Tuesday - 14 August 2018

The alarm went off at 06:00, uncomfortably early and we made good time in preparing the boat for departure. There was no need to wait for a dockmaster today, all of the formalities had been completed last night. Even so, we were the third boat out of the marina, with another following soon after.  

Sines is the jump off point for the journey around the south west corner of Europe, Cape St Vincent, and this was our objective today.  There are no other reasonable stopping points on this 60 mile stretch of coast, so we were committed to going round.  It was rather reassuring to see that 3 or 4 other boats all thought that this was a reasonable day for the trip, the weather over the last week of so has not been conducive.

There was little to report for the much of the day, a few short lived dolphin sightings, no wind at all until late morning, then a gentle 9 – 11 knots from all sorts of directions, until it settled on what it was meant to do, per the forecast.  We put the spinnaker up and took it down twice I think, when there was not enough wind.  Then when the wind did start, we expected it to build and after that we would experience the wind acceleration zones that you get around major headlands, so we decided to stick with the white sails that we had up. 

We eventually got to the Cape, and I recall visiting there while on a holiday to the Algarve, never dreaming at the time that we would be coming around it on the seaward side.  The lighthouse looked dramatic, set on the high and windswept cliffs. The wind increased as expected but the sea was relatively calm, so we believe that our checking of the weather and wave forecasts has indeed led us to be here on the right day.

We passed the second headland and have anchored for the night in a small and supposedly sheltered bay.  It still seems quite windy, but we hope it will settle down during the night.

We will be sad to leave the Atlantic coast of Spain and Portugal, this area has been absolutely fantastic. Wonderful scenery, interesting places, friendly people and largely unspoilt by commercialisation. It would be great to stay longer, but the schedule says we have to move on.

Distance covered today	63	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	1204	nautical miles
Distance covered 2018	1924	nautical miles
Steve (and Tricia)