A Great Day's Sailing!
The Voyages of Fujin II
Stuart & Elizabeth Milne
Tue 21 Jul 2015 20:24
Having left Cascais after refuelling and taking on water, we raised the parasailor in perfect conditions, racking up 85 miles over the last 10 hours with a top speed of 13.2 knots in around 16 knots of wind. The parasailor is a bit challenging to raise and to douse, but once up, it looks after itself and performs fantastically well.
We have just doused the parasailor after 9 solid hours are now (10pm) motor sailing the last couple of miles to Cape St Vincent and the south west corner of Spain where we will turn left almost 90 degrees and make for Gibraltar. Once we've turned the corner, we will reset the sails - we're expecting a reach with winds from the north tomorrow.
I was chef for dinner tonight - roast pork with roast potatos and carrots, preceeded by a Dark and Stormy, thanks to Per and Anne!
Reading material on this yacht appears to be distinctly cerebral. Kez is, most appropriately, reading a history of Japan while Patrick has his biography of Alexander the Great. I have my ship's copy of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, courtesy of Jem and Patricia, which I am attempting to commit to memory....
So far on this trip we have seen two pilot whales (in the Bay of Biscay) and several hundred dolphins playing in our bow wave. One particular dolphin stuck his head out of the water, looked at us in the bow and ficked his head from side to side to splash us - he did this twice so I guess he knew what he was doing.
A great day's sailing and we hope for more tomorrow on the run into Gibraltar where we expect to arrive at around 0600 on Thursday.
