Half way home

Inshala
Colin Laidlaw
Sat 30 Jun 2012 14:14
We arrived at cascais marina at about 11.30 last night, after being teased by the sight of land and ultimately lights from about 8 hours out! However yesterday was an amazing trip and a bit like being in the middle of a nature programme on the discovery channel, as we had 3 different close encounters with whales and a pod of dolphins out on a hunt for lunch - an amazing sight! Plus on the final approaches we saw a couple of albatross(es). After getting a tired inshy into her berth, we cracked a couple of cans, devoured a packet of lays crisps (yumm) and crashed into a bed which was level, and didn't require getting out of 2 hours later - BLISS!
Overall, our impression of this last section of the trip is that it could have been a lot worse. Although we were beating against the prevailing winds for the majority of time, the seas were slight, even on some occassions being glass-like, so unlike my (Belinda's) perception of what the crossing would be!

This morning captain col ventured up the mast to clear a sticking point on the main halyard. Both of us benefitted from his being 2 stone lighter in this task! We are now in a bar (free wifi) having a good attempt at putting back on those 2 stone.
The next couple of days will be spent catching up on sleep, provisioning, and planning the next stage of the trip while waiting for Keith to come and join us northwards. We're really looking forward to this next phase which will involve shorter trips and explore the coast of Portugal, Spain, and the north Biscay.
Missing you all
Colin and Belinda

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