Vilamoura - Madeira (en route)
Mariposa Blog
Robert Newman
Wed 29 Sep 2010 11:49
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N 34 47.28 W 012 12.65
After a couple of thorough preparation days in
downtown Vilamoura - plenty of 'shore time', a few jobs jobs on
board, an exhaustive clean up (particularly by Spiller of
Portugal in 'his' galley) and a very enjoyable visit from Mariposa's royal
family i.e. Roger, Cynthia, Sarah, Gordon and Annabelle - who arrived
bearing gifts of of Earl Grey tea and, most importantly for morale on the
night shift...ginger nuts!!
Sunday was bright and breezy time and by the time
Rob and I had recovered from the previous evenings briefing session, few more
jobs and lunch we left Vilamoura in bright breezy conditions. Some ships
log extracts follow:
1730 - Wind force 7 westerly - finally we have some
wind so making a good speed, quite strong on the nose and rough sea so
conditions on board challenging. Hopefully the breeze will moderate as the
day cools...
2030 - Wind force 5 Westerly - Hove to waiting for
some shipping to pass in front us
2230 - wind veering nicely now able to lay
(nautical term meaning to sail directly somewhere) Madeira. Busy time
on the radio talking to captains of various large vessels of various
nationalities (Russian, Indian and Malaysian) informing them of our whereabouts
and politely requesting they avoid us!
0215 - Wind force 5 Westerly - still
rolling around with Willy (that's me) just going off watch having fiddled
continuously with the sails for hours!!
Note log entry by Spiller who was finding sleep elusive
at first...
1135 - oh what a bootiful morning for mis-spelling -
clear skies and Roger Whittaker on the stereo
1530 - 24 hours in and 147 miles in... fast trip so
far. 2 fish caught 1 small tuna type and 1 golden dorado - in the
fridge.
0030 - Wind force 4 Northerly - slight sea ,
cloudy no shipping, calmer night so everyone getting more rest than they did
yesterday.
0900 - lovely dawn and we're halfway to Madeira - 1
blue dorado caught, 'dispatched' and then lost - must buy a landing net in
Madeira, turtle spotted and tuna swimming alongside us...
It's now mid-day the wind has dropped so to keep on
schedule we are motoring but we have Bob Marley on the stereo and light
refreshments (beers and crisps) are available to those crew members wishing to
partake...(all).
So all is well on board and we hope to be in Madeira by
Thursday morning.
If you want to send an email to the boat please send it
to mariposa {CHANGE TO AT} mailasail {DOT} com . It
would be great to hear from you here but please don't attach large files as
these can be expensive to download.
Many thanks
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