Biscay Part 3

Continued Wednesday 28th June 19:30pm

From Fliss…..

Hello again

Just thought I’d let you know of this evenings events.

Another beautiful evening, smooth seas and clear blue sky with just the odd clouds.

Usually at 6pm it’s Pete’s time to go off watch but tonight he didn’t want to go as in the distance he noticed another school of dolphins. Armed with the camera we both walked to the front of the boat. Pete said that they had sent a scout out and within a few minutes 2 dolphins appeared and played with us for about 20 minutes. We then heard them talking to each other and they turned around and disappeared towards the back of the boat.




Two dolphins accompany us





























This isn’t the end of the story as I spotted a bizarre looking critter flapping around in the water and walked back to the front of the boat, it turned out to be a fish which must have been 3 foot in length and a good foot in width. The dolphins wondering why we had turned around promptly re-appeared which frightened the fish and it dived under the water. Pete hadn’t seen it so I helmed and he gave directions on where the fish was. Pete reckons it was a sailfish (he could be pulling my leg) which uses its large fins to move around, it’s fins were as big as the fins on dolphins.

The marine life is amazing and with the clear seas you can really see them, tonight’s delight was transparent jelly fish with a orange tip sometimes on their own or they form a huge cluster, Catherine wheel type brown ones, large intestine type ones, many different types and amazing to see them so clearly.

Finally after a sleep inducer Pete retired at 7:30pm which is half an hour later than he should.

Did we mention our watch keeping system? Well I do 18:00-10:30pm or sometimes 11pm and then Pete does 11-4/5am Usually he goes back to bed after I get up for four hours and the rest of the day we share the watch.. It seems to work well but tonight we may share the night watch as tomorrow afternoon around 5pm we should be in La Coruna. I’m looking forward to arriving but I wouldn’t have missed the trip down here…. Rest of the world here we come, yeahhh!

Very easy watch so far tonight as all the boats are travelling in the same direction.

Champers is in the fridge ready for landfall. At the moment we have done 348 miles and we are at position 45.21 7 N 08 03 7 W and approximately130 miles to go.

From Pete…….

The morning started with a deep red sun rising into a sky layered with high golden-embroidered clouds. Another day of sunshine was in-store. I let Fliss get her beauty-sleep this morning since she was fast asleep and didn’t even hear me clumping and rattling my safety-harness shackles on deck.

The original agreement with watches was that I would do the night shift (which is 22:00-04:00). Each side of this is a four-hour period where Fliss is on watch (18:00-22:00 & 04:00-08:00) and I therefore get the opportunity for two sets of four hours sleep. This works for me since I have no problem dozing-off and 8 hours of sleep is sufficient. Having said that, we have had an easy crossing so far and the watches have not needed to be rigorously applied but, before the next long leg of our travels, we need to agree a formal system, write it down and post it on the wall. Then, when in rough weather, we easily know whose turn it is to get a cold dousing!

The day was uneventful. At 05:00 I raised the mainsail to a tentative breeze and soon had the jib flying as well. A little later, we turned off the engine to give it a rest for a couple of hours until, very slowly, the speed dropped to under 3 knots and we resorted once again to the ‘Iron Topsail’.

At one point during the lazy afternoon, a private twin-propped plane came at us from the sun. Feeling like we had travelled back to the Pacific 1945 we squinted to pick-out the Chilli-bum logo. Luckily, this one was friendly and he buzzed us low just a few hundred yards away. The pilot was wearing red and gave us a wave before slowly gaining altitude and disappearing.

Towards the evening, the light ripples faded and the sea turned into a calm oily gently rolling mass. In these conditions, you can see right into the deep (4800m deep in fact). I said to Fliss that if it wasn’t so deep, you would be able to see the bottom! The calm waters allowed us to view the rich marine-life that is usually obscured by the ripples in the same way that patterned glass obscures my view into the next-door neighbours bathroom (actually, our house doesn’t overlook anyone – but you get the picture).

Fliss has already mentioned the dolphins. I scanned the horizon for boats and noticed some freak waves. Studying more closely, these transformed into leaping dolphins that were somewhat closer than 3.6 miles away. A whole school of twenty or more went past and one gave us a brief visit by shooting under our bows. I thought that was all the show we were going to get but, shortly after, another school of dolphins (must have been the loiterers) came past us in the same direction as the first. Two scouts broke away from the pack and played. They kept turning their heads sideways watching us watching them watching us…….


Watching us watching them........



















Tonight………..” The sky is splattered with stars and the milky-way arches over us. The slither of reddish moon has just slunk beneath the horizon (which means it must be more than 3.6 miles away and no longer a navigational hazard). Venus dominates over all on the starboard-quarter.”……..the same as it was last night. The only difference is that there are lights that keep appearing in the distance and then disappearing again. It took me a while to realise that these were not boats dipping across the horizon but the reflections of stars on the smooth and undulating sea.

Thursday 29th June

02:30

The dolphins are back again making splashing and breathing noises. In the dim glow of our steaming light they are clearly visible. They race forwards under-water leaving jet-trails behind them like torpedoes. First of all they will race forwards and then playfully execute a tight manoeuvre and dive under the hull, the jet-trails obediently tracing their paths.

There appears to be a yacht 2 miles off the port side (this is a guess but the nav-lights appear to be a steaming yacht). If so, then this will be the first yacht sighting since we were about 10 miles out from the Lizard Point.
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