37:40.21N 13:17.04W

Orcas everywhere is the subject for todays blog

The hot topic, yesterday all was well and the closest attack was way east near Barbate and when I logged onto the Portuguese sight which logs all the attacks lo and behold there were 5 orca attacks between Cabo Sao Vincente and Lagos so right bang smack in the middle of our path.

Very bad news and quite a concern we then received acknowledgement from Rally Control that three of these boats were part of the Arc Portugal fleet and one was part of the Arc plus fleet and they would keep us posted.

After much head scratching I have come up with a plan which is to head for close to the cape and then cut into shallower waters as soon as possible which is not immediate. The standard advice is to keep inside the 20 metre contour line so this we will try and do, not easy however along this coastline as it’s very ragged and a number of navigational issues such as fish farms and fishermen’s nets and buoys but we need to give it a go.

At the moment we are about 190 miles off the northern end of the traffic separation zone for commercial traffic which we may well need to traverse in darkness oh joy! And we should arrive at our waypoint at about 5am ready to start the 35 mile orca run into Lagos.

We still have no wind and  fuel is running short but the forecast promises wind bt early tomorrow so we should then be able to switch off the motor and sail the last 1oo or so miles until we need to motor through the shallow approach waters.

Lots to look forward to and everything crossed