FISH! Lets tell the full story... We were under parasailor for most of the day - enjoying some great surfs (13.4 knots is the best so far) - but around 1am we dropped it (after 42 hours flying) because the apparent wind was slewing around too much to keep the sail set nicely. We reverted to genoa alone for the rest of the night which made it easy for the on-watch crew. We've settled into a routine where Anthony, Amanda and Barry keep watch from 10pm until 7am in 3 hour shifts. I do the shifts e

24hours under parasailor and we're making some great progress. We decided that last night was the night and we kept the sail up. Winds got up a bit, but we could easily see the sail throughout the night, even at the blackest points. Amanda had the first watch and was blessed with some fantastic views of the stars. Rick and Barry were on the following watches and had clouds, drizzle and gusts throughout.. Anthony had the night off, and rewarded us with lunch today (though he was available for for

Day 3 gave us some great sailing - we had the parasailor up until evening. We discussed flying it through the night, but as we were doing so the wind really picked up and I bottled er.. socked it. Another night under genoa made for an easy night, especially for Rick who had the night off. Plain sailing overnight, no ships - nothing. Some nice stars but it kept clouding over. We gybed halfway through the night to maintain our angle as the wind shifted trying to push us more west than we wanted.

Day 2 was pretty uneventful. We flew the parasailor until dusk, then we took it down as the wind had picked up it had all the hallmarks of being a very dark night. We pottered along under genoa alone, which is pretty easy - so we had a fairly simple time keeping watch. Hardly any ships, and just a couple of gybes to keep things moving along nicely. The morning brought a nicer day and we put the parasailor back up as soon as enough crew had assembled (today's seastate: slight to moderate: bring

An interesting first day. We had good wind for the first part and into the night, and though we crossed the line last on the start (following our conservative approach), we were soon passed Escape and Patchouly. Bianca Rosa headed west - so it will be interesting to see how that plays out given the rest of us headed down between Gran Canaria and Fuertureventura. We were making great time, but the sea state (classed as 'moderate: oranges fall out of fruit bowl') caused Barry to suffer from some

This is it - the day we've been building up to since we left Portsmouth back in May. We've had a great time getting here, so now its time to settle back and enjoy the crossing. We're looking forward to practicing with the sextant and catching lots of fish. The bars have been full of talk about speeds, wind angles, crossing times. The crews that are looking for the fastest crossings are Raven, Penn Er Karreg and Doppelbock. Its going to be interesting seeing how it plays out having got to know t

We'll have to skip the details on Rabat and Agadir in Morocco. Suffice it to say, we had a great time with lots of adventures and some great visitors. Don't wish to repeat that lightening storm again though! However, after a cracking sail down to Marina Rubicon, we've been busy preparing the boat and ourselves since then. Barry and Anthony have joined us, and the job list is now pleasingly small. A few final things to be done, but the food is onboard, the fuel tank is full as are the additional

We left Cascais just after 7am having been met at the dock by a marineiro to return our key deposit and give us a hand out. There was a bit too much S in the forecast for an easy sail, we thought but the similar forecasts had yielded an E wind on the previous days and that is indeed what we found. Engines were off by 7:20am and we were sailing south. We managed to sail for most of the day, before the wind died. At this point we hadn't seen any fishing gear or boats but were still well inside the

When we planned our trip, at least the route down to the start of the Christmas Caribbean Rally, we had booked a trip back to the UK in October. We had also arranged for Amanda's mum to come and join us for a week in Lisbon. So we we knew we'd be in Marina Parque das Naçoes for around a month. We had a good time back on the UK catching up with friends and family. We even managed a Christmas dinner for those would not be with us in the Atlantic on the day. We had also been acquiring a growing m

Having said we don't like marinas, we are headed to one for a bit of a pit stop. We left Ihla da Berlenga before dawn to ensure we reached the marina by the top of the tide. The stream runs hard on the river Tejo and we didn't want to be motoring 10 miles against the current. To begin with, there wasn't enough wind to do anything but motor but by mid-morning we could motor sail nicely. We even managed an hour or so sailing without engines. Once we rounded Cabo da Roca, the wind disappeared and

We're not fans of marinas and the problem with the Portuguese coast, lovely as it is - is that it's mostly marina hopping. However, there is the chance to anchor at the nature reserve formed by a group of islands just offshore from Perniche. They need settled weather, and you are anchoring in deep water with a reputation of poor holding, but we liked the sound of it. It's a long sail from Porto - 113 nautical miles, but there was a little hint of wind - so we decided to go for it, as did a numb

We arrived in Porto after a long motor south from Viano. No wind, but stunning weather - much better than recent days. On arrival we wanted to pick up fuel, and had to wait whilst a small sports boat got it about as wrong as you can, even with the help of a couple of marineiros! Once fuelled we checked in. The new Douro marina is "catamaran" friendly - they don't charge extra for cats on the breakwater, and 30% extra in finger berths. We opted for the breakwater as there seemed to be no downsid

We arrived with the rising tide, having motored from Baiona, and there is quite some tide in the river. We were followed for the last few miles by an Irish boat that was steadily gaining on us. However, we rounded the harbour entrance first and prepped fenders as we motor upstream. The harbour master was on the waiting pontoon indicating we should moor there, which we did. No sooner had the lines gone ashore, than he was admonishing us for not calling beforehand. "Portuguese marinas are small, m

We treated ourselves! We'd been on the hook for over two weeks, so we deserved the convenience of a walk ashore berth! We also deserved the luxury of the Monte Real Club de Yates - the prestigious Baiona yacht club steeped in history, including the Americas Cup. The only downside was that this was to be our first time mooring "med-style". This involves backing up to a pontoon and picking up "lazy lines" or more accurately "slime-lines" as they sit in the water and get fouled, which are secured t

A quick note on the sourdough bread - so far I've been unable to kill the starter, and the bread has slowly improved in both shape and texture. It's not always easy to get it to hold shape when baking underway in heavy conditions, as the movement causes it to collapse a bit. However in reasonable conditions, we're getting some very tasty loaves... We've tried a number of different flours as we've proceeded south. The 'Cobbler' flour that Dad provided before we left is very nice, as is the frenc

We motored from Ria de Arousa down to the first of the national park Islands we planned to stop at - Isla Ons. We anchored off Playa de Malide for the night. The buoys to protect the swimming area off the beach push you quite a way out, so we snuck around to one side. The fishing boats ignore the buoys though - one even placed pots right through the area! We had a great view of the mainland with the moon that night, and incredible phosphorescence in the water!

Ria de Arousa is the largest Galician ria with a huge number of harbours and anchorages to chose from. We could have spent a month there and not run out of places to stop. We selected a few from our guide book but also winged it a bit. So this is a collection of photos and anchorage details...

We left A Coruña with full tanks, with the intention of sailing to Muros. However the wind would have made that difficult, so we headed into Sada for the evening - just to anchor. We managed to sail most of the way, and planned an early start in the morning. The onshore disco was still going at 3am and whilst it didn't disturb us, when we woke up in the night we noticed it was still going!

We left Cedeira early. Early enough that the wind hadn't woken up yet. It soon did though and from behind us, so it was parasailor time!