We cast off after another fuel top up from the pumping station in the marina Sunday 21^st September at 11.43AM and sailed out across the bay towards Sesimbra 38:26.38N 9:06.48W 

There was a little bit of wind which was great so we hoisted the sails and we were off.  This time we made sure we had the current running with us so we went even faster over ground. The wind and tide do funny things when they are not working together so initially we were being thrown up and down by the short step waves right out the front of the marina. To top it off there was a swimming race on and about half a dozen ribs right in pour way just to make it interesting.

It did not take long for us to get on our heading.  We knew our hop was fairly short and were happy we had wind and a lovely day or should I say we thought we had a lovely day.  Within about 30 minutes of leaving the fog came out of no where, it was dense, thick white fog and we could not see a thing.  We had been in fog a few times before but nothing like this I mean we could not see much further past the bow of the boat. We both knew that without the radar we were sitting ducks but we kept our heading and tried to keep a look out for any of the millions and millions of fishing buoys scattered around the ocean floor rising up to the surface on the masses of rope attached to any old plastic tube of bit of polystyrene. Fortunately for us we were once again traveling with our friends Den and Sadie who kindly keep an eye out for us on there radar. It was not long before Den called us up and said I had better steer to port, so that is what we did for a while until the boat on a collision course with us had passed. Den said it must of been with in 100 meters off to our starboard side but for the life of us we could not see a thing.

The first sight of anything for Fi and I was the huge rock sticking out of the water that came up on us like the ice berg that sank the titanic.. We had set our course to be the fastest and shortest we could possibly make it and let Artie our bestest crew member of all take us right there so we were ok just a little surprised - as you would be - to see a huge rock sticking out the water. We did not have the luxury of seeing the depth drop off either due to the rugged coastline we are normally able to sail up close enough to the cliffs and run our hand along them.

The minute we rounded the headland and had the sound of the loudest fog horn ever heard behind us the fog lifted and once again we had a spectacular view to sail to on our last leg of our tip. 

Special comments by Fiona:. The fog was amazing.  At first I was worried, not being able to see any-thing and all, but we both kept a sharp lookout and after a while I found the fog fascinating.  It became quite cold and my hair wet from the dense air.  What did freak me out was when all of a sudden there lay a big rock, or should I say big cliff, to our port side.  It was like it had come out of no-where.  We knew we were close to land but I didn’t realize just how close we actually were!

As for Sesimbra, well the anchorage was quite rolly through the night and that’s about all I can say for the place, because we didn’t get off the boat.

Day 61

Destination – Sesimbra

Traveling Direction – South

Wind Direction – South South West

Swell – Slight 0.5mtrs

Average Speed – 4.2 Knots

Top Speed – 5.3 Knots Through the water

Total distance – 25.5 Nautical Miles

Travel Time – 6.24 Hours

Temperature – 24 degrees

Crew     - Fiona (Hating the fog!)

Missing Work – Not Yet

Expenses – Diesel €40, Coffee €5, Marina Fee €15

Next Destination – Sines