Underway to Gibraltar/Cartagena

S/V Galatea update
Neil Scott
Wed 19 Apr 2017 22:36
Hi all,

Scott departed from the Azores on Sunday the 9th after being with us for 6 weeks from Ascension. We were lucky that Wally could help out with the final leg across to the Mediterranean under short notice. He arrived at 06:00 on Tuesday and we departed from Ponta Delgada marina at 10:00 the same morning.

It is now 22:00 on Wednesday and we have just completed 200 miles of our 1000 mile trip. The weather was unsettled leaving Ponta Delgada, continuing to be impacted by the minor low pressure system that had been in the vicinity the past week. Our first day and a half had us facing lumpy seas and moderate winds that had veered to the east, forcing us to sail to weather which is always less comfortable than going with the wind. The clouds cleared late afternoon today, and we have a beautiful starry night once again. The weather forecast calls for strong easterly winds through the Straits of Gibraltar from tomorrow through Sunday. We are hoping to arrive there late Monday/Tuesday and so avoid the worst of it. We will have to monitor the forecasts to decide whether we can continue straight east into the Straits, or whether to angle SE-wards down to the Moroccan coast to avoid the east winds.

Anyway, all is well on Galatea and we are looking forward to completing this, our longest yet, passage of about 6500 miles.

Neil, Kev and Wally.





- S/V Galatea
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