We have done it.
We have arrived in a La Coruna N Spain on Sunday 14th June at 5pm after a 107 hour journey where we crossed the notorious and dreaded Bay of Biscay. This is the sea area that every old sailor has a tale to tell; the tale is usually about someone they know who have crossed it.
When we were planning our adventure we obviously had a lot of reading material to get through and there seems to be more on the Bay of Biscay than any other sea areas in the world. The amount of stories we have read and heard about, from other mariners will make any sane person think twice about crossing the notorious bay.
We left Falmouth at 6am on Wednesday 10th June 2009 we headed out the harbour to light winds and quite moderate sea conditions. Throughout the day we did manage to sail some but also we had to motor because the wind was directly on our nose. Around midnight we first saw the Ile D'Ouessant in France and we were able to pick up a further weather forecast for the Bay of Biscay through a text message from a couple of our good buddies. It was about this time that I started feeling quite rough and sick; obviously I don't suffer from sea seasickness so we were both a bit concerned at what was wrong with me. For the next 12 hours if I was not laying down I was being sick. Throughout the night I was trying to take my watch but was sick continuously and Young Debs eventually took pity on me and confined me to my berth. We did consider turning back and heading into Camaret so that I could recover and Young Debs could eventually get some sleep without worrying about me, but as we had a such a good weather window for the Bay of Biscay we both felt that we would struggle through this. It was gone midday that I started to feel a bit better and carry out some of my duties as skipper and let Young Debs get some well deserved sleep. We then both put this near death experience to me suffering from good old seasickness, although I still will not admit to this myself?
The winds were still very light and mostly directly on our nose, the sea state was very high swells so we had no choice but to motor, but under these conditions our progress was very slow. By late afternoon on day two the swell had calmed considerably and now the winds were still very light and the sea state was clam, this was great but we still were having to motor. By day three conditions had not changed but by now we were getting a bit concerned regarding the amount of fuel we had remaining and this meant that we had to sail as long as the boat was moving, this did not always mean that we were travelling in the direction that we wanted to go. The third night seemed longer than most with the sails constantly flapping due to lack of wind, but by the fourth day with only forty miles to go we then knew that we had enough fuel to reach La Coruna and it was full steam ahead.
Throughout the trip with had the company of a number of dolphins on a number of different occasions, this is and will always be a great sight, they sometimes stayed with for ages just following the boat, going under and around the boat. There are a number of different types of dolphins but the smaller ones seem to be the most inquisitive and friendly, there was even one dolphin feeding her young whilst darting from one side of the boat to the other side.
On the third evening we had a large sea bird called a Cormerant that kept following us, he seemed to be checking us out, then after some time of flying around the boat he decided to land on our solar panels where he stayed for some sixteen hours. At first Young Debs was a little bit scared as he was so big and just kept staring at us, then after a while he just had a wash and then slept until morning. On another occasion whilst I was sleeping and Young Debs was on watch, she is pretty sure that she saw a large whale which circled the boat.
Sailing at night can be either spectacular or even quite eerie. You get some nights when its cloudy and a bit foggy it will be completely pitch black, always very quiet and the slightest noise seems to make you jump. Other times with clear skies and maybe a moon there will be thousands of stars and you can see for miles. It's these nights that you can just lay there on the back of the boat for hours on end just looking up in amazement. It was on one of these such nights that I witnessed a shooting star and I cant remember seeing a shooting star for many a year.
We eventually arrived in La Coruna on Sunday 14th June at 5pm. The journey had taken us 107 hours. One of the first things we always do when reaching port is to crack open a cold beer which we did. We then cleaned Ashby Girl carried out some formalities had a well deserved shower and then cracked open a bottle of champagne to celebrate our safe arrival.
We will stay in La Coruna for about 3 nights just to check out some of the sights before moving onto our next port which will probably be Camarinas still in N Spain but supposed to be a very picturesque. We have met a few English Sailors here so our plans can change rapidly.
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Some of the many Dolphins we saw when crossing the Bay
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Well where do we start, we had our leaving party which was a brilliant day, it was so good to see everyone and we would like to thank all our family & friends for coming along. In the day time we had lots going on and one of the highlights of the day was a tender race between Phil in Santa Louise 2, Jon in Double Bruyn 2 and of course me in Ashby Girl 2, of course I won easily and its one of them major events that Phil and Jon seem to have forgot about.
Our neighbour Jon was taking his practical skipper license in the Solent so we decided to take him in Ashby Girl so that Jon could get feel of a proper yacht. We met up with Mike and Carol in the evening where we all had a lovely meal and the following day took Jon over to East Cowes to meet up with his boat and other shipmates. When we saw the yacht that Jon was taking his course in we were shocked to say the least, it was a racing yacht rather than a cruising yacht and I am sure that the wheel was bigger than Jon. After a very hectic week with bad weather conditions Jon completed and passed his yacht masters.
On the 15th May Young Debs retired from her job of employment and on the 22nd May I also retired, although the amount of work I do most people think I retired some 8 years ago. Since retirement we have been busy preparing Ashby Girl for her forthcoming adventures and saying our last goodbyes to our family and friends.
On Sunday 24th May was the end of the Brighton Festival where an annual firework display is held off Brighton Marina wall. We had some friends over and had nibbles and drinks on the back of the boat whilst watching the display. Although the display wasn't as good as previous years we still had a great time. Our friends Rob & Jacqui came down for the event and spent the night on the yacht, this was an experience for them but hopefully a good one.
On Thursday 28th May at 8am we finally released our dock lines and officially started our adventure. Our first port of call was Gosport where we spent 2 nights. On the Friday we spent a lovely day with Young Debs family, her brother David picked us up and firstly took us to see his new house where we had the grand tour, we then went to Emsworth where David & his family are holidaying in their caravan. We spent the remainder of the day at the caravan site where we had fun and games and a bbq.
We left Gosport at 8am on the 30th May for our next port of call which is Falmouth. The first part of the trip was ideal with the wind directly behind us at about force 4, the wind picked up to force 7 but although they were strong winds they were still behind us and this caused us no problems. During the night the wind dropped off until eventually they died completely so we had to motor sail. We had a wonderful sunset, thousands of stars during the night, which is something you never see on land and then a lovely sunrise in the morning. The trip took 33 hours and we arrived in Falmouth Marina at 5pm on Sunday 31st May. We are now in Falmouth waiting for some insurance documents to be forwarded to us and a good weather window to cross the dreaded Bay of Biscay.
Have a look at the photos titled PHOTOS MAY 2009 you could even see yourself. If we can get internet access we will write again at our next port of call that will be La Coruna in Northern Spain and tell all about the Biscay crossing and if it is as fearful as most people say.
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Good times are here, spring has finally arrived, the warmer weather is now upon us and the tent cover is now been removed, however a slight change to out plans due to certain circumstances our departure date is now looking near the end of May.
Ashby Girl was lifted out of the water where we spent a week on the hard; we decided to stay on her whilst she was having her annual make over, life's hard on the hard (I think a song should be made about this). Since her return to the water her performance has greatly increased, we really noticed the difference especially in the marina where the speed limit is five knots.
Once again we planed a nice trip to Guernsey over the Easter holiday. We decided to leave Thursday lunch time so that we could reach the Alderney race on the correct tide some 24 hours later. There were 2 boats leaving together our neighbour Jon and ourselves there were 6 crew on Jons boat and 5 on ours. All week we had been checking the weather and it was touch and go up until the day before when we decided conditions were acceptable. Jon recently had a new engine fitted on his boat and this was signed off on the morning of our departure. We stocked up with food and drink, weather pretty good, bit choppy and we left just after noon. Jon left first we followed close behind, we just get outside the marina and we get a call from Jon saying he is having engine problems, we remained in close proximity to Jon incase we needed to assist him in any way. We then get another radio call from Jon saying he thinks his engine is fine now so the trip is back on. We put up the sails and are happily flying along at 8 knots we look around for Jon and he still appears to be in the same spot. We then get another radio call from Jon saying he has problems with his engine again and is unable to continue with the trip to Guernsey. We then head back to Jon and towed him back into the marina, by the time we are safely in our own berths it was then too late to continue this trip to Guernsey. We were all disappointed but all feel this is the best decision under these circumstances. Because of commitments Jon & friends still had to go to Guernsey so they took the early morning ferry from Weymouth. We then decided along with our other neighbour Phil to take Ashby Girl to France. We left at four in the morning in darkness and thick fog, the fog was to remain with us throughout the trip. Just before the shipping lanes as the light was trying to break through we had four dolphins swimming with us at our bow, great sight to see and it certainly woke us up. We tried to take some photos but we could only achieve some ripples in the sea. The radar we recently had fitted, worked brilliantly when crossing the shipping lanes, at one time there were over ten ships within close range, but due to fog we were unable to see them, but the radar enabled us to monitor their position and heading and keep us at a safe distance. Had a good time in France, plenty to eat and drink and sight seeing. The trip back was mostly under motor sail due to lack of wind, but the sun was shining so no complaints.
We did wake up one morning unable to breathe and speak due to the domestic battery over charging. The battery and the charger had to be replaced at a cost of £500, nothings cheap on a boat, never mind no beer for Debbie for a week.
Our leaving party is only a few days away and we are busy preparing, we will let you know how it goes in our next update and who made a fool of themselves, this will probably be me. See the photos titled April 2009.
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Above is our new sail - its the nice clean one on the left
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The picture above shows the solar panels located on the gantry, also the container for the kedge anchor.
Well the date of 27th April is now approaching fast and we still have a fair bit to do. We started with a to do list of well over 3 pages long and this was just the major items. The list seemed to get longer as time went by, but now the list is moving in the right direction and we have just under 1 page left of things to do.
We initially decided against having Radar fitted but after speaking with other cruisers that have sailed the Med we decided to go ahead and have it fitted. The only thing now is we need to take a course to learn how to use it, which we are currently looking into. We also just had a new foresail made which is a heavy Gib sail, this is for bad weather, and it's a lot smaller then our existing foresail and is a lot less likely to tear under bad conditions. We are still plotting our course; trying to learn how to splice rope properly, have a ton of reading to get though on all different subjects from legal matters, formalities on entering ports to how our latest gadgets work.
Like most people we awoke one morning to about 6 inches of snow, this was brilliant because every thing came to a stand still and we were unable to go to work. We are now near the end of February and can not wait until Spring, we can then remove our tent cover from the back of the boat, and it always feels great to remove the tent as you know that the warmer weather is upon us. We are having a bit of a farewell bash for friends and family, this will be at the end of April at the Yacht Club.
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