13th June 2006 - Leg 3 Povoa to Figueira da Foz
Bali Hai
Neal Stow
Fri 13 Jun 2008 16:37
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We were up at 5:30 for the start of the 75 mile leg
to Figueira da Foz to find that there was absolutely no wind and so the race was
cancelled and the boats able to make their own way there in their own
time.
Rob, razor sharp as always at this time of the
morning, was making astute observations such as "you need wind to
sail." He then made a tremendous effort in winching out the
mainsail only to realise that he had forgotten to put the rope around the
winch.
The fleet pottered out under engine in a dead calm
but beautiful sunny day. However, after only a short while the fog arrived
and we were all feeling our way forward in only 100 metres of
visibility. For sound signals, we tried using our first compressed air fog
horn but only managed a fart like sound and a white mist - making
the fog even worse. The manual horn did well but after only a few 5 second
blasts the crew were lying panting in the bottom of the boat. Fortunately,
it was third time lucky with the next compressed air horn.
The fog cleared around lunch time and as you can
see from the photos John set to work with his rod catching our meal.
Meanwhile, I went about the inaugural lighting of the new barbeque.
Strictly speaking it is a braai as I had it custom built and shipped in from
South Africa and it is much more substantial than the ones you get in UK
chandlers. The barbeque worked really well but unfortunately the fishing
was less successful and we had to resort to various bovine offerings from the
freezer.
After lunch the wind picked up and we managed some
good sailing under spinnaker before arriving in Figueira around six
thirty. After cleaning the boat, John prepared some delicious mojitos
before we headed up to the marina for a sardine
grill.
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