Vasco da Gama
Ian Strathcarron
Wed 25 Jun 2008 08:28
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We are in the North Atlantic, sailing towards La
Coruna, where we hope to be able to refuel. We are in the Atlantic, where
the sea is very deep, rather than in the Bay of Biscay, which is shallow and can
be treacherous for small boats. This is on the advice of our
excellent skipper, Tim Bassett, who regularly does the run from the U.K. to the
Mediterranean and back. This morning we sailed past a pod of
whales. It was a fantastic sight. They were quite near the boat,
about ten of them, the largest looked about 20 feet long. They blow a
spout of water into the air then leap through the waves like
dolphins.
I did the 3 - 6 am watch this morning, which was a
bit grim and cold at 3, but at 5 the sky lit up and at 5.45 the
beautiful golden red disc of the sun appeared. We had another squall
last night, not as bad as the first storm, but still uncomfortable. The
boat was under sail and would first lurch to the left when all the bedding
and I would be flung to one end of the bed. Then the boat
straightened and went the other way and I would slide to the other side with my
legs in the air and the blood rushing to my already burnt red face. It
lasted for about 6 hours until midnight, when the clouds cleared and the
sky was black and covered with glistening silver stars.
We are about 100 miles north of the northern coast
of Spain, so as we average about 5 miles over ground per hour we will be there
early tomorrow. The seas around here are empty of other ships but further
back we were in the main shipping lane and saw masses of containers and other
cargo ships, and also QE 2. She looked very beautiful. At the time I
was almost upside down in the galley as the boat was under sail and listing
heavily to starboard and I was trying to make Welsh rarebit for lunch. We can
identify the name of ships which pass by a programme attached to the radar
which tells us the name, size, length and destination of each ship. Most
of the biggies seem to be going to or from Rotterdam. We also saw a huge
COSTCO container en route to the USA. More shipping and other news in the
next bulletin. Heave ho!
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