Orca ...Gibraltar to Dungarvan.
Trip Start
May 06, 2007
1
2
7
Trip End
May 19, 2007
Gibraltar to Sines.,
Portugal
Monday, May 7, 2007
It was interesting to be on with the lads and Mitch certainly enjoyed the chatting.
Marie wasn't too pleased with the rota as she was on duty at 0500hrs.
I was back on at 0700 hrs.We had a beautiful sunrise and several photos were taken.
It's a special time to be on deck as the sun is rising.
We topped up with 40 litres of fuel as conditions were calm enough and land appeared on the horizon, probably Faro.
It got very hot around noon and we stopped briefly for Peter to have a quick dip.
He was the only one to venture in.
Our noon to noon run for the first day was around 140 n miles which wasn't too bad.
We spent some time working on Radar and were not having much luck with it; it didn't seem to pick up the signal from the antenna and we thought there might be a loose wire someplace.
The lights half way up the mast were not working as well and we thought there might be some connection.
Eventually we gave up on the problem.
We rounded Cape St Vincent in daylight just as the sun was setting.
There was a concern that we might not have enough diesel and we were hoping that our change from a westerly direction to a northerly direction would help.
Clare had hoped to make it to Porto as our first stop but as we were heading into the wind once again we would be lucky to make it to Sines.
We had doubts about the size of the diesel tank, the spec on the ad said it was a 150 litre tank but by our calculations it only held 100 litres.
I was on watch at 2100 hrs for 2 hours with Maria and back on at 0500 hrs with Clare.
Tuesday 8th May.
We were hugging the coast and keeping a close eye on the fuel tank.
It was 60 N Miles from Cape St Vincent to Sines.
The wind was NW2 as we approached Sines, so it was giving us no assistance.
The diesel tank had been on the empty mark now for quite some time, it was going to be touch and go.
We docked at the hammer head at 0900hrs and were relieved to see the diesel pumps.
We had travelled 265 N Miles which was good going for our initial trip.
The marina is small enough but highly praised and is in a large commercial harbour complex.
The offices and showers were new only recently opened.
After we filled up with fuel we went to the local café for breakfast which was coffee and brandy for some of us. Peter and Mitch went for a stroll and I did some browsing in the local shops.
Later I went down town and met the lads.
We adjourned to a local bar and had a few beers while watching the local youths.
We were tempted to buy some local fish but decided not to give up on the fishing just yet.
