37:57.98N 0:08.39W En route from Ibiza to Cartegena

The Snark on The ARC
Ben Little
Sat 17 Oct 2009 16:40
Blog from the night watch!
 
Chris has gone to bed after the early watch till 2 am and I am now on deck having had a restless sleep, due again to a heavily pitching boat and unfortunately engine noise.  The favourable winds died to nearly nothing with the coming of the evening and the roughly 8 knots we were getting under sail dropped to around 3 or 4 Knots of boat speed.  With the still quite large swell the sails were banging back and forth and it was not much fun so we are forced to complete the second half of the journey under engine.  Maybe with dawn we will get more wind.
 
Before bed time we had dolphins, quite a large pod, dancing at the prow of the boat.  While we saw them almost every day in the Adriatic this is the first we have seen around the boat since leaving Corfu and the Ionian, Though I did see some in the distance when we were approaching Sicily they did not come and play.  It has been a very quiet night for Chris apparently with no shipping and only the shooting stars to keep him company.  For me it is a little different with a steady stream of shipping along the Spanish coast, most of it inshore of us so not really a worry, but now we are heading for the coast I keep seeing lights ahead of us and it is difficult initially to tell if they are heading our way or if indeed they are actually on the mainland itself.  Hopefully our all new LED lighting is bright enough (certainly seems to be).
 
It is a lot colder at night on this trip with the nights drawing in even here in the Mediterranean and I have all my foul weather kit on and a hat to keep warm on deck and so far I am nice and warm.  The sky is completely clear, the stars are out tonight, and I hope we are in for a beautiful day tomorrow after what has been some quite grey and unsettled weather, though only a little rain.
 
I hope the forecast winds return tomorrow and we get a great sail down the coast.  We should arrive at Cartagena in time for lunch and hope to overnight in the Marina there if they have space, certainly we will want to have a nice lunch and dinner ashore and will look to do another big sail overnight Sunday to arrive nearer to Gibraltar on Monday and finish our sail on Tuesday arriving in Estapona before flying home.
 
Bye for now! need to keep my eye on an approaching vessel.
 
Ben