Crossing Biscay. Day 3 Monday June 10th-> Tuesday.

 During the morning we ran the engine for an hour, in part to top up the batteries and keep them happy, but also to generate some warm water for the crew to take a shower.  The weather was so pleasant that I was able to peg out my washing on the guard rail to dry. 

We also reached the half way point, a full 12 hours earlier than expected.  The forecast suggested that helpful Northerlies would end by Thursday, so better to arrive early than late.

Before lunchtime we were surrounded by dolphins, possibly as many as six.



We also spotted two other sailing boats at different times, Calypso and Dalliance, both within a couple of miles of us.  Each seemed to be tracking our course for several hours and we were surprised not to see them again much later as we homed in on Coruna. 

The rest of Monday was calm and uneventful as the waves eased and the wind veered to NW in the evening.

Anna downloaded another forecast using their Iridium Go, and used a route planning service, intended for ocean crossing trips, to determine that the wind could be expected to veer further to North, and then to NNE, meaning we would be sailing directly downwind. 

As we’d opted not to carry a dedicated light downwind sail, such as a cruising chute, we planned that we would need to change from a starboard tack to sailing goosewing, with main and foresail on opposite sides, to finally a port tack.  

Sure enough, the wind veered and eased during the night and we poled out the genoa at breakfast time, to run ahead of the wind.

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