Grey Day
Pemandia
Peter Fabricius
Fri 25 May 2018 17:09
I’ve hardly been out all day! It has been so different from the last few days when although quite a cold wind, it was a pleasure to sit out in the cockpit, enjoying the view of sea and sky and just being peaceful. I have not seen the sun all day and at one stage it was almost raining. The wind is still behind me which is much, much better than the opposite, but of course coming from the N it is cold. It has been F5-6 all day and early on I furled the genoa which tends to keep collapsing when the wind is dead aft. Under reefed mainsail alone I have made steady progress, undoubtedly I could squeeze some more speed but with much less comfort. The sea has been quite rough but with a following wind we are upright but rolling. You think you have the rhythm of it all sorted and then a different, perhaps bigger wave catches you out. Special care is needed with hot drinks in this situation.
For lunch I had some soup - a carton of proper soup, almost as good as home made. With the sunny weather of the last few days I wondered when I would use it but the half of it I had today really earned its keep. So much better than the instant “cuppa soups”. Susanna who will be joining us later in the summer calls them hot chemicals which just about sums them up!
So apart from poking my head out to look for ships or to feel the wind and sense how things are, I’ve spent the day below in the cabin, mostly reading - I’ve just finished the Le Carre, A Legacy of Spies and am now starting on a book about London that I bought in the Museum of London the other day, called The Days and Nights of London.....
Looking at the chart, it seems that I am almost there, which is why it is all going a bit slowly at the moment. I’ve sailed 436 miles from Falmouth and my nearest port in Spain is less than100 miles away. I have just about crossed Biscay although in reality I’ve been out to the W of Biscay in the Atlantic. Bayona, just S of Vigo is about 140 miles. It is a lovely place and I may yet stop there - I could be there by late tomorrow night - or Lisbon is some 340 miles. I think I will make my mind up tomorrow....
Peter
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