TC's Battle off Cape Trafalgar
Thursdays Child
Robin & Joanna Minchin
Mon 12 Jan 2015 23:07
006:21.156W
Rota..... again
Today was hugely disappointing! What we thought would be a pleasant 12 knots on the beam for 40 miles, turned into one of those epics that'll be remembered for a long time to come, for the wrong reasons.
We sailed south from Cadiz for 8 hours in growing head winds and really should have turned back much earlier, but for some reason we kept thinking it would get better, not sure what made us think that, but we did!
Once off Cape Trafalgar we were up to 30 knot gusts, 10ft walls of green water coming straight at us and Barbate tantalisingly just 10 miles away. When we worked out the remaining mileage with the tacking required to get us into Barbate, we realised it was 23 miles of tacking to Barbate at 3 knots or 25 miles back to Rota in 7 knots. We turned back and flew, sometimes reaching 9 knots on the GPS, it would have been exhilarating if it hadn't been in the wrong direction and heading into busy Cadiz bay with the sun setting and darkness approaching.
However, we tied up safely in Rota at 8pm, 11 hours after leaving Cadiz and 5 miles further north than we began. What a day. Our route is attached.
The forecast looks quiet for a day or two so we'll recover here tomorrow and see what Wednesday brings. The children have been unbelievably good today, so uncomplaining and patient. Lots of brownie points heading their way.
