LinoCat

Uneventful night. The wind had died down and we motored. The Parasailor is now up and pulling us with 6knots. Since i did not send any dolphin picture yesterday, here is one. Positionreport has been updated, check on the link list to the right.

Often there are dolphins swimming with the boat for a while. You have the feeling they are observing you and they really like it. But if the boat is too slow they will not stay long. They like it from 5 to 10knots or even more. There were now around 20 swimming with Linocat for about 20Minutes. It was too rough and wet to get the Nikon out so i only did some snaps. Regards from 36°13,1N 010°07,2W COG 185W SOG 5kn

At 18.40 today we started to Madeira. Until 1800 they were working on the new trampoline. Course is currently 204 and Speed over ground 3.5kn. There was heavy wind this morning up to 32knots but i died down. The swell is still noticeable so lets see how we all cope with it. Soon we will be out of cell phone coverage and then i can only send emails via HF radio. Roughly every 24h i will try to update out Positionreport on this website. I might not be able to send pictures. In 20Minutes the sun will go down, then we switch radar and lights on since we are crossing the shipping lane which starts in Gibraltar. We have to keep outside the so called traffic seperation zone and therefor we are currently going a little be more south and then in 12hours we will turn a little more south west.

We have to think about Wind, temperature, waves and currents. So we need different information sources. The easiest is the internet where you can find maps like this to the left. There are current maps and predicted ones for up to 72hours and some even up to 90 hours. We also download GRIB data, which is then used to calculate wind strength and direction in 3 hour steps. The Software for this is free at www.grib.usw so you can play around with it. Seastate and winds should be OK and so we might leave if the work on the trampoline is finished today.

Hi, this is the last time for a long time when we leave Lagos, one of our favorite Marinas. we are heading to Portimao to get the spare part which arrived today and to get the new trampoline installed. If thing go according to plan, then we are of to Madeira tomorrow. Weather should be fine with seas not more than 2m and winds around 15-20knots.

Even an unwanted one..... We anchored near lagos for a swim at one of the beaches which you can only reach via boat. When we wanted to get the anchor up i realized that it was stuck completly. Should we call for a scuba diver? NO WAY! So we opened the compartment with the diving gear and i got a 10L tank with a backplate and a wing out. Of course one o-ring failed on one of the regulators but this was fixed quick. Then i only had the turtlefins which are HUGE so i put on one pair of my boat shoes in them. The sailing gloves and a fishing knife and the old topping lift line should do as tools. The idea was to install a trip line on the anchor and pull it out from the other side. Maybe with the Dinghy. But when i decided i felt at home. I had a BIIIIIIGGGG smile doing my first dive after 3years. Visibility was around 6-8m and some small fish were around. The anchor was jammed under a rock plate but i could move it out and it digged into the sand. Back up to the boat, anchor up and off we...

The customs in Lisbon are holding my parcel with the sparepart for more than 24hours and they have released it so it could not go onto todays delivery. Since yesterday we have finally managed to have the cable for the LED Tricolor masthead ligh IN the proper cable canal i had to rewire the light at the lower mastend inside the boat. When i tested all cables in the mast for function later i also tested the steaming light which i have coupled with the lower navigational lights. The twocolor light at the bow of the boat was dead. So this morning i was checking everything starting from the switches etc. Of course i had thought of the bulb also but if you messed around with all the cables you think that it is more likely that you disconnected one of the cables. It really WAS the bulb and around noon all was up an running. In the afernoon i was winched up the mast and so you see the tricolor/anchor light combination. To the right the black thing is the meter for the windspeed and direction a...