Wind started to die slowly yesterday evening, we still had good daily average of 7,1 knots.
At around 22.30 we sailed over the shallow, where minimum charted depth is 28m. Tomaz and myself had a good fright when the depth sounder (globinomer) showed 44m and quickly ascend to 2,3m. This was a bit before the shallow, and we still don't know what that was. The shallowest place we sailed over afterwards was 67m. Funny how shallow it can get in the middle of the ocean.
The night was good, with less wind the waves got smaller also. Morning was bright and sunny and it's getting a bit warmer. Finally.
At around 10 we rolled in the genoa and pulled up the genacker in hope to gain some speed in gentle wind - during the day it was about 10 knots true wind from 120° - 140°. Our speed was also not very high, around 5 - 6 knots, and our average over these last 5 days fell from 7,1 to 6,9 knots.
In the late morning we saw three whales, quite close to the boat. I tried to take some photos, but it's hard to catch a moving target. It might have been Blue whales or Fin whales, judging from their sprays.
We made good use of calm and sunny day and grilled steaks, we had eggplant risotto and salad with them. Today would be a good day for icecreame, but we don't have any any more.
Maybe we'll get some tomorrow, there is a good chance we will stop in Barbate, a place with the marina in Atlantic Spain, for the night. It is 30 miles west from Gibraltar and as the wind and our speed is at the moment, we will not be able to get into Gibraltar before tomorrow night and we can't slow down so much that we would sail in on Tuesday morning. So to avoid trying to find anchorage or marina in the middle of the night we might spend the night in Barbate and sail to Gibraltar on Tuesday.
In 116 hours we made 827 miles, there are still 173 miles to Gibraltar. Our position is 36° 25' N and 08° 49' W.
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