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.