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Moondancer - Moondancer lisbon to las palmas



we are currently about 40 hours sailing from Las Palmas running nicely in front of a 13 knot northerly breeze in beautiful sunshine ,exactly how this part of the trip was meant to be when we planned to do it in the last week of september ,however it was rather naively ALL meant to be like this , it didnt include 4 days marooned in lisbon by force 9 winds and lashing rain from the south , then when it calmed a bit a day of thick fog when to begin with you couldnt see more than 50 metres. In the end we had to go as soon as the weather cleared , to try and meet our schedule and to cure the crews shore fever getting out of control. So off we went ,lovely 48 hours beating into force 4-6 , rob described the first night as trying to sleep in a car crash .Moondancer of course took it all in her stride probably wondering why we were moaning so much -just we seem to have spent all this year beating!!!
Then on days 3 and 4 complete calm less than 4 knots but still on the nose of course ,so on with the motor and lots of rapid fuel calculations . The afternoon was enlivened by a diesel throwing competition also known as re-fuelling the boat at first with the skippers new toys-are -us re-fuelling system but quickily replaced by just chucking it in and all over each other. The last 2 days and nights have been beautiful ,the stars ,shooting or normal ,how bright venus can be and the amazing phosphorescence , but a distinct lack of sea life compared to the biscay leg ,a few dolphins a pod of pilot whales off of Portugal then nothing ,no birds , no whales ,dolphins nada , makes one suspect the area is fished out which is very sad if true. Anyway need to go now , chis is singing cliff richard songs again ,,horrible (sorry cliff) , we looking forward to a beer in las palmas
butch.
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