Leaving the Azores N39:13 W25:22
Millybrown
Mark Hillmann
Sun 14 Jun 2009 10:28
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Murrel and Lorna left in a taxi yesterday morning
and after sending the blog, sorting a few things out and paying the very
reasonable one week fee, I left at 2pm.
There was a good breeze which lasted until
dawn. Then a few hours of winds from every direction before it
remembered it was a northerly and settled down again.
All very good except we are heading for
Spain. A serious problem or more holiday? The coast of Spain is not where I want to be, it has a high probability
of north winds at this time of year and a small south going current. The
further north we get the more west winds and Gulf Stream can be
expected, but tacking west of north seems odd. I will see what GRIB says today. Yesterday I decided to run east to
stay ahead of a high pressure area coming in. North winds yes,
but south winds in a day or two.
There are lots of dolphins round here, yesterday
when the second pod came I took the phone to the mast to get video of
them playing. It is very poor and grainy but still photos of
them from the boat are so rarely good.
This morning I went out once when I saw one jump
from the cabin window. The pod came past quite soon. Twice I went out looking for them on hearing high pitched
whistles but saw none. Once we were stopped
and a large school of fish, slim like sardines but perhaps 8" long, were
gathered under the stern. There were shearwaters overhead and soon the
dolphins turned up as well.
Then there was a line of dolphins perhaps 100m long
jumping and splashing: Were they driving a shoal of fish?
The last time there were the whistles again and I
was sure it was not creaking blocks, when I went out there was a
big pod playing under the bow.
Sunshine, breeze and dolphins but heading back
to home and work.
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