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Starblazer - Heading south



Starblazer left Lagos on Saturday 5th October just on midday, heading towards Porto Santo. Our ETA was about 3 days and 6 hours. The first hour there was very little wind so we motored then the wind picked up, but so did the swell. Starblazer sped onwards, but it was quite an uncomfortable ride, making a little over 8 knots. At dusk we rolled away a lot of the genoa but only lost a half a knot of boatspeed and had a far more comfortable ride. Sunday the wind had dropped a bit but we didn't increase sail because we wanted to avoid a night time arrival. Sunday night we tried to reduce speed even more, eventually overshooting our waypoint by several miles to waste time! You can see we are not out and out racers.

Our timing was perfect, arriving off the port of Porto Santo at 0800, the marina office opens at 0800 and the sun rose just before that. We sailed 444 miles in 68 hours, significantly quicker than anticipated and we could have sailed faster all day Sunday.

The island is quite different from the busy Balearics, very 'tranquil' as a local told me. It is also very clean and tidy. There is an excellent, informative bus tour most afternoons at 1400, we went on it in 2009 and have recommended it to all the crews we have met. The wall painting I did 4 years ago still looks good (Fair Encounter) and I managed to find a spot close by for Starblazer's. After a few days chilling, it is time to move on to Madeira.

More soon.

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