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Sea Eagle - Back at sea - the last leg



We're back at sea again. Everyone had a great time in the Azores and a much needed rest from sailing. We did manage to visit the islands of Faial, Terceria and Sao Miguel - more on that later. David joined us in Ponta Delgada on Monday morning and we set off for Lagos, Portugal straight away. We immediately launched the Parasailor (huge cruising chute) once we were clear of the island and had a great run of around 8 knots for the first hour until the wind started to build to 17+ knots. We decided to take it down and be on the safe side seeing as it's had 2 major repairs over the last 12 months. Sods law as soon as it came down and hit the deck the wind dropped so back up it went. However this time we hadn't realised we had put a twist in it. After hoisting and dropping, twisting one way then the other we eventually gave up as dusk was drawing in quickly so decided to sail normally through the night.

Ali made a curry for dinner and the night was spent rolling around in light airs with the sails flogging and whipping. We managed to achieve an average of around 5-6 knots and held off the temptation to put the engine into action and motor through the night.

After Tim made breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and mushrooms, (a hairy bikers healthy classic apparently?) we spent the morning tackling the task of unravelling the many twists and knots we had put into the Parasailor. After an awesome team effort we have been sailing with the Parasailor for the past three hours and hoping to continue on for the rest of the day averaging between 7-8 knots under 9-10 of apparent wind. Even the dolphins swam back to admire the spectacle.

David, Ali and I have been compiling as list of all the things we've changed or added to Sea Eagle over the past two and a half years. We're currently on our 5th A4 page and still going strong! Scary.

The wind is forecast to drop over night and tomorrow we are expected to hit a large area of high pressure so it maybe a day of motoring. The long range forecast is looking good after this point so hopefully we can have a great sail into Lagos with an ETA of Saturday PM - in time to watch the England game!


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