Leg 7a - Sines to Sagres
The plan was to leave in good time to cover the 60 miles to Sagres in time for an afternoon dip when we arrived. So, up at 0600 and under motor half an hour later. Deegs and Jane took the first watch and tried to sail but couldn’t cope with seeing Andrew and Muriel on Galatea motoring past, so quickly went back to motoring. The breeze finally arrived and the Mexican went up. As on previous days, the wind increased to 17kts, at which point Jane declared that she would serve lunch but was sure that as soon as she did so, the wind would increase further and we’d have to drop the Mexican. Well, she was almost correct; we did have to drop the Mexican as soon as the lunch came out but that was because the wind completely died! Engine on again. Jane managed to photograph Deegs forward of the mast and looking confused, for the benefit of the Akarana crew back home. No, of course we won’t publsh it Deegs!
By this time we were nearing Cape St. Vincent (Cabo de Sao Vicente) and we wanted to be ready for orca as soon as we had rounded the headland. The orca attacks had not so far been reported west of Lagos but we knew the orca had in previous years started to migrate north towards Sines around this time of year. As we were talking about the recent reports on Telegram, Giles spotted what could have been two orca breaking the surface a couple of hundred metres out to starbourd, heading north as we headed south. They looked larger than dolphins but more energetic than whales. They came out of the water one more time but then disappeared. They had our attention! With no further sightings, we thought they might have been dolphins closer to us and not worth worrying about. The wind then increased and allowed us to white-sail the rest of the way to the cape.
After rounding the cape, we had a short sail to the anchorage off the beach at Sagres. Despite losing the swell from the NW, we discovered there was also a swell from the SE, but anchoring on the eastern end of the bay turned out to be fine. Andrew and Muriel joined us moments later on Galatea. Then we learned that A’assifa (another ARC Portugal yacht) that had been behind us and in the path of the orca we thought we might have seen, was attacked by a pod of orca a couple of hours after our “sighting”. Everyone OK apart from a bruised hand and the boat seems to be unharmed, but it was a scary experience apparently. At anchor, Jane went for her usual marathon swim while Deegs and Giles did a cost/benefit analysis on swimming a short distance to Galatea for a beer with Andrew. Water temperature 21 degrees. Not yet bathwater temperature. Libby kindly offered to stay aboard to look after the boat. Deegs and Giles stood on the swimming platform as Infinity swung around on her mooring, waiting for the distance to swim to reduce by a few yards before they took the plunge. Exhausted and shivering, they arrived (having been overtaken by Jane of course) and enjoyed a beer before braving the return swim. Muriel kindly offered a sleeping bag for the night but the boys had to face the inevitable at some time. It was lovely to spend a night in a remote anchorage and the sunrise over the cliff the next morning (apparently!) was gorgeous.
Final leg tomorrow... Giles |
