33:03.72 N, 016:18.94 W

 

We dawdled all night and arrived just at dawn off the port of Porto Santo. Still completely calm albeit with swell as ever in the Atlantic in winter. We had to stooge around for 40 mins or so outside the harbour for it to get light enough to decided to while away a few minutes calibrating the flux-gate compass.

 

This may seem an odd thing to be doing at this point, and indeed it's something James should have done before setting of but the errors have only become apparent since acquiring a fancy new radar this last summer which overlays the radar onto the chart plotter: overlaying it about 10 degrees off when on a westerly course. But one needs a perfectly windless and clam day to do it, so today's the day. Anyway it proved remarkably simple and we now have an up to date and apparently accurate deviation card / Look-Up Table for the radar and the map, ie chart, and radar echoes now overlay reassuringly precisely.

 

That done we went in and were tied up by about 8am, and checked into the Guardia National Republicana and then the marina by about 9:45. Breakfast and a siesta before exploring later - we have an excellent excuse for delay as a huge cruise liner has just arrived and is discharging a million passengers to haunt the town, but we they'll be gone soon after lunch.

 

No photo of the Orca, but here's a turtle!

 

On a dead run with the jib poled out to starboard

 

But what the bad lead angle did to the jib sheet

 

Next day the high pressure was centred right over us: wind speed = 0 kts!

 

And the calm lasted into the night as we motored slowly on.

 

Arrived, whereupon each to his or her own idea of relaxation...