Day 2 - Message from Andy on route to Porto Santo
Rebel T
Tim Walsh
Tue 4 Sep 2007 13:14
Dear all,
It's 11:40 am on day 2 of actual sailing on our trip to Porto Santo then on
to Lanzarote. Firstly, I should introduce myself, I am Andy, Trevor
Larkin's brother and I am helping crew Rebel T on this leg of Tim's
adventure. Dominik (also joining the crew for this leg) and I arrived
Saturday evening after sharing a taxi from Faro airport. Colette and
Anthony were also there helping prepare the boat and supplies. Colette and
Tim were staying in an apartment but that would still mean that five males
would share four rather cosy double beds, not that I have a problem with
this because I don't, but Dominik and I decided that whilst we were not on a
watch system that one of us would sleep outside. So Saturday night I
"slept" on the trampoline, it was wonderful laying out under the stars all
night and watching the sun slowly rise, but equally a few more hours of
sleep would have been welcome, this was not helped by two of the marina bars
competing as to which had the loudest singer / band that night. Sunday was
spent in final preparations, ready to leave Monday morning. Monday started
with very hearty breakfasts (full English with a bowl of chips and 2 or 3
mugs of tea...yum!).
We left sometime around 11:30 and within a couple of hours were joined by a
pod of dolphins who came to play. I have never seen dolphins so close up
they were swimming under the hulls, chasing in front and leaping in front of
the bow. Mary, William & Eric - I hope I have caught it on video, you would
have loved it. The pod must have been made up of at least 10 or 12 dolphins
which included at least one baby / youngster who was probably only about 18
inches long. After travelling with us for about 10 mins they abruptly left
us and have not returned.
The watches are Tim / Rupert 6:00 to 10:00, 14:00 to 18:00 and 22:00 to
02:00, whilst Trevor, Dominik and I do 10:00 to 14:00, 18:00 to 22:00 and
02:00 to 06:00. Last night on our evening watch after the sun had gone down
we were given a wonderful night sky display with a crystal clear milky way,
2 shooting stars and millions of stars. The bow waves were alight with
phosphorescence, nature can be so spell binding, the night watch 2 to 6 was
in comparison quiet uneventful.
This morning I slept soundly and awoke very refreshed to hear that the boat
had had another visiter. Rupert had seen what looked like an oily rag
taggled in some ropes on our port side, only to discover it was a squid that
had also decided to deposit its ink on the deck and seat covers!
Since coming on watch at 10:00 this moring only action has been seeing 2
bits of timber (which we missed) and a ship 6 miles away, sky is blue, sea
is blue and all is well in the world! We are making excellant progress and
have covered around 180 miles in 24 hours!
Bye for now
Andy