Nimrod Sets Sail for 2012

 

Welcome Back to everyone after our long silence while we were moored in Lagos Marina for the Winter. We will try and make our blog updates a bit more regularly now that we are on the move again, but as always this will depend on WiFi access and signal strength to post to the website – we will do our best.

Leaving time at Lagos Marina came round all too quickly with everyone working hard in the last 2 or 3 weeks to get all the winter jobs completed, yes we know we had 6 months to do them all but it never quite works like that – there is always something more important to do.

We managed to find time to organise a Marina Leaving Party at Bom Pecado, a local restaurant a few minutes walk from the marina. Jorge and his staff produced a great meal, lots of wine and beer as well as some local entertainment. There was over 40 boaties from the marina and it was a great party, the marina was pretty quiet the next day as everyone tried to recover from the excesses. The pictures below give some idea of the fun we had.

The Lagos Marina Leaving Party at Bom Pecado – A Good Time Was Had By ALL!!!!

Obviously we could not leave Lagos having had only one leaving party, so Helen and Marcel on Dakini decided we should have a “quiet” party the night before we left the marina – not a good idea!!!!  Helen decided we should have an early start and an early finish so we would all be fit and healthy to set sail the next day, surprisingly it did not quite work out like that.  The early start was easy so we all gathered on Dakini at around 3pm, the early finish definitely did not happen, unless the early hours of the next day count as finishing early!!!!

The final day was a panic of very last minute jobs and shopping as well as washing the boat ready to go. We finally escaped our berth at around 2:30pm for the huge trip of 8nm to Portimao and Feragudo for our first night at anchor for 6 months.  We had a really great time in Lagos with a really great bunch of fellow sailors and it was hard saying goodbye to them all, some we have already bumped into again, some we are still sailing with and unfortunately some we will probably not meet again, however that is the cruising lifestyle.

There was a great mixture of nationalities living aboard for the winter with English, Irish, Dutch, Norwegian, Swiss, Swedish, German, Czech and many others all coming together to make the winter fly past. We were also lucky with the weather as we had clear blue skies and warm temperatures for practically the whole time, hardly any rain in 6 months means the local farmers are very concerned, but it was lovely for us. Some photos below to show our very quiet final leaving party!!!

Marcel on Keyboard, James on Clarinet and Hilde on Vocals	The Band Warming Up
Sue and Hilde on Top Form	Goodnights after a Great Party

The Final Leaving Party on Board Dakini

 

Alison and Phil on Bagheera Leaving Lagos	Monsieur Mole With Sun Hat Ready For His Summer Travels
Sue Saying Goodbye to the Cats	Feragudo, First Stop of 2012

After a winter of nearly perfect weather it all changed as we headed East, so far we have had some fairly strong winds and pretty cool temperatures so it has not been an easy start to our summers adventures. From Feragudo we had a good sail to Culatra where we safely negotiated the strong currents in the entrance to Faro Lagoon and anchored off the coastal Island of Culatra, I am sure it is much nicer in good weather, but with strong NW winds the anchorage was a bit uncomfortable and dinghy trips ashore were very wet.  We did manage a walk around the village on the Island and we had the lovely beach all to ourselves.

The weather was not forecast to get much better so we decided to head for the better shelter offered by Tavira.  Another good sail in the offshore NW winds and we were soon safely anchored in the lagoon with the sun making it very pleasant.  Friends on Awake and Dakini were also with us so we had some good company, James and Jana off Scrabbler also drove down and spent a couple of days on board. We had a visit from a couple of very friendly Marine Police who wanted to check our papers and give us some advice, all very nice.

We had an unscheduled early start one morning as our anchor dragged and we bumped gently into the bank on the opposite side of the channel – not sure why because we had been anchored safely for a couple of days by then – the tide does run quite strongly so the regular change of direction must have been enough to unstick our normally reliable anchor. We were quickly re-anchored in time to take James and Jana ashore to catch a flight for James.

From Tavira we headed towards the River Guadiana that forms the border between Portugal and Spain, again with Dakini and Awake, Pippit with Ann and Andy were already in the River. We anchored just below the impressive International Bridge for the night ready to leave in the morning at low tide. The bridge is charted at varying heights depending on which chart or pilot book you consult, with 18.5m, 20.5m and 23m all being quoted – all a bit too close when you have a mast height off 20m. The low tide gave us an extra 2m of clearance and we crept under very carefully, you can never tell from the deck how close the bridge is but Marcel following behind estimated at least 2m of clearance, still pretty close though!!!

We continued all the way up the river with the flood tide and eventually anchored about 7nm past Pomarao, nearly 30nm from the bridge.Just past the anchorage was the first shallow patch with Dakini having less than 200mm of water under her keel at one point so we turned back a bit and anchored in a bit more depth, a line ashore to a suitable tree ensured we stayed in line with the current and avoided swinging around the anchor as the tide turned – a very comfortable night.

Approaching The International Bridge on the Guadiana	Phew!!! That is Very Close!!!
Old Iron Ore Works	Anchored With Lines Ashore in The Upper Reaches of The Guadiana

Next day we decided to make our way up river to Mertola with Dakini’s dinghy and crew.  Many years ago some quite large ships used to navigate the river to Mertola but it is now silted and shallow in a number of places on this last 3nm stretch. The Guadiana Pilot book says it is possible to get to Mertola with 2m draught provided you use the tides correctly, both us and Dakini decided that was not a good idea particularly after the dinghy trip!!!

The tide times for our dinghy trip meant we were heading upstream only just after low water, we thought we should be OK and be able to find plenty of water for a dinghy that only needs about 300mm of water – how wrong we were!!  We had to paddle the dinghy through a couple of places and even had to get out and tow it through the very worst bits, luckily the water was not too cold and we made it to Mertola with nothing worse than wet feet and trousers to show for our troubles.

Mertola is a stunning little town built on a hill with an old castle dominating the town, the view as we rounded the last bend was well worth the effort of getting the dinghy there. The views from the Castle were also pretty special, as was the town itself with numerous little streets winding around the hillside. We found the crew of Awake in a cafe, they had walked from the anchorage to Mertola because they have only a small dinghy and outboard, it had taken them 3hrs to walk although it must be said it took us an hour and half to get the dinghy there!!!  Lunch was enjoyed in the cafe with a huge plate of meat, chips, rice and salad together with wine and beer costing the huge sum of 15Euros per couple.

After a good walk around the town it was time for the return trip, now the tide had risen by nearly 2m so we had no hazards at all to worry about and the trip back took only about 20 mins. The crew of Awake decided to walk back down the other side of the river even though their dinghy would be on the wrong bank, they were hoping we would rescue them.  We checked for any sign of the returning trio and Dodgie the dog but there was no sign as we settled down for food aboard Dakini, 1/2 hr later we just caught sight of Francis on the shore leaping and waving trying to attract our attention, it seems they had been shouting and waving for about 15 minutes before we saw them – Francis was getting ready to strip off and swim across the river to the dinghy but the strong current was enough to discourage him. We ferried them back to Awake and their dinghy and no one even got their feet wet.

Approaching Mertola by Dinghy	Intrepid Crew Ready to Explore Mertola
View Downriver From The Castle	Early Morning in The River, Awake Heading Downstream

Next day dawned clear and calm in our cosy anchorage but we need an early start to go downriver with the tide to Pomarao.  As on the way up we had to contend with numerous fish nets strung across the river, some better marked than others – most stretched about two thirds across the river leaving room to pass, however a few seemed to be set across the full width and we had to drift over them hoping they were deep enough not to snag them.  We managed to miss them all on the way down but we did catch one on the way up, we managed to drift off it after pushing it aside.  I am sure it would be very difficult to miss them with any deeper draught than our 1.5m, I can only guess that they are not laid in the summer as there is no mention of nets in any Pilot Book or website that we looked at.

We anchored just South of Pomaro and took the dinghy ashore for a hike around the Dam behind the village, some scrambling and climbing was needed to get us back onto the road to get back to Pomarao.  It was a very nice expedition apart from Dodgie taking an unexpected leap into a canal carrying water from the dam, he leapt onto the top of the wall and straight into the water, luckily he paddled to the side and was quickly rescued by Erica, Francis and Sue – he didn’t seem at all bothered by the surprise of landing in water that he couldn’t see!!!

Relaxing in Pomarao	Ready to Explore Alcoutim
Alcoutims Main Square	Sanlucar on The Opposite Side of The River

From Pomarao we sailed slowly downriver with the tide to Alcoutim, managed to get alongside the pontoon with Dakini behind us and Awake rafted alongside us – a good enough reason for a bit of a party!!!  Being alongside the pontoon meant we had water and electricity so we could top up the tanks, wash the boat and charge the batteries, all very civilised.

Alcoutim is a pretty little town with a few shops and cafes so it was nice to stop for a couple of days, Sanlucar on the Spanish bank opposite was also quite nice but did not seem as friendly to us.  There were a couple of cafes but no shops in the parts we walked around, the Castle above the town seemed an awful long, steep walk so we didn’t bother.  The crew of Awake did make the hike but said the Castle was closed and lots of construction work going on – apart from the views it wasn’t worth the walk!!!

The weather had been pretty good for most of our time in the River but now the winds picked up a bit and the sun was not so warm when it managed to show itself from behind the clouds. We sailed further downriver to a little Portuguese village called Guerreiros do Rio and anchored in the river, all seemed well while the tide was ebbing and the wind was also blowing downriver. Then the tide changed direction so it was going the opposite way to the wind, the wind strengthened to about 25knts and chaos ensued!!!  Both us and Dakini were sailing around our anchors, back and too across the river with the wind against tide kicking up a pretty nasty chop on the water – altogether pretty horrible.

We often put out a stern anchor as well as our main anchor in strong reversing tides to ensure we stay in the same place – it usually works very well. We decided to re-anchor and put out our stern anchor to calm everything down but the wind and current meant it was impossible to hold Nimrod in place to get out the stern anchor, at one point our bridle on the main anchor chain got caught on the keel of the boat and we couldn’t get our anchor up – it was all pretty fraught, especially with Dakini in pretty close proximity!!!  Eventually we managed to retrieve our anchor and moved further downriver to anchor away from everyone.

We all decided it was not a very nice place to spend the night and as soon as the tide turned again we all sailed 3nm downriver to Foz de Odeleite, we tied alongside the small pontoon while Dakini and Awake anchored, the wind died to nothing and we had a very peaceful night eventually!!!!

Next day we planned to go to Ayamonte at the bottom of the River so we set off with the tide and a fresh wind behind us, we started off with our headsail out but we were going too fast meaning we would be at the bridge too early – we wanted to be there for low water to give us maximum clearance again.  We gradually rolled the sail away to slow down and eventually we were doing 4.5knts with no sail up at all because of the 20 – 25 knt wind behind us.  We anchored just south of Ayamonte with the wind still blowing at 20knts and the tide due to turn against the wind very soon – VHF discussion with Dakini resulted in us deciding that it was not a good place to stay so we upped anchor and set off on the 20nm trip east to El Rompido. Another factor that encouraged us to move was the sight of a Dutch monohull sat at an unhealthy angle on the bank opposite – he must have dragged his anchor and ended up aground, it looked as if he would float off again as the tide returned but it was a reminder of how things can go wrong.

The number of crab pot flags en route was quite incredible, literally hundreds of the damn things to dodge, not sure what they were trying to trap but with that number of pots about there really can’t be anything left to catch. The entrance to El Rompido is a shallow channel between sandbanks, only to be attempted near to high water, it is very well buoyed and we entered safely to finally anchor just past the Marina.  We are staying here a couple of days while some nasty weather passes through and we plan to head for Mazagon as soon as the weather is better.

Hi all Sue here

I really think Chris has said it all but I will just add a few words. Leaving Lagos was quite sad as we have made some really good friends and you don’t know if you will meet up with them again. I know that’s how it goes but I am hopeless at goodbyes.

Before we left Lagos my mum, sister and my mums friend Moira came to stay for a few days and we had a great time. We went to a Karaoke bar one night where we danced and sang until one in the morning. We sampled quite a few jugs of Sangria, the best being in the Marina Bar where we sat and drank three jugs one afternoon!! I blame it on my mum who doesn’t like to walk too far so we keep having to find places to sit down. We had fun and games with the keys to the apartment mum and Moira stayed in, the first day Caroline and me went up to meet them we couldn’t get in the front door to the apartment block and in the end we had to ring Chris to come up to help. When he arrived he gave us one of his looks and said it would help if we tried the right door, which was a bit further up the road!! He didn’t see the funny side at all but we laughed all day!! 

Mum and Moira on Nimrod	Sangria stop at Marina Bar

 

Well Lagos Marina seems miles away now and we are of on our travels again and it’s really nice sailing in company with Dakini and Awake. The trip up the Guadiana was very lovely and very challenging, especially the dinghy trip to Mertola. At one point when Chris, Marcel and Helen were knee deep in water pulling the dinghy, they assured me there was no need for me to get out as well (ring any bells Lesley!!), I happened to see a really nice display of wild flowers on the bank behind them so thought I should point it out to them. They didn’t seem to be impressed, I can’t understand why as they looked really lovely from the dinghy!!

On my birthday we arrived in Ayamonte where once again the wind was a lot stronger than forecast and not good for anchoring and going ashore for a meal as promised. I couldn’t help wondering what I used to do on my birthdays, those stiletto's and glad rags seem along time ago now!! It all turned out ok though as we made it to El Rompedo, anchored safely, had champagne on Dakini with Helen and Marcel and then went out for a meal.

Sadly we will be moving on tomorrow to Magazon without Dakini as their timescale is different to ours but hopefully we will meet up with them again to spend the winter months. So we are going for a farewell meal to their boat tonight and no doubt I will shed a few tears!! I’ll get used to it one day!!

Life in Lagos Marina

Hi all Sue here

Just thought I’d give you a quick update of what life is like in Lagos Marina. It is a very social marina with loads of things going on, in fact you could be out almost every night if you joined in with everything!!

50th Birthday Drinks	Party Goes Downhill !!

Chris celebrated his 50th birthday in December and we had about 20 people on board for a party, it was a great night and there was much singing and dancing, we finally got to bed at 5.30!! The following day we went for a walk on the beach with our friends from Holyhead Alan and Yvonne, who had flown out to join us for the big 50th, to clear our heads a bit. It started to rain so of course we had to head for the nearest shelter which just happened to be a beach bar!! It all went down hill from there and we just made it back to the boat in time for a quick change before heading to a restaurant we had booked for a nice quiet meal!!

Christmas Day at the Beach	Dinghy Launching at Christmas !!!

We organised a BBQ on the beach for Christmas Day. Everyone went down to the beach in there Dinghy's laden with food, drink etc but when we got there a big swell had built up and it proved very entertaining trying to get ashore. There was a lot of soggy people and the paper plates and serviettes didn’t fare very well!! Of course when we got back to the marina the party continued on Nimrod. It was such a great day that we were asked to organise the same for New Years Day but at least this time there was no swell and we all managed to get the dinghy's ashore with no bother. I even kayaked down to the beach with a friend.

New Years Eve – South Bar	New Years Day Barbeque

In January eight of us went out on a fishing trip to learn some new tactics on how to catch fish and what bait etc to use. Seeing as I’ve never been fishing before I was a bit dubious about going but it turned out I really enjoyed it and caught loads of fish. I just need to work up to getting the fish of the hook now, I didn’t like that bit!!  My sons girl friend, Heather, says I’m just a hunter not a gatherer!!  When we got back to the marina the men gutted the fish and we had a big BBQ on Nimrod. One of the couples,Jana and James, did some sushi and smoked fish for a starter it was very impressive.

Sue’s Red Snapper	Sushi From Our Catch

We have been involved with so many things here, Boules matches, racing, weekly walks, Friday night suppers, feeding the rescue cats (that’s me not Chris!), kayaking and the list goes on. Far too much for me to bore you with!!  We went to Loule Carnival last weekend which is meant to be one of the best you can go to. The floats were magnificent but the men were more taken with the dancing girls, especially the one wearing only body paint!!  Next weekend we are of to a sausage festival in Monchique, we’ve heard it’s really beautiful there so are looking forward to that.

Loule Carnival Girls	Loule Carnival Float

There’s only six weeks left on our marina contract so we are going to be really busy now getting the boat ready to go again in between all our social engagements. We have really enjoyed our stay here and have made so many new friends, most of whom are going to be heading in a similar direction to us in April so hopefully we will keep meeting up with them. Our aim is to be around the Greek Islands by mid August but we will keep you in touch with our travels along the way.

Country Walk Ravine Crossing	Top of the Hill at Last !!!

Sunny and Hot in Portugal

We are now down on the Algarve Coast of Portugal enjoying the sunshine and relaxing before tying up in the marina for winter.  We left you all last time waiting in Baiona for the Northerly winds to send us on our way south, we ended up waiting until the 4th Sept before we made our escape.

You can see our gardening attempts in the photo below, after a bit of a shaky start due to some rough crossings earlier in the season, we have now got a really good crop of tomatoes as well as a good selection of herbs all doing really well – we have had lots of comments from other boats, most seem to wonder if we are growing something illegal!!!

Gardening on the High Seas	Finally Leaving Baiona

From Baiona we had a 65nm trip to Leixoes so it was a dawn start, we motorsailed most of the way with the spinnaker because the wind was not quite strong enough to get us to port in daylight – have you noticed how us sailors are never happy with the wind we get, either too much, too little, wrong direction or any other excuse!!  We anchored in the harbour well sheltered from any wind and swell along with a few other boats who had left Baiona the same time as us.

Next day was 35nm to Aveiro with about 15knts of wind from the NW so we sailed all the way in almost perfect conditions until we got close to Aveiro, then the wind and swell decided to pick up and we had over 25knts of wind and 2 – 3m waves.  The entrance to Aveiro is quite exposed and it looked pretty dodgy as we approached, however as we got closer the entrance seemed to be OK with the worst seas about 1/2 mile out so we decided it would be safe to enter, especially since the next port was another 25nm away.  A young Czech couple had made the trip with us and they were very wary about the entrance and had all but decided to carry on, we radioed them to say we would let them know how it was when we got in!!  As it turned out the entrance was fine, we came in with the swell on our port quarter and the seas flattened out nicely as soon as we got near the breakwaters, the port is used by some large cargo boats so there is plenty of depth and no breaking waves. We radioed the Czechs and they also made the entrance with no problems.  The anchorage was pretty crowded with moorings but we managed to find enough space and we stayed the next day to let the winds and swell subside a bit.

Czech Friends on Awake	Dolphins Near Cape St Vincent

Next hop south was another 65nm to Nazare with 8-10knts of wind and 1m swell so we managed to sail about half the day and motorsailed the rest.  We anchored under the cliffs in a bit of rolly anchorage so we were glad to only be staying one night before we set off for Peniche another 25nm down the coast.  Good winds for this leg so we sailed all the way with the spinnaker.  Got to Peniche and aimed to anchor off the beach outside the harbour in a lovely calm spot until a police RIB had other ideas, he told us we could not anchor outside the harbour anywhere and we had to go elsewhere – finally they told us we could anchor inside the harbour!!!  Not the most comfortable of places with fishing boats hurtling in and out completely ignoring the 3knt speed limit kicking up great wakes as they passed.  Once again we were glad to only stay one night.

Off to Cascais next day, 45nm in thick fog, we could not see more than 1/4nm all day so it was a long day monitoring the radar screen.  Fortunately the sea was calm so even the lobster pot buoys showed up on the radar, as well as a lot of very small fishing boats that we passed, why they chose to be out in thick fog in a 14 – 18ft boat we could not imagine!!  The fog cleared as we rounded the headland and headed into the well sheltered anchorage to try and find a spot amongst the 30 or so other boats already anchored.  We rested for a few days before heading off again.

Rounding Cape St Vincent	Marcel and Helen on Dakini

From Cascais we had a 50nm passage to Sines that we sailed nearly all the way with the spinnaker, we had a couple of other boats nearby heading the same way to give us a bit of a challenge on the way, we managed to pass one dutch boat and also managed to stay ahead of a 55ft Oyster all day so we were pretty happy.  Anchored in Sines harbour in a perfect calm setting off the beach with the sun going down astern.

60nm to Baleeira was the next trip to take us around the South Western tip of Europe, Cape St Vincent.  We had very little breeze all day so we had engines on nearly all day and the swell built up to over 2m as we got towards the Cape so it was not very pleasant for the last few hours.  At least we had a visit from a large number of dolphins, over 30 stayed with us for a couple of hours playing around the boat, with one show off leaping out of the water and splashing down ahead of us.  Baleeira harbour was another uncomfortable stop with the swell managing to find it’s way around the headland and the breakwater to make it a bit rolly.

The final hop was 20nm to Alvor Lagoon, this time the wind was right on the nose for the whole trip so the sails stayed stowed and the engines got another run.  Alvor is a shallow lagoon with a well protected entrance but some very strangely placed channel buoys.  The first green buoy is about 200m out of position so you leave this way off to port and then make a couple of slight turns before heading through a very narrow gap between the red buoy and the sandbank.  It is easy when you know where to go but we did not, so we had a few stops and starts as the depth showed only a foot under the boat!!!  All a bit nerve racking, but we had come in on the rising tide and it is all mud and sand so we would have been fine even if we had found the bottom, fortunately we made it safely and anchored next to a Swiss flagged Lagoon catamaran, Dakini.  Marcel and Helen took delivery of her earlier in the year and we had a great couple of days with them, Dakini is also spending the winter in Lagos with us so we see them again over the winter.

Workday in Alvor	Lagoon Anchorage at Alvor

The shallow sands of the lagoon mean it is an ideal place to dry the boat out and check the underside before winter, so we picked our spot and waited for the tide to ebb.  Nimrod was given a good scrubbing to get rid of the weed and slime as well as changing the anodes and checking everything else.

We were also joined in Alvor by Austrians Helmut and Sylvia on a Broadblue 385 and Franz on a Prout Quasar 50.  They had all come from the Greek Islands having spent 3yrs and 5yrs there so we got some useful info about the area that we are planning on heading to next summer.

We are spending another couple of weeks in Alvor before we head into Lagos Marina for the winter, the marina looks really nice, right in the middle of the city with all shops etc right on hand as well as a large number of people living aboard through the winter.  Nick has also moored Imagine there so we will see them a few times over the winter.

Hi all Sue here

Well we have finally found some lovely settled weather in the Algarve, sunshine everyday so far. It was a bit of a slog getting here but well worth it!! We are trying to make sure we go for a long walk on the beach everyday as you can tend to get a bit too chilled out!! The dolphin Chis mentioned showing of was completely mad!! All the others looked so graceful jumping out of the water but this one just launched itself out and usually landed on it’s side with one eye looking up at us, it made us laugh every time it did it. I will never tire of watching them.

We had a small black and white striped snake trying to climb up the steps on the back of the boat, I asked Chris if it was a water snake and he said it is now as he knocked it back into the sea!! I did watch it swimming away for a whlle to make sure it didn’t return.

The Austrian couple we met run a business called ‘Animals Come First’, they transport animals all over the world and they told us some very amusing stories. The smallest animal being Fleas and the largest a Rhino, they include a snowboarding Tortoise for a TV ad and two Hyenas for one of the Harry Potter films.

It’s very pretty and peaceful in this anchorage at Alvor but I am quite looking forward to going into a marina for the winter months and Lagos seems really nice. No more going back and to ashore in the dinghy to collect water, unlimited showers, unlimited electric and a laundrette!! I might not want to leave!! Then again the Greek Islands sound lovely so I’ll probably be ready for a change come April.

We are meeting up with friends from Holyhead this week who are holidaying in the Algarve and then next week we are meeting up with more friends who have a villa in the Algarve then the week after our friends off Imagine are coming out to stay on their boat in Lagos. Then it will be time for us to return home for a fortnight to see family and friends. It’s going to be a busy time but I’m sure very enjoyable!!

Not so Sunny Spain!!!

We left you all last time when we were weather bound in Lastres waiting for the wind to blow from the “normal” direction for this time of year, eventually it decide to blow from the NE and we set off to get around the top corner of Spain and into the Rias.  WiFi is still not brilliant so only a few piccies this time.

From Lastres we made a 45nm hop to Puerto de San Esteban, an old coaling harbour with a shallow entrance bar into a long channel with a sheltered harbour wall to tie alongside.  The wind was very light so although it did blow from the right direction there was not enough to sail so engines on all day with a bit of motorsailing just for a change.  We got to the entrance bar just before high tide so there was plenty of water but a fairly big swell to contend with as we negotiated the tricky entrance into the channel – keep as close to the wall as you dare!!!  Found a space alongside the wall even though a local marinero wanted to put us on a pontoon that was only big enough for a dinghy – some appropriate hand signals convinced him that we would rather tie up to the wall.  At least the sun was shining and we had a very warm evening in the cockpit with a little beer – only one cos it was an early start next day – how unusual!!

Away from Puerto de San Esteban at first light, a quite reasonable 0700hrs over here, to give us a chance to make some decent progress, unfortunately that meant crossing the harbour bar a couple of hours before low water with 2m less water than we came in with.  Fortunately the wind was very light and the waves and swell had eased somewhat but it was still pretty bumpy for the last 1/4 mile of the channel with the depth sounder reading less than 0.5m underneath us in a couple of places – definitely not a harbour entrance to try in any dodgy conditions.

After an hour the wind had settled at 14-16knts from ENE and we scooted along at around 9knts with both headsails poled out, the sea was still a bit confused but it was OK for us going west, I wouldn’t have wanted to go the other way.  We had not really made our minds up where to stop for the night when we left but after deciding the wind was good and Nimrod was flying along happily we would head for Ria Cedeira, 95nm away so it was a long day, we covered the distance in exactly 12hrs from anchor to anchor so that was a very good days sailing!!  Everything was great until we got to Cabo Ortegal and turned SW to Cedeira, the wind picked up rapidly as it accelerated around the headland and we had 30knts gusting to 40 while we frantically rolled up some sail to get the boat speed back into single figures!!!  This lasted for a couple of hours until we got into Ria Cedeira and then someone turned the fan off and it was back to a gentle 10knts as we anchored in the well sheltered, pretty anchorage at Cedeira.  It was also a change to see lots of other anchored boats, with UK, French, German, Dutch and USA ensigns all on display, so far in Spain we seemed to have been almost the only boat out there.  Unfortunately no time for socialising as the wind was forecast to be perfect again the next day.

From Cedeira we headed to the famous headland of Cape Finisterre (the end of the world – Finis Terre – as far as the Romans knew) and into the Ria de Finisterre to anchor just north of the harbour itself.  The wind started quite light and we really needed the spinnaker up to make decent progress, however the forecast was for the wind to pick up through the day so we thought it best to stay with the mainsail and gennaker rather than battle getting the spinnaker down in a rising wind.  The wind never did seem to pick up and eventually we decided the spinnaker had to go up and we gained a bit of speed to 8knts with a good number of other boats all heading the same way.  All was going great until the last 10nm when the wind did pick up with a vengance and we had to get the spinnaker down as it gusted to 30knts with no warning at all, at least the sea state was not too bad and we managed OK with no dramas and headed to the landmark of Cape Finisterre.  It had been another long day with 85nm covered in just over 12hrs.

Just as we were rounding the Cape to head into the Ria we heard a Mayday from a single handed French sailor some 60nm South of us, he was taking on water, he reckoned about 20% full and he was sinking.  Fortunately he was just South of the major shipping lanes and a couple of large cargo boats headed to his position and were with him about an hour or so later.  From what we could hear on the VHF one of the rescue ships had a man overboard as they tried to rescue the Frenchman so further complicating the problems.  The weather and sea state out there meant it was too dangerous to manoeuvre a large ship alongside a very small yacht (27ft), and the Frenchman was very emotional as he did not want to leave his boat - “she is my friend” he said on the VHF.  Eventually the Portuguese rescue helicopter arrived to airlift him off and everybody was finally safe – it was quite harrowing listening to all this going on, not really knowing how bad conditions were out there, and hoping everyone was safe in the end.

Cape Finisterre on a Good Day

Next day we left Finisterre in flat calm conditions to go to Ria De Arosa, only 40nm to do so an easy day for a change – good job really cos the wind never really appeared and we manage only an hours sailing in the whole trip, but it was very sunny and very hot.  We met up with Nick, Lisa, Ella and Alfie on Imagine in a little anchorage on the south side of the Ria and spent the next few days with them visiting various places and slowly moving south to Ria de Pontivedra and finally Ria de Vigo.

We sampled some of the mussels that are farmed in huge quantities on floating platforms in all the western Rias, fresh out of the sea with wine, cream and garlic, absolutely lovely!!!  Villagarcia was one stop that is not easily forgotten, it was their “water fiesta” and it was absolute madness with an open air disco/rave that went on all night and thousands of drunk and drugged teenagers on the streets (we must be getting old!!!)  We soon departed for quieter places.

Fresh Moules Marinere in Ria De Arosa

Imagine headed south and we met up with Mike, Jane, Glyn and Linda from Oswestry, they were holidaying near Pontevedra so we had a great evening with them in Combarro at a Festival of the Sea, trying lots of local seafood specialities.  We met up with Imagine again a few days later to spend a couple more days with them before they went back home to work and school.

As you can guess from the title the weather has not been too brilliant over the last few weeks with a lot of cloudy days mixed in with the sunshine but at least it is always warm enough for shorts and tee-shirts.  When we do have sunshine it lasts for 3 or 4 days before turning cloudy again – seems like summer has not really happened anywhere this year!!!

Rural Spain, Top of Ria De Vigo

We are now in Baiona, at the SW end of Ria de Vigo sitting on board in wet, windy and grey conditions waiting for the weather to improve and for the wind to change from the South to the North so we can start making some progress down the Portuguese coast to the Algarve.  Not too many places to stop on this next stretch of coast so we will have some longish days to cover the distance between decent anchorages.

Hi all Sue here

Well after some very long days sailing and sometimes very bumpy sailing we finally met up with our friends on Imagine. The following few days were very enjoyable with them, lots of eating, drinking and sitting on various beaches. Chris and Nick were like two little boys out collecting mussels in the dinghy. One day they caught a cuttle fish and Nick tried stroking it to show Alfie how it changed colour but when Chris tipped it back into the sea it squirted him with blue ink all over his face, it obviously didn’t like being stroked. I didn’t laugh much!! On one of our grey days I actually managed to watch Lord of the Rings with Lisa, Ella and Alfie, just need to watch part 3 now.

We were all sitting on Imagine one evening in Aldan when lot’s of Dolphins swam in and started circling all around the anchorage rounding fish up. They ended up nearly on the beach when they finally finished, it was amazing to watch them so close up. It seems a very popular place for Dolphins around the Rias and we seem to see them most days.

Everywhere we go around the various Rias there seems to be a Fiesta of some sort on so we have ended up in some very noisy anchorages. They seem to celebrate anything and everything out here from saints to water and always accompanied with very loud music and fireworks that go on all night!!

We are now waiting to head for Lisbon where we are hoping to meet up with some more friends, Alan and Yvonne. Then we will continue on down to the Algarve where we are meeting up with our friends John, Susan and Ian and their kids, It’s a very hard life this boating!!

Au Revoir to France & Hola to Spain

Finally found a better WiFi connection so I have posted the last blog again complete with photos. New blog to follow in the next day or so.

Hello again to everybody, sorry you haven’t heard from us for a while but WiFi access has been very hard to come by on our travels through France and the few times we have managed to find it the connection has not been really good enough for uploading the blog and pictures.  Now got a reasonable quality WiFi signal in Spain so time to tell you all what we have been up to – even so the connection is so slow that I have had to split the post into 4 to send it, hope you can make sense of it!!!!

Port Launay on the River Aulne	Railway Bridge before the Lock

We spent a week up the peace and quite of the River Aulne at Port Launay mixing with some of the local characters who live on board their boats in the Canal.  The weather out at sea was pretty mixed and winds from the wrong direction so we were happy to be safely tied up to the canal bank.  We had a huge hypermarket a mile up the canal at Chateaulin selling some very drinkable Chardonnay at 8 euros for a 3ltr box – Sue was very happy!!!  We did manage to stock the boat up with food as well as drink while we there.  We also met up with a Scottish couple tied a couple of boats up from us and found that they had been stuck in Holyhead in May the very same time we were there – very strange!!

Ships Graveyard at the River Mouth	Calm Anchorage in Ile de Glenans

Finally the weather seemed to be relenting and we decided to head back to the sea to meet Pru and Mike at Camaret.  The picture above shows a collection of French Naval ships tied up and left to rot at the bottom of the river just before it enters the Rade de Brest – quite a sad sight to see over a dozen ships in such a state.

From Camaret we had to make a bit of progress to meet Caroline and Rich in the Gulf of Morbihan in just over a week so we did not really have too much time for sightseeing on this part of the trip.  We had been promised by Jean and John that as soon as we got south of Pointe de Penmarch that the weather would be warmer and it would be like entering another country with blue skies, sunshine and warm winds – we have to report that they were lying!!!  The weather continued to be mainly cloudy with temperatures hardly ever getting over 20 deg C even when the sun did bother to come out – global warming has definitely not happened this year!!!

We stopped at Anse de Loch, just South of the Raz de Sein, Benodet and the Ile de Glenans on our way South.  The Glenans were lovely and we did have a couple of sunny days, we also had a visit from the French Customs while we were anchored there – they were very polite, recorded ship and passport details, and asked a few questions before leaving us.

From there we headed to Sauzon on Belle Ile for just one night and then into the Gulf of Morbihan as the weather had turned crappy again and the Gulf is a good place to hide.  Unfortunately almost all the little bays and sheltered anchorages around the Gulf are now packed full of moorings so finding somewhere to anchor was not as easy as we expected.  Luckily the places we did find were very pleasant and peaceful.  Richard and Caroline joined us for a week and we had a really great time despite the weather being a bit indifferent – but I will let Sue tell you about all that.

Remote Beach in Gulf of Morbihan	Sunny Evening with Rich and Caroline

After saying goodbye to Rich and Caroline it was time to make some more progress south before crossing the bottom corner of Biscay to Spain and onwards West to meet Nick, Lisa, Ella and Alfie on Imagine in the Rias.

The weather was a bit warmer and the sun shone a bit more often but the wind never seemed to get above 10knts so we had a lot of practice at trying to sail well in the light winds.  We found that we could make 4 or 5 knts under sail with 8 – 10 knts of wind on the beam, not too bad really considering we are very heavily loaded with fuel, water, supplies, Sue’s shoes and everything else that goes with living aboard.  The few times the wind got to 12 knts we could manage 6.5 to 7knts that felt like we were flying after so many miles of sedate progress.

We stopped off at Noirmoutier, Les Sable D L’onnes, and La Rochelle as we headed south, the beaches at Les Sable were absolutely packed with people so we were glad to stay on board and watch.

Bonito Caught on our Biscay Crossing	Sunset over Biscay

We had planned to make a couple more hops south from La Rochelle before crossing to Spain but as we headed out from the anchorage the forecast was giving 10 – 15 knt NE winds for the next 24 hrs so we decided to head straight for Santona, near Santander.  The trip was just a shade under 200 miles and started with no wind at all so we motored for nearly 8hrs in blazing sun and flat calm seas, we managed to catch one Bonito that was big enough for dinner and enough for another meal. 

The wind did eventually appear and we had both headsails poled out making nearly 7knts for about 8hrs, I left Sue on watch at 2 in the morning with a nice steady wind, no ships on the radar and nothing untoward expected until she woke me at 03:30 to tell me there was lightning all around the boat and the wind had died to nearly nothing!!!  We furled the sails and then motored through a nasty thunderstorm with lightning all around and torrential rain for nearly an hour – not much fun when you are about 100 miles from anything!!!

The rest of the trip was very frustrating as the wind veered completely around the compass twice in the next 5hrs, no sooner had we got the sails set it was time to change them or furl them or motor or motorsail or put the sails back up again – a real pain in the a***!!!  Finally the wind did settle down and decided it wanted to come from the SW, almost exactly where we wanted to go – what a surprise!!  It did veer a bit towards the W and we managed to motorsail and sail the last 40 miles hard on the wind, even having to reef down for the last hour as the wind built over 20knts.  We were very glad to drop anchor in Santona, but very pleased to have made it across Biscay without any major problems.

Headland off Santona	Fishing Village of Lastres

Surprisingly the weather on this coast of Spain has not been told that it is summer and it is just as mixed up as it was in France.  We had a nearly calm day on Thursday as we headed to Llanes and then had a seriously bumpy day on Friday as we cut short our planned day and headed to the little fishing village of Lastres where we are safely tied to the harbour wall with a couple of French boats rafted outside us.  The French boats had had a really bad day with one boat getting fishing net around his prop twice and having to dive off the boat in pretty horrible seas to cut it free, the other boat had ripped the clew of is headsail, blown out his spinnaker and also smashed his outboard engine off the guardrail as he tried to help remove the net from the other boats props.  They were very glad, particularly the women, to be safely tied to us in a calm harbour!!!

The weather has pinned us down here as we now have SW F5-7 winds forecast for Sat and Sun with a rough sea to go with it – at the moment the forecast looks like NE winds from Tuesday onwards so we hope to be able to make some decent miles towards the NW corner of Spain to meet Imagine and crew.

Hola Amigos Sue here

Despite being disappointed with the French weather we are still enjoying our travels and having lots of experiences!! Meeting the locals in Port Launay was one, we were the only English couple invited on board their boats for a drink!! The scottish people we met thought they were the local druggies, I’m sure they weren’t but they did like a drink or two!!

When we had a visit from the customs I was just finishing giving Chris a haircut and had just set the trimmer to shave to do his neck. I hastily swept up the hair cuttings so they could come into the cockpit. I thought we handled their visit very well and didn’t get flustered. When they left I told Chris I just needed to take a bit more hair off the sides but forgot I had set the trimmer to shave!! Chris was left with a stripe across the side of his head, he wasn’t very happy but did eventually see the funny side (no pun intended!!). It’s growing back now and I’m sure after his next trim you won’t notice it. I was obviously more flustered than I thought!!

We had a great week with Caroline and Rich and as usual got plenty of walks (hikes to Caroline and me!) in. We saw a Jazz Concert advertised on one of these walks and decided that it wouldn’t be too far to walk to that evening. It turned out to be about 3 miles each way and it was a very local event in a field!! Wine was only 1 euro a plastic cup full but you wouldn’t want to drink a lot of it. Highlight of the night was Chris trying out his french and greeting someone Bon Suit a mix of Bon Nuit and Bon Soir!! It wasn’t that funny but we laughed all the way back to the boat, perhaps the wine had something to do with it!!

Richard and Chris thought it was very amusing the way Caroline and I reacted to wasps, flapping around when one came near us. That was until one day whilst drinking bottles of beer on the boat Richard suddenly spat his beer out and started shouting. A wasp had crawled inside his bottle unseen and then stung him on the tongue. We were very sympathetic as you can imagine!! The next day Richard had to join a conference call from work and if his work colleagues could have seen him sitting there with a blue rubber oven glove on swatting wasps as he took it I’m sure they would have been very amused!!

I was dreading crossing Biscay as I had heard so many stories about it. Like Chris said the first half of the crossing were fine. Trust it all to go wrong on my watch!! It was really weird the way the wind just died to nothing and the lightning that had been on the horizon and Chris had told me not to worry about as it was miles away was suddenly all around. I didn’t really want to wake Chris but it did feel like the calm before the storm and I was right. We had only just managed to get the sails down when it hit us. It was very impressive but not when you are sitting on a boat in the middle of it!! When Chris put the laptop in the oven to protect it in case we got hit by lightning I did get a bit worried!! Like I’ve said before its like childbirth and all forgotten now!!

We are still having mixed weather in Spain but hopefully it will sort itself out soon. I thought I’d escaped the Irish Sea conditions but the sea out here can definitely match it. Now looking forward to joining up with our friends on Imagine in the next few days.

Au Revoir to France – Hola to Spain

Hello again to everybody, sorry you haven’t heard from us for a while but WiFi access has been very hard to come by on our travels through France and the few times we have managed to find it the connection has not been really good enough for uploading the blog and pictures.  Now got a reasonable quality WiFi signal in Spain so time to tell you all what we have been up to – even so the connection is so slow that I have had to just post text to be able to send it, hope you can make sense of it!!!!  Will try and post the photos soon!!!

We spent a week up the peace and quite of the River Aulne at Port Launay mixing with some of the local characters who live on board their boats in the Canal.  The weather out at sea was pretty mixed and winds from the wrong direction so we were happy to be safely tied up to the canal bank.  We had a huge hypermarket a mile up the canal at Chateaulin selling some very drinkable Chardonnay at 8 euros for a 3ltr box – Sue was very happy!!!  We did manage to stock the boat up with food as well as drink while we there.  We also met up with a Scottish couple tied a couple of boats up from us and found that they had been stuck in Holyhead in May the very same time we were there – very strange!!

Finally the weather seemed to be relenting and we decided to head back to the sea to meet Pru and Mike at Camaret.  The picture above shows a collection of French Naval ships tied up and left to rot at the bottom of the river just before it enters the Rade de Brest – quite a sad sight to see over a dozen ships in such a state.

From Camaret we had to make a bit of progress to meet Caroline and Rich in the Gulf of Morbihan in just over a week so we did not really have too much time for sightseeing on this part of the trip.  We had been promised by Jean and John that as soon as we got south of Pointe de Penmarch that the weather would be warmer and it would be like entering another country with blue skies, sunshine and warm winds – we have to report that they were lying!!!  The weather continued to be mainly cloudy with temperatures hardly ever getting over 20 deg C even when the sun did bother to come out – global warming has definitely not happened this year!!!

We stopped at Anse de Loch, just South of the Raz de Sein, Benodet and the Ile de Glenans on our way South.  The Glenans were lovely and we did have a couple of sunny days, we also had a visit from the French Customs while we were anchored there – they were very polite, recorded ship and passport details, and asked a few questions before leaving us.

From there we headed to Sauzon on Belle Ile for just one night and then into the Gulf of Morbihan as the weather had turned crappy again and the Gulf is a good place to hide.  Unfortunately almost all the little bays and sheltered anchorages around the Gulf are now packed full of moorings so finding somewhere to anchor was not as easy as we expected.  Luckily the places we did find were very pleasant and peaceful.  Richard and Caroline joined us for a week and we had a really great time despite the weather being a bit indifferent – but I will let Sue tell you about all that.

After saying goodbye to Rich and Caroline it was time to make some more progress south before crossing the bottom corner of Biscay to Spain and onwards West to meet Nick, Lisa, Ella and Alfie on Imagine in the Rias.

The weather was a bit warmer and the sun shone a bit more often but the wind never seemed to get above 10knts so we had a lot of practice at trying to sail well in the light winds.  We found that we could make 4 or 5 knts under sail with 8 – 10 knts of wind on the beam, not too bad really considering we are very heavily loaded with fuel, water, supplies, Sue’s shoes and everything else that goes with living aboard.  The few times the wind got to 12 knts we could manage 6.5 to 7knts that felt like we were flying after so many miles of sedate progress.

We stopped off at Noirmoutier, Les Sable D L’onnes, and La Rochelle as we headed south, the beaches at Les Sable were absolutely packed with people so we were glad to stay on board and watch.

We had planned to make a couple more hops south from La Rochelle before crossing to Spain but as we headed out from the anchorage the forecast was giving 10 – 15 knt NE winds for the next 24 hrs so we decided to head straight for Santona, near Santander.  The trip was just a shade under 200 miles and started with no wind at all so we motored for nearly 8hrs in blazing sun and flat calm seas, we managed to catch one Bonito that was big enough for dinner and enough for another meal. 

The wind did eventually appear and we had both headsails poled out making nearly 7knts for about 8hrs, I left Sue on watch at 2 in the morning with a nice steady wind, no ships on the radar and nothing untoward expected until she woke me at 03:30 to tell me there was lightning all around the boat and the wind had died to nearly nothing!!!  We furled the sails and then motored through a nasty thunderstorm with lightning all around and torrential rain for nearly an hour – not much fun when you are about 100 miles from anything!!!

The rest of the trip was very frustrating as the wind veered completely around the compass twice in the next 5hrs, no sooner had we got the sails set it was time to change them or furl them or motor or motorsail or put the sails back up again – a real pain in the a***!!!  Finally the wind did settle down and decided it wanted to come from the SW, almost exactly where we wanted to go – what a surprise!!  It did veer a bit towards the W and we managed to motorsail and sail the last 40 miles hard on the wind, even having to reef down for the last hour as the wind built over 20knts.  We were very glad to drop anchor in Santona, but very pleased to have made it across Biscay without any major problems.

Surprisingly the weather on this coast of Spain has not been told that it is summer and it is just as mixed up as it was in France.  We had a nearly calm day on Thursday as we headed to Llanes and then had a seriously bumpy day on Friday as we cut short our planned day and headed to the little fishing village of Lastres where we are safely tied to the harbour wall with a couple of French boats rafted outside us.  The French boats had had a really bad day with one boat getting fishing net around his prop twice and having to dive off the boat in pretty horrible seas to cut it free, the other boat had ripped the clew of is headsail, blown out his spinnaker and also smashed his outboard engine off the guardrail as he tried to help remove the net from the other boats props.  They were very glad, particularly the women, to be safely tied to us in a calm harbour!!!

The weather has pinned us down here as we now have SW F5-7 winds forecast for Sat and Sun with a rough sea to go with it – at the moment the forecast looks like NE winds from Tuesday onwards so we hope to be able to make some decent miles towards the NW corner of Spain to meet Imagine and crew.

Hola Amigos Sue here

Despite being disappointed with the French weather we are still enjoying our travels and having lots of experiences!! Meeting the locals in Port Launay was one, we were the only English couple invited on board their boats for a drink!! The scottish people we met thought they were the local druggies, I’m sure they weren’t but they did like a drink or two!!

When we had a visit from the customs I was just finishing giving Chris a haircut and had just set the trimmer to shave to do his neck. I hastily swept up the hair cuttings so they could come into the cockpit. I thought we handled their visit very well and didn’t get flustered. When they left I told Chris I just needed to take a bit more hair off the sides but forgot I had set the trimmer to shave!! Chris was left with a stripe across the side of his head, he wasn’t very happy but did eventually see the funny side (no pun intended!!). It’s growing back now and I’m sure after his next trim you won’t notice it. I was obviously more flustered than I thought!!

We had a great week with Caroline and Rich and as usual got plenty of walks (hikes to Caroline and me!) in. We saw a Jazz Concert advertised on one of these walks and decided that it wouldn’t be too far to walk to that evening. It turned out to be about 3 miles each way and it was a very local event in a field!! Wine was only 1 euro a plastic cup full but you wouldn’t want to drink a lot of it. Highlight of the night was Chris trying out his french and greeting someone Bon Suit a mix of Bon Nuit and Bon Soir!! It wasn’t that funny but we laughed all the way back to the boat, perhaps the wine had something to do with it!!

Richard and Chris thought it was very amusing the way Caroline and I reacted to wasps, flapping around when one came near us. That was until one day whilst drinking bottles of beer on the boat Richard suddenly spat his beer out and started shouting. A wasp had crawled inside his bottle unseen and then stung him on the tongue. We were very sympathetic as you can imagine!! The next day Richard had to join a conference call from work and if his work colleagues could have seen him sitting there with a blue rubber oven glove on swatting wasps as he took it I’m sure they would have been very amused!!

I was dreading crossing Biscay as I had heard so many stories about it. Like Chris said the first half of the crossing were fine. Trust it all to go wrong on my watch!! It was really weird the way the wind just died to nothing and the lightning that had been on the horizon and Chris had told me not to worry about as it was miles away was suddenly all around. I didn’t really want to wake Chris but it did feel like the calm before the storm and I was right. We had only just managed to get the sails down when it hit us. It was very impressive but not when you are sitting on a boat in the middle of it!! When Chris put the laptop in the oven to protect it in case we got hit by lightning I did get a bit worried!! Like I’ve said before its like childbirth and all forgotten now!!

We are still having mixed weather in Spain but hopefully it will sort itself out soon. I thought I’d escaped the Irish Sea conditions but the sea out here can definitely match it. Now looking forward to joining up with our friends on Imagine in the next few days.