Land ho!

Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Thu 5 Jun 2008 10:56
43:24.217N 9:10.957W

This morning brought the first sighting of the Spanish Coast - a welcome sight after an 'orrible 24 hours. Lumpy seas and a strong headwind which meant we spent much of it close hauled led to a less than comfortable ride. Add to that the rain and poor visibility, just as we were crossing the Finisterre traffic separation zone and you'll see why there was no blog entry yesterday!

However, today is a new day and at least the rain has stopped. In terms of a shake-down voyage for Scott-Free it has been a fairly testing one. We have discovered a problem with water ingress somewhere in the region of the gas locker - as usual in an almost impossible place to investigate. Although not drastic, it has meant that we need to bale out the bilge under the galley on a regular basis to keep it from flowing into other parts of the boat. Having your head down the bilges as the boat is heeling heavily and lurching wildly is not the best way to keep your lunch down! The problem will need further investigation when we get to Bayona.

The wind has at last come round to the North, but there isn't much of it so we are at present motor sailing to keep up some speed around Finisterre. About a hundred miles left to Bayona - with any luck there'll still be some Sangria - or probably something a little stronger!