Fw: N 36 47 W 12 00

Gryphon II
Chris and Lorraine Marchant
Fri 4 Sep 2009 17:11
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2009 4:56 PM
Subject: N 36 47 W 12 00

We left Cascais at midday on Monday once the wind had picked up and were soon off the continental shelf. At last we do not have to continually avoid fishing floats.
 
We had a rather sleepless night in a sloppy sea but hopefully we will soon get used to watch routines and learn to sleep peacefully whilst the boat heaves and groans around us. We are sailing now at 7 knots with the Portuguese Trades giving us a steady Force 4 to 5 from the north. For those in the drizzle of the UK, the sky is blue with fluffy clouds and the temperature in the mid 80s We have already covered 150 miles towards our destination of Porto Santo now
300 miles to the  south west.
 
We left Cascais, with our friends Andy and Sue aboard Spruce.They kept pace with us last night but they have now disappeared beyond the horizon behind us.
 
The cruising chute was hauled this morning in lighter winds and has set nicely giving us this good speed. Other than that and keeping watch, today we have had a lazy day with the boat mostly looking after itself with either the autopilot or the wind vane doing the steering. I did a noon sight for the first time in 28 years and managed to get our latitude within a mile ...not bad for a battered plastic sextant and a rusty mind!