Its a long way to Lanzarote - its a long way to go

Itchycoo
Mon 13 Aug 2018 08:12
Dawn breaks Monday morning to a warming sun and calm seas but sadly very little wind. We made good progress during daylight hours yesterday but slowed down when reefed (for safety) overnight and have not quickened up since. Distance travelled in our first 24 hours was 127 miles, which is 7 miles further than planned (we work on 5 knot boat speed) but slightly disappointing after our fast start. We are currently in position 36:42.5N 010:23.7W at 8.00 a.m.

The seas have been relatively unsettled which makes sleeping more of a challenge as the boat bounces along - hopefully a calmer day today will allow some catch up on that front.

We are now roughly opposite the entrance to the Med so yesterday saw plenty of shipping traffic heading into or out of it. That interest is now over and we saw one ship all night come within a ten mile range of us. Sadly also, no wildlife activity to report.

On the subject of wildlife activity, we again tried our luck with the fishing lines yesterday - the excuse for a blank return this time being that the lures used are designed for the mid Atlantic and we were only 50 miles or so off the Spanish/Portugese coast. These same lures do however claim to catch pike in English rivers so the non-fishermen are sceptical (to say the least).

Itchycoo Park continues to impress although we have developed a couple of minor electrical issues - the most significant being the inability to turn down screen brightness on the chart plotter (which damages night vision). Ever resourceful Paul - the closest thing we have to an engineer - rigged up a makeshift solution and we spent the night reading the plotter through a bin bag. I know it sounds crazy but it worked perfectly.

Yesterday's banter on board included a conversation about what we are missing most whilst at sea. All, or course, had wives and family at the top of their list (Roger has never spent this long away from Ann since they met. He did send what must have been a loving message the other night from Cascais as the answer was along the lines of "that's nice but its 3.00 in the morning"). Next on the lists after wives and family were all rather bland - how can the Test cricket score and the winner of the PGA Golf Championship (neither of which we know) be important in the big scheme of things?

Back to work for some today - but not us - every day is the same and every one a joy.
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