9th July Rota to Barbate

Sealion
Richard Martin
Thu 10 Jul 2008 17:20
Light airs from the SW swept us fairly swiftly down the coast dispite some foul tide - around 15.00 we thought we had another two hours to run to reach Barbate when the wind dropped the picked up rapidly from the east (right on the nose).
 
This is virtually the first beat we have had since the UK (except the leg from Finistre to Bayonne) with the wind at a steady 20/22knots gusting 25 we were fairly well reefed but nonetheless kept Sealion going at between 5/6knots into the waves. Having the tender stowed on the bows was fine until the lines we had were not really adequate healed right over. Chris and I grabbed a few lines and quickly secure it, but got pretty wet in the process - but who cares when it is hot and sunny, we were dry almost by the time we were back in the cockpit. Certainly not like sailing in the UK.
 
The real problem was that we also had a fairly strong adverse current around Cabo Trafalgar, dispite the fact that we had timed it to be slack/turning. So three and a half hours later we arrived after a jolly good sail.
 
Scott-Free was with us for all the sail - good to have company from the Rally Portugual fleet.
 
Barbate has an amazing Tunny net stretching from just off the harbour wall to two/three miles out to sea. It is said that the nets are strong enough to foul the propellors of a small tanker - what a navigational hazard. Tomorrow we may have more of these nets on the way to Gib.