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Moondancer - Moondancer Plymouth - Lisbon



Moondancer and crew are safely in Lisbon after the first leg of our adventure. Our plan to hurry south from Plymouth to avoid the incoming atlantic system and pick up some helpful northerlies didn’t quite go to plan as Biscay showed us how uncomfortable it can be on a pitch black night with a force 6-7 on the nose and horizontal driving rain …lovely… only the dolphins seemed to be enjoying it… it was left to the boys Rob and Riz to guide Moondancer through the night and the growing seas with skipper butch suffering down below a bout of male de mer but adding helpful comments like "don’t break the boat boys" and "that was a big one"… anyway we made it with our brand new hydrogenerator being the only casualty, taken out by a large breaking wave on the stern, new brackets please…..The following day our fortitude was rewarded and Biscay revealed her glorious sid …over the continental shelf... azure seas, sunshine, whales, including one dead fin whale on the surface easily longer than Moondancers 45 feet, and dolphins by the dozen even the odd turtle. Zero wind however so on with the iron sail. After 4 days we surfed our way into La Coruna  with 30-35knot winds on the tail (finally) and 30 foot waves … awesome …..with just a tablecloth for a Jenny.

 

After 2 days r+r in lovely La Coruna (seriously a great place) we abandoned our port hopping and port sampling down the coast plan and ran for Lisbon before the forecast 4 days of 40 knot winds arrived. This time we made it by a couple of hours before the weather really kicked in… phew! Plymouth – Lisbon 6 ½ days sailing. Not bad for a crew who rarely go outside the Solent !!!!

 

Next instalment end of September for Lisbon-Las Palmas.  



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