiful island to anchor off for lunch. We went ashore but unfortunately it was a national park and got asked for a permit or to leave! So we motored on up the Ria to the Island in the centre and anchored off the beach. White sand, blue waters, perfect. Had a BBQ tea on Kishorn last night which was amazing, and awoke this morning to more sunshine anchored off the beach!
A day of exploring today and hoping to find an internet terminal to get more info on the national park permit - the next island we hope to visit is also in the park and we need a sailing permit, anchoring permit and landing permit apparently!
Well, as it turned out the forecast was optimistic! We had a great sail on Thursday (we left Cork at noon after tidying the boat up) and had a good over-night sail. However, Friday dawned to strong winds and we had to tack out west to avoid being pushed into the English Channel! We saw our first gale of the crossing kick in on Friday morning and last around 20 hours during which time we had a sustained force 7-8 with force 9 gusts,as we were just crossing the biscay shelf we also had awful seas! Saturday was better and we had winds from the North and made nice progress, trying to dry out after the gales where we found a couple of leaks! However, Sunday saw the winds return. We were now in the Atlantic in over 5000 metres of water so the waves weren't short and steep, but long and big - 9 to 10 metres (we are only 11 metres long!) we had a solid force 8 for over 24 hours before the winds dropped.
We arrived at midnight on Monday but held station about 15 miles offshore for 6 hours to await daylight and arrived on Tuesday morning.
We were wet, tired and miserable - and beginning to think this offshore stuff wasn't for us! However, we were soon being congratulated by astonished locals for sailing through the worst low pressure system in Biscay this season - made us feel a little better!
We spent Tuesday drying and washing and have spent today just messing and socialising with other cruisers.
Learnt a lot crossing Biscay - and now have some repairs to make!
1) The autopilot sheared a bolt in the first gale and had to be lashed with rope
2) We found 2 leaks in the deck we need to fix (hadn't shown themselves in the last 2 years!)
3) We ripped the staysail (Small headsail) slightly
4) We broke the engine bay door
Lots to do - but the weather here is great so will re-group, repair and move on later in the week!
J
We attempted to leave on Saturday morning, but after several days of gales the sea was very rough and the wind was too tight for any of the 4 destinations we had set ourselves (Arklow, Milford Haven, Kilmore Quay, Cork). So back we came - a little embarrassing after a full send off from Abersoch including flags and hooters - but better to be safe!
Sunday was nice and we went out to watch the practice race of the GP14 World Championships (Jonny's old class) and also met up with PJ (the eldest of Kate's younger brothers) who had just come back from doing the charter season in the Caribbean with his girlfriend. A good night on Sunday with a family meal to welcome PJ home, and some beers with the GP sailors.
We awoke on Monday and had a lazy morning. J helped Alan sort the enterprise out for his forthcoming national championships (Good luck Alan and Matt!), and we packed away the dinghy which we had repaired after it suffered a puncture whilst behind the boat in gale force winds.
We finally got out to the boat and cast off the mooring at 2pm, sailed past the yacht club with much waiving and tears (from family ashore and on Newt!)and out of the bay.
The wind was tight so we motor sailed for a couple of hours before putting a tack in and heading for southwest Ireland. The wind remained tight all night between force 4 and 5 and we sailed well averaging 6 knots. Around 3am the rain came and visibility dropped to a few feet as we crossed the shipping lanes off Carnsore Point. We pressed on and caught the favourable tide to make over 10knots at one point (still close hauled) past the south east corner of Ireland.
The rest of the day was wet and misty with a large Atlantic swell which had been building during the low pressure systems of the last couple of weeks. We pounded on, not very comfortable with head winds and large seas - neither of us felt 100%, but Newt was coping very well and ploughing her way through as only a heavy boat can.
We rounded Roche's Point to enter Cork harbour at 6pm yesterday - 28 hours after leaving Abersoch. We are moored at the Royal Cork Yacht Club (the oldest yacht club in the world, established in 1720), and are having a couple of nights in the marina to wash the boat off etc before getting a mooring in the river (half the price of the marina!)whilst we wait for the weather which is looking like this weekend at the earliest.
Nice to be out of the UK and feel like we're on the way properly now (especially as we're on Euro's!)
We got back to Abersoch on Tuesday and found a forecasted force 8 on the way, so we stayed put (the new Rocna anchor didn't budge an inch after 3 days of force 7 and 8's!). We are still 'put'! We had a look round the peninsular yesterday, but heavy seas and 25 knot winds on the nose made us decide that Abersoch still held appeal. We are in the bay at present anchored off the sailing club waiting for the weather to improve to allow us over to Ireland.
