43:22.1 N, 008:23.0 W

 

Yesterday afternoon remained sunny and excellent sailing on a reach until late afternoon when the wind gradually faded and drew astern so we put the engine on at around 8pm. But by midnight it had filled in again from the west, putting us close-hauled on starboard tack. It gradually increased to about F6 at times so we had one reef and partly rolled yankee for a bouncy but fast night.

 

As we closed the coast we began to meet much more shipping and fishing boats so it wasn’t that restful. By dawn we were about 5 miles east of Cape Prior which was visible despite the rain. At this point the bird decided to leave us: we hope he made it safely. He should have a good chance as there was 20 knots of wind blowing towards the land so he’d only need to stay aloft for 15 mins or so. We then spent an hour or more cleaning the cabin!

 

At about 10 am we arrived in a smart new marina and were all ship-shape by midday and went and checked in with the port authorities. It seems really quite a big and prosperous city which we may explore a tiny portion of this evening after catching up on some sleep and after repairing the boom vang which had come adrift from the boom (we found bolts in the scuppers, just as Eddy and James had done on their way back from the Azores in 2007).

 

We hope to post some photos tomorrow, and will also start looking for another break in the weather to go on south; the next leg being about twice as far as we’ve just come. Mean time here’s a picture of our stow-away.

 

The long-studied mystery of how migratory birds navigate has been solved: they simply look at charts just like the rest of us.