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
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