There's a possibility of a weather window on Monday which may allow us to get 60 miles further south to Porto but this doesn't in fact materialise. As such, I have to leave the yacht and return to the UK to sort things out for Christmas and the job next week (which will see me in the Caribbean till next year :-)

A bit gutted really but that's life. The other delivery job was booked long before this one came up (got the call for this one during the week after I got back from Tenerife) and also this one (as a result of the weather) is looking like it's going to take twice as long as initally expected.

A pleasant journey back: 1 hour bus to Vigo, then two hour wait for the bus to the airport. A pleasant two hour ride to Porto International airport and then Ryanair want 245 euro's extra off me to make the 2115 flight (I'm booked on the 0920 the next day); as such, 12 hours spent on the airport floor followed by a 1.5 hour delay on the flight taking off; missing the bus from Stansted as there were problems with ground crew and our baggage, and then a crash on the M11 on the way back: all told a 28 hous trip back from Spain - got to Sydney quicker last year I know, I can just feel your hearts bleeding for me :-)

The forecasts are such that we have no hope of making it around Finisterre for at least three or so days.

Fortunately, we manage to get out on Friday (20th) and have a weather window of some 36 hours (in which to cover just over 140 miles to Bayona).

Slow going and afer 24 hours we've only gone halfway! Luckily, the wind backed to the WSW allowing us to have a fast motor-sail to Bayona and we manage to get in, refuelled and moored up by 1600 hours (guess I won the bet then Matt :-) LOL!!

The forecasts for the next few days are not looking good and I as I have another delivery (booked prior to this job) at the beginning of November I am having serious doubts about whether or not I will be able to finish this trip!

The forecast looks relatively good for Biscay so we head off after refuelling and see quite a few dolphins in the first hours after leaving.

Two days to cross and, fortunately, we get into La Coruna as the weather starts to deteriorate: we'd heard a couple of hours prior to arrival that a force 9 is imminent and managed to get into the lee of the mountains of Northern Spain as the wind increased fairly dramatically.

Hopefuly we'll only be here a day or so and then we can be on our way.

Joined Dorabella in the Hamble today. There's Matt (skipper), Terry and myself taking the yacht down to Portimao on the Algarve. Guesstimated time is around 9 - 10 days for this trip.

We leave Wednesday afternoon and head across the channel for Cameret, near Brest. The crossing takes 2 days and we arrive 30 minutes after the fuel dock has closed - guess it's a night ashore then