Sagres - Barbate

Nick W.

We waited a night anchored off Sagres for the wind to calm down which is did around 5 am CET. We slept in a bit and left at 8 am. We had NW 10 kts and calm seas initially with the wind strengthening to 14 kts by noon. However the wind then dropped to <5 kts until 1600 when we had W 13 kts and we set the spinnaker. A large group of dolphins came to play in our bow wave. By 1800 the wind was 20 kts and we were running with main and jib with 2 reefs. Wind peaked at NW 25 kts around 2000 and we put another reef in the main before sunset. That was the signal for the wind to start to fade! By 0150 we were motoring with the main out, but stowed it later because it was slamming in the swell. We just motored the last 10 hours. Off Cape Trafalgar the tide was against us so we followed Reeds’ advice and followed the coast around the cape 100 m from the shore. No swell so no issue with breakers.