44:23.42N 009:38.61W

76 miles north west of Portugal

27/08/2013

14:10 UTC

 

So we have had a busy night and day negotiating across the route of the large ships that travel past Portugal up to the English channel. This has kept the crew busy and we have had to make some course alterations to get through incident free. We are now just 33 miles from our waypoint outside the Traffic Separation Scheme of Portugal, after which we hopefully be gybing and then on a straight line course of 198 degrees for 985 miles! The breeze is set to pick up a bit, but that shouldn't be an issue and should allow us to truck on for our destination. The sun has been out all day and the weather warm!

 

James has spent the afternoon emptying the bilges of water. David has cooked us dinner.

 

In other news:

 

Fish watch: No more suicidal fish overnight, but David and James believe they have seen a whale or extremely large dolphin pass close by.

 

Bird watch: The bird that had joined us yesterday evening stayed with us, trying to desperately get inside the cabin. It seemed very timid and would allow you to come within centimetres of it, however struggled to fly. James decided to name it Harold for some reason. It found a cubby hole under the helms foot grating for the evening and overnight. Unfortunately at 5am the bird was found dead in this same position. It was last seen alive at 3 am. The presumed cause of death was exhaustion. A sea burial was given and a funeral will take place later this evening, open to anybody who can make it.

 

RIP Harold