As Sam mentioned yesterday we managed to get the sails out and enjoy the peace and quiet of not having the engine on. Fortunately the wind has sustained and we had a good sail all the way through the night on our way to Cascais.

 

This did mean we were heading right for the coast and right in between some recent Orca attacks reported in the last few days both just north, and just south, of Cascais. It's hard not to be a bit paranoid - particularly at night. At one point on mine and Sam's midnight to 3am shift I was absolutely convinced I could see several Orcas making their way towards us from behind. As the wake of the boat was once again glistening with bioluminescent mini fire balls, so too were some of the breaking waves in the distance which looked (from certain angles, in the dark, to someone with terrible eyesight) like something moving through the water. Thankfully I was wrong. However, there was a boat in Cascais being repaired from an attack three days ago.

 

We were pleased to hand over to Andy and Will at 3am which allowed Sam and I to get a good five hours sleep before we clocked on again this morning at 9am.

 

By lunch time we were on the fuel dock in Cascais filling up with fuel and water. We headed to the chandlery to get a new bilge pump, Glenn whipped out his screw driver, and before we knew it another problem was resolved. Thanks again, Glenn.

 

Leaving the still air and extreme heat of the marina, we rounded out of the breakwater into 30 knotts of wind - this has made for a "sporty" start to what we hope to be our final leg. It's hard to type on a laptop whan your entire world around you is lurching from a pitch of 45 degrees one way to 45 degrees the other.

 

A stop in Cascais was on the original plan but it would have been nice to see more than the marina. We still have 715 miles to go (924 done) and we are hoping to be in Pasito Blanco on Gran Canaria by Friday or Saturday at the latest which meant we didn't have time to do any exploring and, much to my disappointment, we didn't get chance to stock up on Port.

 

We are hoping to average around 150 miles per day. Fingers crossed. We have a growing list again of things that need sorting once we arrive but nothing major.

 

Glenn has been busy working on a new watch system which gives everyone an eight hour break once a day (to catch up on sleep) and we are goibg to trial that from tomorrow. Eight hours of sleep feels like such a luxury on these passages!