2025-10-04
Farol
anchor
via 70% offshore
to
Cadiz
Rota
anchor
| Vessel | A Perfect World | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mission | Special Event | |||
| Distance (travelled) | 109 | NM | 2.7 | knots |
| Duration | 41 | hours | ||
| max speed | 10.6 | knots | ||
| Conditions | between calm and moderate breeze | |||
| Skipper | Boran | Crew | (solo) | |
Boran's Notes
Three components of my motivation for sailing to Cadiz at this time:
- On the 14th I need to be in Cadiz in order to meet Sarah
- Simon is sailing Fyling Pig from Portimao to Tangier
- My planned Sea Mammal watches shall operate around N 036° / W 006°
The weather forecast is good, with Northerly winds in the beginning and Easterly in the end.
After 2 months of easiest anchoring in Ria Formosa, I need to sort the boat a bit for sailing. And for the formal part, I need to finish marking the new name A PERFECT WORLD on the beam. Hulls are already marked.
Just when Flying Pig approaches Culatra, I finished the rear part, name and offical sign on my boat. The port of registry (San Marino) need to wait to be marked - I want to leave now and join Simon.
I can see Flying Pig on AIS, but Simon can’t see A Perfect World. Perhaps something wrong with my NAIS-500 box.
Light, following winds in the beginning. A bit faster sailing than Flying Pig, between 3 and 5 knots. I experiment with a reef the the aft (“main”) sail for better balance of forces. Autopilot can cope well.
In the evening I hear unusual radio traffic. A radio operator begs (other ships?) for something that I did not understand. He repeats “por favor, capitano” and “please, captain” many times, and mostly in Spanish. Also I hear “grey light” or “green light”. Perhaps the radio operator was talking to nearby ships. His radio equipment must be very good, because I could hear him while still out of sight. Nobody seems to reply to him. He did not send Mayday, Pan-Pan or Securite messages.
Again I missed the opportunities for napping while I can, during the first day and evening. Went to bed at 01:00. Autopilot wakes me at 02:00 because it fails to cope with the increased wind speed. Hand steering for an hour or so. While the sailing is really nice, between 6 and 10 knots, I am getting tired. Heaving to and napping between 03:00 and 06:00, while Flying Pig passes.
Very nice Sunday morning. No land in sight: the way it should be.
VHF conversation with Simon, probably 10 NM away (no AIS contact either way). At this point, my plan is still to head for 36/6 and watch Sea Mammals there, later sail North to Cadiz. Reasonable speed in the beginning. Simon also heard the begging radio traffic but could not make sense of it either.
Later this afternoon, at around N36.3°/W7°, speed dropped to almost zero. At this rate I would not reach the operation area on the same day, and for tomorrow there is strong Easterly wind in the forecast. So I ecide to sail straight to Cadiz, still 35 NM away. No radio contact with Simon.
I found one reason why the autopilot failed last night: the belt became too loose and jumped on the cogs. I improvised a solution to increase the tension (see photo album). Now the autopilot is good again at least for light wind (little rudder force). It can only be a matter of time until the old belt will break, and the improvised solution is not acceptable for routine use. Need to fix that before the next serious voyage. Using the autopilot makes all the difference in comfort, regeneration and productivity.
Also installed a reef line on the aft sail for quick, safe and easy reefing and performed other small maintenance tasks.
I saw a group of large, black “fish”, swimming calmy in circles and constantly diving and surfacing. I did not have a hand free for a photo (busy with reef line) and they did not care for my boat. Their body language looked like dolphins, but their size was larger. I could not see white spots. My best guess is that they were Orcas, taking breath and preparing for hunting. While my boat slowly cruised away, their location seemed to remain stationary.
Wind speed fluctuated a bit, boat speed between 1 and 3 knots. I figured that I would arrive at Cadiz during night time. Since I plan to anchor, as always, I prefer to arrive at daylight. So I stop the boat at night and used the time for napping. No other traffic nearby. Two cargo boat anchoring 2 NM away. Fishing vessel even farther. Water too deep for me to anchor, so I let the boat drift (towards Cadiz) and set a virtual “anchor alert” to 1 NM, which worked well.
Monday
Around 03:00 I notice that wind direction has changed, coming from NE now. Boat drifting away from Cadiz. Therefore I continue sailing towards Cadiz. Wind speed increases and I actively slow down, so that we don’t arrive in darkness.
Final part I actually need to tack because wind is exactly opposite to my planned course. First tack near Rota in darkness. Trying to approach Port Sherry for anchorage nearby.
Wind and waves develop to force 6 or 7. I already dropped the mid sail for safer and easier handling. VMG is poor in this performance. No way to reach Port Sherry this way. Don’t want to set the mid sail either. So I aim at the anchorage near Rota and use the engines for help against the wind.
Anchor maneuver is easy in the little bay which protects against NE wind and waves.
Later the wind direction changed to SE, which makes my anchorage quite exposed. Many kite surfers during the day. Intense but smooth wave action. Anchor is holding well and I mostly nap all day.
At night working on the failed small computers (Raspberry Pi) for diagnosis and repair.
Wind slows down in second half of the night.
Tuesday
Beautiful morning on a calm sea on anchor.