43:22.06n 008:23,735w

 

Greetings from La Coruna.  Here's the view as we approached Marina Nautico, where there was a helpful harbour man using the universal language of hand signals so we didn't need to launch into our very basic Spanish!  We tied up, tidied the boat, showered and are now enjoying a beer in the cockpit.

 

We enjoyed a great sail yesterday under the new Parasailor.  We carried it until late into the evening, finally taking it down at about 9.00 pm as the wind began to rise.  The wind rose steadily overnight so that we ended up reefing both the main and the foresail.  As morning dawned on Friday and I came on watch at 7.00 am, the wind was still rising and by 8.00 am the automatic steering was finding it difficult to cope with the Atlantic swell and rising wind.  I started to helm then and we took it in turns during the day as the wind rose to Force 7, gusting 8. It was an exciting sail, surfing down the waves with the wind behind us.  Regis got the prize for the fastest surf at 12.4 knots!!  We didn't know that Chiscos could go so fast.  We had an astonishingly fast time from Falmouth to La Coruna.  A boat tied up next to us about 10 minutes after us, and they had left Falmouth the day before we did!  We averaged 5.6 knots over the whole voyage, taking 3 days and 4 hours to complete the journey.  We were averaging 7 knots with a decent wind so that bodes well for the Atlantic crossing later in the adventure.

 

We say farewell to Barrie and Regis on Sunday as they make their way back to the UK.  Well done crew - what a team!

 

Susan