Position 36:41N 003:25W

Mariposa Blanca Move
Skip- Andy Petty. Owner hard at work in office!
Sat 5 Jan 2013 18:23
Log 1814
To Gib: 99nm

Hi all,

Adrian completed his exam by berthing us alongside Almerimar marina waiting pier and we decided a quick cup of tea in a cafe was in order but were told to leave within 30 mins or pay a night's berthing fee of €10. This is such good value we then decided as we had enough time, to stay the night anyway, get a good meal ashore, have a shower and a good sleep. Thus we were all tucked up in bbed by 2245! 0900 today we sailed and had a F4 occasional 5 from WSW which is of course the course to steer so it was bang on the nose. After several hours of testing the boat hard on the wind (she sails well even with significantly reduced sail) progress was not great in terms of the rhumb line to our waypoint off Europa Point. There was a little excessive forestay sag and there being no means of easily adjusting this at sea (its a Hunter with the special no backstay rig) we thout we should not stress it and instead motorsail (use the donk) and then the wind droppd right off anyway. Peter the owner called on the mobile from America to wish us well soon after.

Still motoring at sunset which was a beautiful clear set for a change. Mike asks for a glass of red to go with the lamb shanks he is presently cooking in the galley.

As we left Almerimar this morning, we spotted a woman in a wetsuit undertaking strange looking antics within a buoyed off area close to the beach, about waist deep and when we closed to look, we could see she had a young Dolphin, perhaps barely 2 feet long and white, swimming around her and we then guessed she was training the dolphin for its later role of performing animal. Talking of dolphins, we saw 2 around the boat at dawn the day before and another 2 playing around us during the deep dark night but with really good phosforesence at the time, they looked like torpedos underwater heading our way.

By the way, the spell checker will not work and the boat moves, so do expect some errors in typing!!! from this viisually challenged author.

Now that I know Leeds could only draw with Brum earlier today thanks to Jan's sms and thanks to Adrians 3g kindle I also know Bernard Stamm has been disqualified from the Vendee Globe. Small boats are no longer a whole isolation from the world.

Mike says supper is ready, and I have to stop the blog here, so many thnaks for the messages from you all.

ETA Gib is weather dependent early evening Sunday.

Best regards

Andy, Mike & Ade.