The Captain and the Asym

This morning we passed a point directly West of the Straights of Gibraltar. We had three big vessels within 10 nautical miles; quite an event on this empty ocean. We are still far West. Cabo Sao Vincente, the South West point of mainland Portugal, is 360 nautical miles away. Oporto is 470 Nm away. We switched off the engine at 4.45 am this morning. Time to sail and we have done ever since!

Hans made pancakes for breakfast. Afterwards, we hoisted the asymmetric. We are doing very slow progress straight North of around 3 knots. The idea is to keep West of a very long high pressure ridge: stretching between England and the Canaries. This is giving us South Easterly and later Southerly winds. Later in the week a low pressure will approach Cabo Finisterre from the West; causing Northerly winds. At that point we want to be far enough North to be able to reach Oporto on one tack.

The day continued with excellent weather and increasing winds, the latter especially true since darkness. Now it is soon 1am in the morning. The wind has been as strong as 18 knots and we are heading in a North Westerly direction. At day break we plan to switch from the asym (or asymmetric) to the spinnaker so we can hold more of a Northerly course. We don't want to stray into the high pressure ridge to the East of us.

It is a beautiful night. It is dark as there is no moon, but plenty of stars visible. I can be in shorts without finding it cold. We are powering along in 7 knots with 14 knots of breeze from the South in smooth seas without even an Atlantic swell. The growth on the hull is probably keeping our boat speed half a knot lower than if we had a clean hull. Maybe we can get a diver to scrub Queenie in Oporto. I am sure that she would like that!