Fog and Shipping Lanes
The Adventures of Allegria & Crew
Peter Lansdale
Sun 15 Sep 2019 11:44
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40:03'.48N,
009:54'.6W
It's now just over 24 hours
since we left Vigo and all's well. It has been an interesting time all in all.
We motored out of Vigo Ria and then found some wind and spent a perfect
afternoon on a broad reach doing 6 knots and on course. It wasn't going to last
and as night fall came the wind died and we have
been motoring ever since. We have been on a converging course with the shipping
lane and had to dodge a few ships during the night which were heading towards
the coast.
When I came on deck just
after dawn, which is about 0800 Spanish time, we were in thick fog. Terry's
estimate was for visibility of about 30 meters. Thank your lucky stars for
modern technology. With radar and AIS employed we felt reasonably comfortable.
As we were now close to the north going lane we took the opportunity to dive
across 2 ships and get between the lanes. It's a bit like being on the hard
shoulder of a motorway. We'll choose our moment and cross the south going lane
sometime probably tonight.
It looks like we will be
stuck with several days of little or no wind. The forecast shows a weak low
pressure on the edge of the Atlantic high which is giving us light and variable
winds instead of the Portuguese trades which normally blow from the
north.
670 miles to go to
Lanzarote.
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