Day 3 1100am
01 August 2019
by Katrina Duncan
Day 1: 30th
Departed Formentera early, just as the sun was coming up, flat seas for most of day one and we were motor sailing more than we would've liked as the wind took time changing.
Caught a large lump of string on our fishing lure, not sure how it didn't get caught around our prop as the lure is out behind the boat, but really glad it didn't as that would've been terrible to untangle.
Lots of dolphins today, and a beautiful evening, so calm we even had a sneaky sundowner.
Tuna mornay for dinner as it's still very flat. All day did hour on, hour off watches, but changed at 6pm to our 3hr watches.
Day 2: 31st
What a difference a day makes, wind came round from behind as was expected, and came in strong, as was also expected. Swell picked up, we reduced sail and were still doing a good 6kts.
I didn't like it so much, but P was all just fine. So during the day we did 1hr watches again instead of keeping up the 3hrs. I preferred that. Shorter times with the strong winds. It really wasn't too bad, just that I wasn't used to those conditions - still over 30kts sometimes and 2m swell. I took some video, but you really can't tell. There was a gale warning over the radio, but as it was all going with us, it wasn't uncomfortable. P kept reminding me that we've had worse conditions, both crossing Biscay and in the Indian Ocean. I was never scared, it wasn't that bad, but I don't like the strong winds. We just had the tiniest bit of head sail out. No main. This makes sailing easier as you can reduce sail or let more out if the wind eases by yourself - you don't need the extra person. Easy reheating of premade lasagna for dinner. We cheat, just cut it up and heat it up in a pot on the stove rather than baking it in the oven...so it's like a lasagne stew.
Day 3: 1st July
Wind kept up all night, but started easing on my 0300 - 0600 watch. We could've gone in to land late yesterday afternoon, but we knew it was going to start easing, and we also knew we had to get into Gib by tomorrow before the wind changed on the nose again and would make it very difficult going round the Rock of Gibraltar with the wrong winds.
Over the course of the day the winds and seas eased - so much so that by the end of the day we were motor sailing again. That didn't last very long. But as we were going good speeds, we made good ground. Back on to 3hr watches all the time now, trying to catch up on some sleep. Neither of us slept well last night.
Still lots of dolphins again, actually looking for them now that the conditions have calmed.
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