Yacht Aditi

Rush Hour

We have completed our Camarinas to Peniche leg of 256 miles which took us 43 hours due to a slow start. Winds then picked up and blew constantly from the N or NNW at 14-22 knots. We ran at about 160 degrees gybing 4 times as we either closed the coast to the east or the shipping lanes to the west, about 30 miles offshore. No noticeable change in sea state whether in 150m depth or 2000m beyond the shelf. A confused sea with swell at 90 degrees to the wind blown waves kept forcing us on onto our beam and turning us to windward which made the ride a little less comfortable. To combat this we ran with two reefs in the main and up to full genoa to drive the nose downwind. Checkstays were tightened to keep the rig upright and the boom (which stayed clear of the water) was firmly fixed in place with the preventer. A gybe therefore took about 30 minutes in total. There was little traffic on this leg and no sailing vessels were encountered which was totally at odds with the Ria areas. We did, however, come across Rush Hour. Suddenly to port the sea was boiling up and racing north east across our bows were hundreds and hundreds of dolphins/porpoises racing over, under and above the ocean. This was probably a quarter to half mile train of mammalian muscle 30 abreast doing 25 knots. The top attraction on this leg.

 

 

 

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