Time zone UTC + 0.00
Local hour + 1.00
04.00 - Departure from Vilamoura
Coordinates 37.º02’413N 008.º06’673W
Heading: 150 degrees
Wind speed: Force 3
Wind direction: South
Cloud coverage: Clear
Visibility: Good
Sea state: Calm
09.00 - Engine problems, RPMs dropping
Coordinates 36.º52’494N 007.º33’647W
Heading: 106 degrees
Wind speed: Force 4
Wind direction: North East
Cloud coverage: Clear
Visibility: Good
Sea state: Small wavelets
18.00 - Approaching Cadiz
Coordinates 36.º41’660N 006.º40’000W
Heading: 088 degrees
Wind speed: Force 4
Wind direction: South East
Cloud coverage: Clear
Visibility: Good
Sea state: Swell
Quite an uncomfortable swell, lots of fishing boats
19.30 - Rounding Cadiz Bay entrance buoys
Coordinates 36.º36’555N 006.º24’696W
Heading: 147 degrees
Wind speed: Force 6
Wind direction: South East
Cloud coverage: Clear
Visibility: Good
Sea state: Swell
22.00 Arrival to Puerto Sherry
It’s blowing a gale, mariners nowhere to be seen despite having talked to them over the VHF, tied to the fuel pontoon to wait for them to come and show us our berth and the guy comes and just unties us from the dock. It’s blowing a gale.
Ana looped the line quickly again while John used the bow thruster to avoid us drifting towards the docked boats. Ana got smashed pretty hard on the lifelines cable trying to hold The Dream from drifting away from the dock.
Marinero eventually explained where the spot was but when we got there it was for a boat less than 12m and we are 15m. There are no lights and there are underwater rocks next to the pontoon, we almost crashed into them, it’s just impossible to see.
Since it was impossible to turn around and level blowing this gale and in pitch black, we tied The Dream across to berths, diagonally with the help of some liveaboards that kept asking us in Spanish and French what are we thinking on trying to dock such big boat there.
Total hours of the trip: 18h
Total hours motor-sailing: 11h
Total hours motoring: 7h
***In the spirit of sharing our dreams and experiences we have shared this blog post in the NOFOREIGNLAND.COM website sailors community.