Onwards from Gijon

We left Gijon on on Wednesday 21st June heading for La Coruna. The sea was flat and there was not a breath of wind. Ideally we would have liked some wind to sail with but the forecast for the next few days was equally windless and we were anxious to get moving.

We set off in glorious weather and liberal amounts of sun cream were applied.We passed some pole and line tuna boats.

We spotted dolphins a short way off but otherwise the trip was uneventful until the last half hour of my 9pm to midnight watch when I had to call on Scruffbag for assistance as there were several ships and fishing vessels that needed monitoring. I stayed on deck for more than an hour of his watch too, with one of us on AIS and one visually monitoring from deck. We had to postpone our course change in order to avoid turning in front of ships and wait until they had passed us.

All then went smoothly still under engine, although we sailed for an hour or so in the early hours. Then, at around 8am. Scruffbag called me up as a fog thicker than a UKIP councillor had descended. The fog horn was blown by each of us every 30 seconds and the AIS and visual monitoring was constant as all the local fishing boats ran down our side to La Coruna to also escape the fog. By the time we arrived at 10am the fog had all but lifted and we were pleased to see our friends Walter and Monica , who we had met in Cherbourg, as they waited on the pontoon to take our lines.Walter took 8 years building this steel boat and had been monitoring our journey on AIS.

Of dolphins and light winds

Well - now I can finally say I have crossed the Bay of Biscay on a boat Some sailing was done but with very light winds, a lot of the journey was completed under engine, We started off on a Monday with a huge swell beneath us and began to motor out past the rocky headland where we planned to turn and put the sails up. One minute we were pootling along at 5 knots and I was just beginning to think I could cope with the swell when both scruffbag and myself noticed that our speed had dropped to 2.5 knots. Looking over the  stern, we realised that a buoy and a huge trail of weed growing on a rope had attached itself to the rudder. Gingerly we turned the boat around - no chance of removing it in those seas. The helm was very heavy and the wind and tide could have pushed us onto the rocks had the engine failed. Scruffbag thought quickly and had the anchor ready over the bow. Luckily it was not needed and we limped into Camaret again, where we managed to remove the offending mass.

Enough drama for one day - so we rested up and left again on the Tuesday. The swell had now gone but, unfortunately so had the wind. We had 9 hours of good sailing followed by an hour or two then engine, an hour then engine then lots of hours of engine then sailing for an hour............. Still the dolphins were with us all the way, bringing smiles to our faces even at night.

We finally made it to Spain, arriving in Gijon  on Thursday afternoon.

The next day we discovered there was a cruising club rally organised by Javier the local rep. He was lovely and only 2 boats had turned up before we arrived so we duly joined them on Friday for a late night with wine  and a trip out  on Saturday. We enjoyed the sights and the opportunity to sample excellent tapas but it did confirm that organised fun is not our thing so we cried off the next day's outing and prepared to leave, as planned for A Coruna

Viva Espana

It's been a while since the last post. A lot of water under the boat. The echo sounder failed again and we had to return from Guernsey to Cherbourg, get the boat lifted out and get the echo sounder moved to a new spot on the hull!!


Enough of that - we have now been in Camaret for 2 weeks after a 29 hour sail direct from Alderney. We had planned to visit some of the Brittany rivers but now we want to get moving, We have had a great time here but the last week has been a wait for the storms and strong winds to abate.

There are worse places to wait



 


We have met lots of people, most notably Walter and Monica and their dog Chipsie - they will be going to La Coruna the same day as us.



Also Adrian and Jane from Brightlingsea, with whom Scruffbag has many friends in common  including our good friend Brian Turner who joined us on the first leg of this journey way back in the distant past.

Now the future beckons and the winds are favourable so we will brave the 3 metre swell that is forecast and set of across the Bay of Biscay. It will be my longest ever sail so I approach it with a mixture of excitement and trepidation.

I will let you know how it goes.