La Coruna

Whitemeadow
Phil Pascoe
Sat 8 Nov 2008 19:59

43:22.06N 08:23.7W

La Coruna (N. Spain). 20 Sept. 471.4 NM in 3 days 6 hours, we made it!

Fairly good progress the first day, light to moderate winds, broad reaching with some motoring. We went outside Ushant but fairly close (mobile phone contact was made) with a very favourable tide - 10.6 knots SOG, about 6 knots boat speed. Wow, I didn't see that noted in the Almanac. The spinnaker got an brief airing until the winds increased to 18 kn. A few problems refining the poling out of the genoa for down-wind sailing, but once we were happy with this and the winds stayed in the NE form 15 to 20 kn we made very good progress. 180 NM in 30 hours, all downwind goose-winged with some reefing as the wind increased to 35 kn. A little lumpy, but boat and crew handling it well. Night watches 2h on, 2h on standby, 2h off, for 12 hours - seemed to work OK. We saw a Pilot whale and what we think was a Sperm Whale within 50ft of the boat - Big, Scary! Arrival at La Coruna was a welcome break after the last 12 h of 'lively' sailing - very sheltered and comfortable marina at Darsena Deportivo and a pleasant city. Great to get the first difficult passage over - and the weather was good, which always gives a good impression af a new area.

More later, hope the Pics are satisfactory.  Actually they seem a little on the low res side, I'll  do better next time.  Still getting to grips with the technology.

The sailing's a doddle, it's the satellite comms and IT that's makes my brain ache (or is it the beer, wine, port, brandy, gin, whisky mix that's the problem?).  It'll all stop soon when we're on the high seas (maybe).

Cheers, Phil, Paddy & Ray.