Disappointed!!!

We start the 1st watch of the day under engine. Adam was forced to put it on shortly after we went to bed as the wind died completely off. It’s now back slightly (6 knots) but from NE. What a shift in a couple of hours. This would mean sailing on a goose-wing config but on the other tack (sails on the other side), however a) the wind ideally wants to be a consistent 10 knots or more b) it’s now the night time and moving the pole in the dark we’ve avoided so far. That said there’s a big moon and the sea is pretty calm. So it maybe on the cards ….

0245, the wind has slightly picked up in last 15 min and Paul has just got up. It’s nearly Will’s shift so we talk about moving the pole across. It takes us about 20-30 min of faffing about. We make very little headway as wind is being flaky. We then decide to alter course slightly and go on a beam reach. This only generates an extra 1/2 knot. So all in we’re lucky if we’re making 4.5 :0/

Off to bed, we leave Will to it and Paul on the PC. Waking up again at 0730 to the noise and smell of bacon and eggs – Will’s watch finished, he’s making brekkie. It’s not Sunday we know but it is a celebration of 2 weeks at sea and we have extra bacon and eggs that need using up… Happy days.

Our watch starts at 9am and it’s nice to see there has been enough wind the last 6 hours to keep sailing. Less than an hour into our watch the reel goes, another fish!! It’s a whopping metre long dorado again. Looks like we’ll have a lot of fish to offload or BBQ when we get in!!

The rest of our watch is pretty uneventful, other than spying a possible other yacht far in the distance off our port quarter.

An afternoon siesta to bank those shut eyes for later! Then good news on awakening – land ahoy!!! It’s raining there but it’s there alright. The wind picks up as Adam looks fore longingly at the destination (he spent lots of childhood holidays here in a family holiday home) bringing us ever closer to our goal. Our watch is 6-9pm, we might get to our “way point” (an imaginary point we mark on the chart that we aim for) at the very end of that. Then we still have an hour to turn back our clocks so maybe even get in by 10pm local time :0)

We have a visitor already, a welcoming party you could say. A little bird resting on the aft deck rail, clinging on for dear life more like! :0)

Will is desperately trying to finish “The Count” before we get in so he’s quite quiet during our watch and Adam is making dinner. Our last meal at sea.

So we arrive and are moored up drinking bubbles by 2030 :0) :0)

After which we go ashore to catch up with ARC friends who are wrapped up un a beach party. Nice.