43:25.732N 03:48.460W Santander
Ariel of Hamble
Jim and Valerie SHURVELL
Sat 27 Jun 2009 08:21
43:25.732N 03:48.460W Santander
24.6.09.
Arrived in Santander from Royan, after 30 hours at sea and 188.8 nautical miles sailed. At times we were surfing at up to 10 knots downwind with the spinnaker pole on the headsail genoa, and a full mainsail goose winged. During the night we reduced to just the poled out headsail and still kept up over 6.5 knots all night.
The highlights of the passage were a large pod of pilot whales, 12 to 14 of them, alongside and around the boat on Tuesday afternoon, a large sunfish sighted and then on Wednesday morning dozens of Atlantic dolphins swimming and bow surfing with Ariel. The dolphins stayed with us for over 20 minutes, location about 30 miles from the North Spanish coast. No big whales, or killer whales sighted