9th July Rota to Barbate
Sealion
Richard Martin
Thu 10 Jul 2008 17:20
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Light airs from the SW swept us fairly swiftly down
the coast dispite some foul tide - around 15.00 we thought we had another two
hours to run to reach Barbate when the wind dropped the picked up rapidly
from the east (right on the nose).
This is virtually the first beat we have had since
the UK (except the leg from Finistre to Bayonne) with the wind at a steady
20/22knots gusting 25 we were fairly well reefed but nonetheless
kept Sealion going at between 5/6knots into the waves. Having the
tender stowed on the bows was fine until the lines we had were not really
adequate healed right over. Chris and I grabbed a few lines and quickly secure
it, but got pretty wet in the process - but who cares when it is hot and sunny,
we were dry almost by the time we were back in the cockpit. Certainly not like
sailing in the UK.
The real problem was that we also had a fairly
strong adverse current around Cabo Trafalgar, dispite the fact that we had timed
it to be slack/turning. So three and a half hours later we arrived after a jolly
good sail.
Scott-Free was with us for all the sail - good to
have company from the Rally Portugual fleet.
Barbate has an amazing Tunny net stretching from
just off the harbour wall to two/three miles out to sea. It is said that the
nets are strong enough to foul the propellors of a small tanker - what a
navigational hazard. Tomorrow we may have more of these nets on the way to
Gib.
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