Biscay Triangle Day 4 - Arrive La Coruna
Caduceus
Martin and Elizabeth Bevan
Fri 25 Jul 2008 08:49
went in and out in order to keep the boat moving comfortably. Mr Amel's
design proves its practicality in that all of this is done from the cockpit
with the minimum of risk and effort. The result of this is that you reef
earlier and similarly reverse the process when required.
The night was one of the blackest. Low cloud, frequent squalls and no moon.
All this whilst crashing along blind at 7kts on the wind. The log shows
that we reefed for supper! Alice was somewhat apprehensive about watch
keeping solo so we double handed the first watch. Confidence built and
later in the night a supercharged Alice was to be seen watch keeping solo
with happy confidence.
We tacked back and forward across the rhumb line awaiting the wind shift to
the NW; needless to say it did not come and a more or less consistent SWrly
was the order of the day.
Friday 0600 saw us with about 70nm to go and with the wind lightening we
were back to full plain sail in 20 kts of wind.
The wind gradually lightened until approaching Pte Calandria with 35 miles
to go it died away to less than 6 kts, very much on the nose. Diesel to the
rescue and an ETA of 1700 passed to Richard Bolt of Blue Water Rally, our
reception in La Coruna.
I suspect the yachting equivalent of creative accounting, i.e. make the
facts fit the figures. We were alongside in Darsena Deportiva, La Coruna,
at exactly 1700 to a great welcome from Richard and the crews of Blue Magic
(Discovery 55) and Ben and Rosa van Schaik (Hallberg Rassy 43).
As soon as we were secured Rosa arrived with a large rucksack full of wine
and beer and a deck party then ensued for Richard, Boot (Richard's wife) and
the three crews. A wonderful arrival for crews now with a common shared
experience.
The water log shows 532 nm from Coruna, an average of 6.73kts.