The Dolphin Ordeal (as menitoned in vlog 12):

Ella kindly waking me up to let me know there are dolphins on one of the legs

Each day Ella and I arrived late in the day in an anchorage, we had a fairly standard procedure upon any evening arrival. I would fiddle with the anchor for a while, Ella would sort the washing up from the lunch on the hoof, sail and tiller covers would go on, various cleanups done and then one of us would get cracking with the dinner. I would then connect to the speaker and we would sit 'chillaxin' listening to the fantastic Fellowship of the Ring Audiobook by Andy Serkis. We did this fairly religiously and we were growing to love it. One night after arriving late into Sardineiro the end of the chapter came. Our eyes were beyond drifting, and fairly satisfied by with the progress we had made that day and decided to call it there. We were already in our pyjamas, lee clothes up and teeth brushed so it was a case of lights off, eyes shut. 

A good day come to an end until we were to set off at around 9am the next day

Or so I thought... 

At around 2am I was rudely awoken by Ella shuffling around the saloon. She peered through the port holes on starboard side, then on port side. "Jack, JACK" she said, prodding me hard in the ribs. "I think someone is on deck".

Being her brother and being woken up at said hour. I gave her some foul words explaining to her, as most brothers would, that she is clearly wrong. I then rolled back over trying to get back to sleep only to he a loud BANG, and a huge CRASH, as the boat yawed sharply around 30 degrees to port. 

oh...

At this moment I leapt out my bunk,  popped my head over the spray hood and scanned the deck. No one?

There was nothing? I crept up past the cockpit, past the mast and arrived on the foredeck. BANG! Brimble lurched again. What on earth is going on I thought? I wasn't overly nervous but concern was certainly growing, that was until I saw the culprit. 

I kid you not. The fattest bottlenose dolphin I have seen in my entire life was circling the boat. On each orbit this cheeky bastard was ramming into the anchor chain at full pelt catching it with its fin and spinning around it. Each time the boat was forced to go with it. This douchebag was playing with the Brimble like a beach ball. 

I like to think I'm a good swimmer however I didn't think jumping into the water, to show this miscreant a piece of my mind, would go well. I therefore elected for the more passive approach and told Ella to come have a look. We both had a giggle watching this absolute geezer having the time of his life. 

Ella, satisfied that her life was in no immediate danger, went back to bed. In hindsight i likely should have taken that moment to weigh anchor and find another spot and let the dolphin play with one of the other boats in the bay for a little bit, however instead I sat in the cockpit for a while thinking through the situation. Every time I expected this thick animal to give up, it had another go. It went on for another 2 hours. In the morning, I checked over the anchor chain, the roller, and the cleat and all seemed more than fine. Nothing like a good bit of entertainment.