Position 43:00.126N 009:23.974W

Friday Oct 3^rd

13h02

Wind N Force 4

Sea State 1m

Visibility Good

Heading 181 T°

Under: Full Sail

Speed 6  Kts

Weather is due to change tomorrow and southerly winds due over the next few days. Probably will get a storm and winds will be unfavourable for continuation of our journey south until at least Wednesday and quite possibly Friday. We decided last night after discussing aboard Spent (Jersey) with Geoff and Sue that would be today or not at all. Thanks to Geoff for calling in on us to advise the weather situation as we had no internet and I was down with a tooth ache and was not going to leave till Saturday.

On the water now, a little late. Spent left about an hour before us but the laundry hadn’t opened so we had to wait. The Maria who owned the laundry was away so we found her mother in law, she called Maria, Maria had left her mother in charge. We called her mother who had left another woman in charge, she had to walk and therefore was late. Thankfully we could see the laundry from Cerys and were able to spot when the door moved. We had the laundry at 10h40 and left the pontoon at 10h45.

Camarinas was nice but a week more would have been far too much so we are happy to move on 66 miles to the unpronounceable Sanxenxo. This trip will bring us south of Finistrere, out of Biscay, and into even better weather.

As we were leaving our neighbours in a 45’ fishing boat returned to the pontoon having left one hour before. They informed us that there was a 5m swell in the mouth of the bay and they were unable to make any headway northwards. We are headed in the opposite direction so we will deal with the swell for a couple of miles then turn south and surf.

The swell is very heavy indeed as we motor out and waves are breaking threateningly on the rocky shores both sides. Cerys handles it quite well except for getting our main halyard caught on our obsolete radar reflector on the front of the mast. Spent 15 minutes on the foredeck trying to free it and returned successful but soaked with sweat.

These are the mullet that kept me awake.

Ruaidhri Prendergast