Povoa de Varzim

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Wed 11 Jun 2008 16:24
41:22.31N 08:45.93W

Tuesday 10th June.
The race start was less chaotic than the first leg and remarkably we slipped
across in 5th place and chose to head offshore to try to pick up more wind.
This tactic worked at first and we overhauled several boats to move into
second place, but then they all hoisted their cruising chutes and spinnakers
and we fell behind. We had a great sail for the first few hours, managing a
stately 7 knots in 10+ knots of wind, but then around 1pm the wind died away
and we chose to motor for one hour. The promised afternoon sea breeze never
materialised, but we were able to just maintain 5 knots through the water
and so we continued to sail until 7pm when a large electrical storm
developed around us and so we elected to motor the remaining few miles in
torrential rain, thunder and lightening. For the most part the day had been
wonderful with clear blue sky and a fairly flat sea and every time we began
to get a bit bored, another family of dolphins would race over to the boat
and start playing alongside the bow. However, they rarely stayed more than 5
minutes as we were probably travelling too slowly for them! It is a real joy
to watch them playing and if you ever get a bit bored, you can always try to
get a photo of them with a standard digital camera! I will post one soon,
but keep hoping that eventually we will get something rather better than the
current efforts.
Ran up the generator and all seemed well for nearly 2 minutes, when it
started to issue steam and shut down with a new error message about 'coolant
temperature'. I went into the engine room to shut off the seacock and found
that it had been spraying its coolant around the compartment! An email to
Najad and Mastervolt is planned for tomorrow, to see if they can get this
fixed properly when we get to Lagos.
The other excitement was that the chart plotter in the cockpit switched
itself off and then on again several times over 30 minutes just as we were
approaching the harbour. Strangely, another boat coming in at the same time
reported exactly the same fault, so we will see what happens when we set out
on the next leg in a couple of days.

Wednesday 11th June.
Tour of the area in a coach was the this morning's entertainment. Great
commentary from our guide, but the bus's air con had broken so we got hotter
and hotter. Finally we stopped to view very fine old church and like
frightened rabbits we all nipped into the church to cool off. Locals must
have thought we were religious fanatics the way we dashed inside!

Prize giving and reception dinner tonight in the yacht club, but I have made
a note not to sit too close to the crew of Blue Beyond (from Lowestoft) as
we went to the restaurant with them last night and I (Rob) drank far too
much wine before the three bottles of port.

Off to Porto by coach tomorrow, the visit includes a tour of Taylors Port
Wine Lodge (yes, more port tasting!) I could think of worse places to be.