Departure at last: Guernsey to Falmouth
Spinalonga and crew departed Guernsey at 1700 on Saturday 1st May 2004.
We had a good crossing to Falmouth but not much wind! Nigel did the whole nightshift as I was knackered from getting everything ready, he consequently took 2 days to catch up on his sleep. Having said that, I didn’t get much sleep either! Nigel had to take avoiding action for five tankers! Normally it is only one. Total trip: 18 hours.
We will try to get away from Falmouth on Saturday 8th May, and will aim for just south of La Coruna, (probably the Rias in north-west Spain). We have been advised (by an old salt) that we should stay at least 10 degrees West for the Bay of Biscay, and we are waiting for some good forecasts. After the Rias, we will proceed down the Spanish and Portuguese coast; I am not sure where we will stop except that Lisbon and Porto are almost certainly on the list.
I have also finally got my sextant (which I bought through Ebay). It is a Davis Mark 15, which is probably quite adequate for the job but I’ll let you know. I have bought some tables for 2004 and a book by Mary Blewitt. I have practised a sun sight but don’t know what to do with the numbers yet. Although Nigel considers it my hobby, there is an article in a magazine he has just bought which gives some serious misgivings about current and potential problems with GPS!
Still trying to stow everything on the boat, there are a lot of boxes that need to be sorted through before we travel further- I think I over-packed a bit!
I have also received my replacement AV380 from Archos today (I hope it works better than the last one!).
Compulsory reading: Managing your Bluewater Cruise.