9th to 10th February 2018
On passage from Lisbon to Alvor we had a combination of lovely sailing conditions and not-so-lovely. The lovely was 25-30 knot winds from behind us with 3m or so long-period seas on the quarter. We dropped the main as the wind built up and ran just under the jib, with a roll or two in it when the winds gusted above 30kts, making good time and being utterly comfortable. Because the period on the waves was long (around 12 seconds) the rolling was fairly-gentle and didn’t put too much strain on the autopilot or on our stomachs (excepting Charlotte). The not so lovely was the wind dying through the night leaving our motor running far more than we were hoping would be the case from the forecast.
Charlotte, however, felt terrible the whole way – she has been hit by seasickness throughout this pregnancy, which is apparently fairly normal. She was basically incapacitated, having been unable to keep food or water down from shortly after she woke up in the morning. This was particularly tough as it was her watch from 5am or so when Dave started to misjudge distances (if you end up thinking “that’s a container ship at a distance, not a light floating on the water next to the boat”, you need to sleep). So, Dave had a brief nap while Charlotte threw up, then Dave took over again, and instead of sailing direct to Alvor we stopped for breakfast and refreshments at anchor in a sheltered bay off Sagres – Charlotte had an extra sleep and the kids had a play on deck while Dave drank coffee. The rest of the passage was, unfortunately, under motor, but as we were now on the Algarve coast the prevailing North-Westerly swell had disappeared and it was comfortable.