Fair Do's VII Report- 0600 16-11-08

Fair Do's VII, Atlantic 2008....
Professor John Shepherd
Sun 16 Nov 2008 06:31
Dear Chris,
 
Our position:
LATTITUDE=                40 31.19 N
LONGITUDE=               09 29.89 W
Other info=                   Motor sailing South as fast as possible....still. About 33 miles offshore and in last 3 hours had the jib back up with mean WS moving up from around 7kt to 12+.
 
Nav:
COURSE STEERED=    186
SPEED=                       7.5
 
Weather Observations:
WINDSPEED=              14.3
DIRECTION=                 066
TRENDS=                    Consistently been between N and E, with 003 and 070 the extremes in the pressure it seems to go right slightly?
TIDE=                       -
SEASTATE=             Fair
Intentions/status:       If fuel is our life source at the moment then time is our enemy. We have enough to get to Cascais maintaining current speed (7.5nm/hr) the issue is whether the fuel berth will be open (cant remember if it is a credit card machine one?) in Cascais? Our current eta there is about 11hours time (1730) what I dont want is to have to wait 12 or so hours to get fuel The contingency plan is to head to Peniche 44 miles Norh and 6hours away, if we loose pressure again when the sun comes up this will be the definite plan I think. Not been in there before but looks and sounds OK in Almanac, will make a decision mid morning I think.
 
Whichever we end up in the plan is a F1 style pitstop refuel, change tyres, take on water etc and leave asap on the rhum line for Las Palmas, I am assuming we will be able to motor a little quicker then (for 100ish miles) as once in trades we'll sail all the way to Gran Canaria?
 
Hope you are well, we're nearly halfway see you soon!!
 
Hugh.