Saturday, October 13, 2007

Approaching Portugal - Day 4

The sunshine filled day helped with drying out our gear. But by late morning we had no wind so we elected to motor our way along the west coast of northern Spain. (We're still more than 60 miles offshore.) By 2300 hrs we had wind and sailed through the night on a comfortable run, which has been wonderful for catching up on lost sleep. We've been safely sailing down what feels like the median of a busy highway these past 24 hours. To port it's northbound and to starboard it's southbound traffic for a popular shipping route.
We have another feathery friend. We're calling this one "Junior" and like "the baby" (see Oct 2007 blog titled Baby Sitting), it too prefers hanging out down below. Our cute little Junior has quickly settled in and seems to be the noisy type. When not busy eating my captain's breakfast scones Junior prefers to stay close to us but isn't a cuddler as was our previous guest. At my request, due to the increasing amount of bird evidence throughout the boat and clean-up required, Junior had been downgraded to steward class. Junior now resides on the aft deck with his scones and water supply.
It was a moderate day of progress (164nm) due to light winds and time spend adrift for sail changes and swapping out the Autohelm's linear drive unit. (We carry a spare since we relay heavily on our self steering system in place of crew.)
With an updated forecast of light winds, we are giving consideration to an earlier landfall in Portugal, verses continuing on for the south coast as planned. I'd best get out the Portuguese phrase book and start cramming.
With the sun up to begin a new day, I just watched Junior take a morning exercise fly around the parameter of the boat. Maybe we'll share a breakfast scone...

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