Day 1 – Lots of discomfort

We left Douro River at 7am Friday morning – skies were clear, the northerlies had arrived, and the harbor entrance was open!
From the start of our day, things were uncomfortable – big waves, lots of wind (saw 40 knots twice), and putting in the time to get over the initial sea “blahs” does not make for the most pleasant of conditions.
Within the first few hours, our awesome NKE anemometer somehow blew off the top of the mast – gone.  The cable is up the mast still, but the instrument vanished – so after that point, we could only surmise about wind speeds.  At least it was sunny…we did a lot of handsteering, wiped out once (a proper round up that sent a thermos and insulated water bottle into the Atlantic to join the anemometer), ran into the back of a big wave that pushed a wall of water the height of the dodger over the boat, and had a few twisty spins down the waves – Shearwater really does well, all things considered.  The winds and waves continued through the night, and we opted to take down our reefed main which we had been using alone – not the most fun job in the world in super rolly conditions, but we managed – with just a handkerchief of headsail rolled out on the furler, the autopilot took over steering, and we did fine, running at 7+ knots, plus 0.5 knot of favorable current.

We pulled an all nighter last night without watch changes, other than to allow each of us to doze in the cockpit sitting upright.  Dinner was a roll and some lukewarm tea, thanks to another thermos – not that we felt like eating much in the conditions, or drinking much since pulling off the gear down below to use the head brought on bouts of nausea.

No issues with ships or fishing vessels, although we saw plenty of buoys to dodge.

Today, we have gorgeous conditions – bright sunshine and probably 12-15 knots.  We’re sailing a little high of our next waypoint which is ~50 miles away (the corner of Portugal before we sail the “hypotenuse” to the straits).  While Justin was sleeping below to make up for last night, we had an avian visitor who sat on the winch next to me, and then moved to the boom vang.  I don’t know European or African birds at all, but I was able to get some pictures.  “Hoopoe” comes to mind, but I’m not sure if I am correct – it was a beautiful golden brown on top with black stripes.  There was a very pronounced headcrest with black striping, and the bill suggested a bee-eater or nectar-eater, as it was about 3-inches long and slightly down-sloped.  It was likely on its way to Europe from Africa, and pretty exhausted flying against the northerly.  Hopefully it makes its destination after its detour to rest at our rest stop.

Our position is 37 45.3N 09 18 .8W
245 nm to go