Bay of Biscay

We enjoyed a sunny week in Jersey, and Andy Willett flew out to see us bringing the spare parts for the mast winches, plus a big folder of information on the ARC+ rally which we’ll be joining in the Canary Islands (thanks Andy and great to see you!)

On Saturday 2nd June we left Jersey early in the morning, planning to get at least as far as Brest on the North West coast of France, which would take around 24 hours. We had a brisk wind behind us (force 4 – 5) all the way to Brest, but the forecast once we rounded the corner of France was for calmer winds (force 3) from a North Easterly direction – perfect for blowing us across the Bay of Biscay.

We decided that with the conditions in our favour, we would carry on, not stop at Brest, and attempt a crossing of the Bay of Biscay to reach northern Spain. This would be the first big test for us as a family – 500 miles non-stop from Jersey to Spain, three nights and four days at sea, with night watches to manage and no land in sight. Crossing the Bay of Biscay can be notoriously difficult and it is best to take advantage of favourable conditions when you have them.

In the end we all coped well with the crossing, and the girls found their “sea legs” quite quickly, happily eating meals, watching the sun set and going to sleep in their cabins. On five occasions we were visited by pods of dolphins who enjoyed swimming alongside the boat and occasionally performing a back flip!

The strong wind at the outset caused a few challenges with the sails. In summary (handing over to Will now for the technical bit) the sheets on the blue water runner (BWR) detached leaving the sail flapping uncontrollably in the wind. In addition the halyard (the rope for raising a sail) proved to be of poor quality and deteriorated to the position where we could not drop the sail. We also had some issues with the furling mechanism for this sail. Luckily the sail itself was fine, and we managed to recover the situation not once, but twice and get the sail safely down. As Oscar Wilde tried to say, to lose the BWR once may be regarded as a misfortune, but to lose it twice looks like carelessness. This meant that the sail was no longer useable for the last day. On the second day of the trip the clew (the lower corner) of the headsail detached itself so that sail could no longer be used either. We did repair it, and the repair held, but the sail just failed again further along the clew. We have now got the BWR back ready for action with a new halyard, improved sheets and a replacement furling line. The headsail unfortunately will require a sailmaker (and a new clew) and we hope to get this sorted in Cascais later this month. At least we have a number of other sails we can use. The hydro generator (which we use to generate electricity from the water while we are sailing) generated so much electricity that it caused a power surge in the boat, which fused some of the lights and burned out our internet connection box. So there are a number of things to be fixed in Spain and Portugal, but that’s the way with boats – there’s always a list of things that need fixing…

We celebrated Lucy’s 12th birthday on the last day of the crossing, Tuesday 6th June, with Lucy joining Will at the end of his night watch to watch the sun rise, followed by a birthday lunch with burgers and chocolate cake. On the afternoon of Lucy’s birthday we finally reached Spain, and are now in a marina in Muxia, a small town on the north west tip of Spain. We went out to a local restaurant that night to celebrate Lucy’s birthday – Lucy is planning to write a separate post with more details about the day.

We’re planning to be here in Muxia for a few days while Storm Oscar passes through (the weather here isn’t as nice as in the UK), before moving further south in the direction of Portugal. You can see our progress on the tracker which is shown on the blog page called How to Follow Us at Sea.