We are at anchor along the isle of Culatra since 16h00 today Saturday 11 May after a quick passage (too quick for Marie-Helene who don't like to see Grand Pha surfing at  tops of 15kts on the waves). Last evening we keep only one sail to have a quiet sailing night and this morning the last leg from Cap St Vincent to Faro was very slow and very relax under a warm sun. I swam at anchor in a water at 20°C.
From Bayona to Culatra we sailed 372NM in 54h (average speed of 6.9kts).
The boat has been well tested now. The masts are strong but we have to improve the system to don't wear them with the movements of the wishbones. Before to sail again I'll have to re tension all the lashings of the beams as now the ropes have well worked in bad seas and the ropes need to be retension.
We thought to stay here 2 or 3 weeks before to continue to the Canarias.

Bertrand

Hi Joan and Slieve

It was so a pleasure to meet you again at Lymington.
We are happy after so many years of building to have begun at last our sailing voyage.
We are now anchored in the bay of Bayona and our departure from the pontoon has been a little difficult. On this pontoon there is no fingers, only lines to hold the boat perpendicularly to the pontoon and one of the two lines which held  the starboard hull has been wrap up around the shaft and I had to dive to free the boat. Happily here the water is warmer than in the Solent.

Hi Brian

Thank you to have correct the little mistakes about Grand PHA and us.
Today as yesterday it's raining and we are impatience to be in Culatra to have the pleasure to swim in a warmer water than here with air temperatures above 20°.
This next days an huge high pressure area will cover all the north Atlantic from Caribbean to Canada, UK and West Africa!!

Cheers

Bertrand Fercot wrote:
PS : I was very surprised and pleased to see Grand PHA as the boat of the month.
I saw a few mistakes : my first name is Bertrand, Grand PHA has been launched in the marina of Moulin Blanc in Brest (Brittany west France),
 after a long winter : one month on the mud in l'Aberwrac'h followed by a brief sojourn in the new Roscoff marina and four months in the new marina du Chateau of Brest and 2 weeks in the rade of Brest at anchor waiting for a good weather to sail to the isle of Wight.

Bertrand, thanks for pointing out my mistakes - it was a bit tricky concocting the text without your input, but I could at least have got your first name right. Many apologies. I've done the fixes. Best wishes, great trip so far. Maddy and I remember Bayonna and Culatra well.

Bertrand

Great to hear of your voyage so far.  Having sailed Plymouth to Brittany many times, when we always allowed 24hrs, see you did it in half the time (two hulls twice as good as one)!

Are there details of the new wishbones somewhere?

Mark Thomasson

Hi

The Sunday28th April from Newton river after to have left Stieve and Sally Peake and Edward Hooper who sailed to Yarmouth aboard Amiina we motored at first until the Needles and next motor sailed with all the sails due to SW wind until Swanage where we anchored waiting for  a better weather forecast to sail away south of Portugal.

The Tuesday 30th at 2 a'clock in the night we put off the anchor with the tide and a 10-15kts NW wind.
The Wednesday 1st May at 11h00  in the morning we turned around the outside traffic lane corner (offshore of Ouessant)  (48°57'N 5°54W ) after 185NM.
The wind turned to North increasing enough to increase our spead to 8-9kts and so to  left behind us the changing of winds. Their was a NW swell on which Grand PHA enjoyed to have acceleration until 15kts.
The Friday 3rd May as the weather forecast predicted the wind we'll become very weak in the next hours we decided to have a stop in Bayona. I made the mistake to don't cross the traffic lane in the morning. I only waited to approach the traffic lane corner offshore of Cap Finisterre to cross. To cut the traffic lane at 90° I had to close the wind at 70° and the wind increased with gusts at 30kts, so we hauled dawn all the starboard sail to continue onlly with the full port sail. We sailed between 7 and 9 kts with waves abeam. It was a good test for the mast and the boat who passed very well on the waves (which cleaned very perfectly the decks) and the mast didn't have too much bending ( the only problem was the friction of the wishbones with the mast it's the problem with this rig). After to have crossed the traffic lane the wind decreased until 20kts and the next hours until  to have no wind. We motored one hour until to get an east breeze of 10 kts. After the sunset the wind dropped again and we finished the last 10NM under engines alternating in one hull the diesel engine and in the other hull the electric engine. When approaching Bayona we motored under electric engines only to put the anchor in a wonderful place surrounded by little mounts under a blue sky.
We sailed 653NM in 4 days and 8 hours at an average speed of 6.2kts.

Today to have showers and to get an internet connexion we moved to the Monte Real Club de Yates de Bayona.
According the last weather forecast if no changes we'll continue our voyage to the isle of Culatra near Faro next Thursday.

Bertrand