sines

37:57.036N  008:51.992w

    Just a short hop down from Cascais about 60 miles. We had been waiting for a week for weather that would allow us to sail directly south to this port, the last stop before the Algarve. The weather has been bleak lots of atlantic gales (low pressure systems that sweep in from the usa for the most part leave Portugal alone and then sweep up and hit the UK). However we do get the tail ends of the winds and  the gaps are getting fewer and fewer. Anyhow with 25mph of winds we left the comfort of Cascais and headed into the Atlantic. The swells were huge about 6 metres high so an oil tanker about a mile away would keep coming in and out of view. It was not comfortable, though not dangerous, but within 10 minutes of leaving the harbor I knew there would be no sleep for me or Dawn. Hannah and Gabriel can sleep through absolutely everything and actually did sleep solidly thru the night , even though their bodies kept being thrown around.(though one of them did get up for a midnight forage…..no names…) It is definitely an age or maybe a responsibility thing. They don’t seem to worry about anything while me and dawn are constantly at “have you switched the gas off”, “have you checked the halyards etc etc.” However it does remind me of travelling to helvelyyan  with my cousin Johnny and uncle Lionel and falling asleep in the back of his mgb. Something I couldn’t do now. Anyhow bouncing along under jib and mizzen with no mainsail. We were easily doing 6 knots which was great. We seem not to get much more speed out of the mainsail so at night we are going to do without it. It is the only sail that we have to get out on deck for and in these big seas there were no volunteers.

However did I mention the extra set of hands on board. Yes the autopilot worked the whole way…glory glory glory. A word of advice. Do not get your autopilot installed in Fleetwood by anybody, ever, no matter how good they say they are. I know this concerns many of you so pay heed. It was wonderful. When we arrived in Sines we high fived the autopilot. All of us, but in a white way so we all kinda missed and tangled our hands, anyhow the thought was there, and had we been cool basketball players with the Lakers it would of looked cool too.

Anyhow in pitch darkness (as usual) we arrived in Sines which looks cool and we will let you know what its like. Have a lovely new year we think and talk about you all. Love Mithril