Windsong

24/07/17
After a few windy wet nights in Cherbourg we set sail for the Island of Alderney in a strong 20 knots on the nose ( again ) , but it was only a 25 mile run and got us a better wind position for the next day , Lydie picked up the mooring first time :) ... and we settled down for the afternoon going ashore that evening purely to give in our customs form .

Windsong at anchor in Alderney .

The night in Fecamp was spent at the Reid Roc Eddies famous restaurant ( it was really hard to say goodbye to them ) , then for us it was off to bed and we headed off that morning , winds were rubbish and we pulled into Le Havre , couple of nights waiting for weather and then we were off to Cherbourg in nice winds that got up just before we got near Cherbourg hitting 34knots ! 21/07/17

Meridian line ... Fecamp sits just East of the Greenwich Meridian line as we headed a bit West we went to the Western side of the line , the next time we get back to the Eastern side will be in the Pacific as we cross the International Dateline on our way down to New Zealand ... scary thought this early in the trip :)

Eddie , Marina and Nina on our last night in Fecamp

We arrived in Brighton after a very busy time late in the evening of the 17 / 07 ... got to the boat and we find a little hand made wooden boat on the hatch ! Lydie's first words were my Brother makes those ... start packing our final bit of gear on board when we get a knock , it's Bruno and Isabelle Lydie's Brother and Wife have flown in from Marseille to say goodbye and wish us fair winds :) Amazed to say the least , after a quick hello and goodbye and a lot of tears we said our godnights and we got some much needed sleep ...

Off early the next day and at 6am we finally slipped our lines in Brighton Marina , setting sail for Fecamp in Normandy to see our good friends Eddie and Marina , it was a lively but fast crossing in 20 knots of wind and we arrived later that day in France ... we were on our way :).

Pic shows us with Bruno and Isabelle the evening before we set sail .

It seems funny being on Windsong in a Spanish speaking country , I suppose we have got so used to French being the spoken tongue when we go sailing , another thing they do is dish out carrier bags by the dozen ! if you buy a bag of crisps they put it in a bag and the £ to Euro thing is a killer , got 300 Euro out the other day and the bank took £295 for it !!

We had our few nights in Ribadeo and enjoyed them but it was time to head further West , we were 90 miles from La Coruna and headed out for Ria Viveiro about 30 miles away , the weather doing its best to play about yet again and we got to Viveiro in sheets of rain , the Ria is a mile wide and you couldn't see either bank ... got in moored up and stayed inside ... off again in the morning the rain was just easing and we had a fine fast sail all the way to La Coruna , we headed into the Real Club Nautico Marina bang in the centre of town and laid up for a few days .

The Torre of Hercules that stands outside the entrance to La Coruna , built originally by the Romans and still in us as a lighthouse today .

After getting around the corner of N/W Brittany and into Brest we were now looking for the elusive 4 day window to get across the Bay of Biscay and down into Galicia / Spain .

The weather since leaving has been awful and it looked like we were in for a long wait , I could not see us getting a window in the next 10 days and the weather in Brest was crap , so sitting it out was not pleasant . After 3 nights in Brest a weather window opened up , not perfect and would be quite a bit of motoring but it looked good to go , we slipped our lines on Sunday the 30th July and headed out into the big blue yonder.

First night slipped by with the Santander ferry wizzing past lit up like a Christmas tree , they were due in that next morning at 10am , we had another 2 nights and days out here ... day 2 went well with some sailing and engine the occasional Dolphin but not many , then as we approached our 2nd nightfall I was on watch and about 400yds in front of us there was a huge Whale ! let a shout out to Lydie who was having a pooh at the time :) I had come off his position by 20 degrees and if I hadn't I think we may of hit him , he gave us a lovely show blowing 4 times before disappearing , we franticly took pictures in the dying sun but captured none :( we got the books out after and he was a Fin Whale approx 20 metres in length ... wonderful sight .... day 3 we spotted another yacht , he was heading North and the only yacht we had seen for 2 days :) we were thinking we might get in that evening , but the winds were light and by dusk we had about 40 miles to go but with the mountain ranges being so high I had at least spotted land , a decision was taken to slow everything down and make land in the morning , made harder by the Spanish Fisherman who only put there Nav lights on at the last minute , this was a pain as you never knew which way they were trawling and you don't want to be the wrong end of a set of nets , we got in that morning at 7 am it was Wednesday and we had left Brest on Sunday , both knackered but glad to be in Manyanna country , we had made landfall in Ribedeo and boy did it feel good :)

Lydie overlooking Windsong in Ribedeo

The close season was spent rigging Windsong for the big adventure , new rigging , suit of sails and lots of other bits .

we then wanted to get some miles under her keel so set off to St Malo to run everything in etc , then we had the Dieppe Dash and a run to Guernsey to pick up a Hydrovane ( self steering thingy ) .

The pictures show Windsong being re launched in Brighton and the Boys on the Dieppe Dash 2017