We never left Sines and are here for Christmas 🎄 ❤️.
Overnight one of the mooring lines broke which put a lot more strain on the remaining lines and the stern fairleads. This ripped the stern gunwale off (wood deck surround) 😔. That together with a change in the forecast meant following mother natures suggestion to stay.
I have decided not to fix the gunwale just yet. Its not structural, it needs a carpenter to fix properly and renovating the gunwale is on the project list anyway. It will go on the list for the next haul out. I have had the boat moved to a more sheltered spot in the marina.
So here I am on Christmas eve, in shorts and T shirt sat in the cockpit with a glass of wine in the sunshine. Life is good 🙂. I have a turkey leg 🍗 for dinner tomorrow and plan a lot of video calls to friends and family tomorrow 😊. I want to get moving after boxing day, the forecast is looking good for that. I need to be in Gibraltar in the first week of January to pick up a guest at Gibraltar Airport.. more on that in a future blog 🤫.
We have been in Sines a few days and getting ready to move tomorrow down to the Algarve. Its a bit of a milestone because we change from travelling South to travelling East, hopefully away from the big Atlantic swell from the North West that has plagued us for so long.
Sines is a pretty little town and very sleepy at this time of year, a big contrast to Cascais a few days ago.
There are several boats in this marina missing rudders, plus one with some obvious damage. It serves as a reminder those orcas are out there and we have been lucky so far not to meet them.
I have been suffering the last 24 hours with tummy problems, probably food related. It’s the second time in the last week. Nelly has been fine.
I have been home to the UK for 11 days while Nelly looked after the boat and Dotty. On returning to Portugal, we did a 36 hour sail to Cascais.
Why home? My mum is seriously ill so I returned to spend time with her and other family members. It was a special time with some lovely memories.
After returning to Porto we set sail heading south, back into the big Atlantic swells and passing storms. It was a bit of a marathon and we pushed until we needed to rest our weary bodies. On the morning of the third day we entered Cascais marina where we have spent two nights.
Cascais has been a complete surprise, it has a very upmarket marina complex and the town in all its Christmas’s glory is beautiful. A Sunday evening walk with the dog turned out to be a walk through a Christmas wonderland.
Tomorrow we are off again, just a short hop of about 9 hours to Sines. This is the area where there have been a lot of interactions with Orcas ( killer whales ) so we will stay close to the shore and keep a close watch. We have precautions on board if they try to get too friendly with the rudder.
Before flying home I had been struggling mentally with a lot of issues. It was a mix of personal matters, lack of progress due to weather, my mums illness etc. Things have really turned around for me now and feel much happier, confident and looking forward with renewed energy. Thank you to family and friends (old and new 😉) for helping me to do that.
It’s been a while since I posted, mainly because although we have moved further down the coast to Porto in Portugal, we have spent most of the time sitting at anchor or at marinas waiting for the weather. It has been storm after storm coming in with less than 24 hours between each one.
We left A Coruña after waiting for a weather window and a package sent from the UK and are now in Muros waiting for yet another storm to pass on Monday. The current forecast then gives at least a week of good weather to move South to Portugal.
While in A Coruña we did some boat maintenance. We had a rigger up the mast to replace a broken halyard and replace a nav light bulb. The light is still not working so I will need to get a new light fitting. I also got strengthening strips sewn onto both sides of the main sail where it has been rubbing against the stays, a stitch in time?
Biscay has not been a pleasant sailing experience mainly because of frequent storms and big rolling Atlantic waves mixed with locally generated waves from a different direction. Nelly has suffered from seasickness and I have felt queezy on several occasions; but we did it and things should improve as we head South.
We arrived in Muros today and ate out in a seafood restaurant. Calamari pie was new to me but was delicious. A big storm is passing through in the next 24 hours so we are in the marina for 2 nights, maybe 3. Its less than 1/2 the price of a UK marina.
At either Porto or Lisbon a friend of Nellie’s may be joining the boat for a short stay and I may take advantage of having a dog sitter to fly back to the UK for a week or two. I have had to deal with several emotionally difficult situations recently and want to spend time with people I love.
We reached A Caruna last week and have been carrying out various repairs, sightseeing, resting etc. We need to stay a few more days but the weather is not looking kind to continue around the corner to head south to Portugal and Gibralter.
While sailing here we had a problem with the main sail halyard and had to switch to a spare, the mast top tricolor navigation light stopped working a few weeks ago too so we have paid for somebody to go up the mast to put in a new halyard and to replace the bulb in the light. The light is still not working so I may need to get the mast wiring replaced or checked. In the mean time we will continue with the motoring nav lights on the bow. Lots of other minor jobs have also been done.
Nelly joined me in Santander and we have sailed West along the North Spanish coast to Gijon. We had hoped to get to a Caruna but very rolly seas and little to no wind forced us to come in for fuel. The masthead navigation lights have stopped working and we had hoped to have them fixed but nobody is available to climb the mast. I should be able to do it, I have the equipment but I would rather not.
My windlass finally arrived in Brest, and with advice and reassurance from Darren who repairs boats for a living it was installed and is working great. I have anchored twice with it so far with no issues.
New windlass
I decided against crossing Biscay direct from Brest to A Caruna. The frequent storms and being single handed made me nervous. If there is on thing I have learnt in my travels, that is to trust your gut instinct. Instead I have travelled down the French coast and crossing to Santander where I will pick up my new crewmember Nelly.
The storms still effect me, it’s just that they lose some of their power as they travel East. I have been outrunning one coming in tonight, its forecast near gale just North of Brest, it should be a brief storm for me in the morning.
Crossing Biscay Day 1
I have been sailing for 12 hours now, progress has been slow due to low winds so I have motor sailed a lot. The wind has picked up now but not from the forecast South West, it is Southerly, the direction I need to go so I am having to tack through it. After the storm the winds come from the opposite direction so I should make good progress then.
I have been accompanied by dolphins all day. Mostly common Dolphins but I have seen a few Bottlenose Dolphins too. They have been leaping clear of the water, tail slapping alongside me and bow riding.
Day 2
The brief storm actually lasted 24 hours, first with South Westerly winds then halfway through they Switched to North Westerly. Wind speeds were 15-20 knots so as I had hoped, it blew out most of its fury before it reached me. It was near gale closer to Brest. The wind was no issue, it was the confused seas due to the changing winds. After the first 12 hours, the short choppy waves that picked the boat up and promptly dropped all 8 tons on the other side gave way to big rolling waves that were better but occasionally I could feel the boat sliding down the other side. I am sure Lady Cindy said weeeeee…, I said wow!, Dotty said howl! When the winds changed direction, the whole process restarted with short waves but with the added bonus of the long ones still coming in from the other direction.
Winds have died now and switched direction again to North Easterly. The seas are still a little confused about which way the waves should travel but Lady Cindy is happy cruising under mainsail only at 6-7 knots. I should still arrive in Santander tomorrow (Thursday) but only just.
Day 3 Arrived in Santander
The final days sailing was.. well.. plain. The wind was following me all day at a steady 10-14 knots, perfect. I arrived in Santander after dark so I have anchored for the night and will go to the marina in the morning to pick up a new crewmember Nelly. I may stay a couple of nights to fix a few things. The main one being the masthead lights. But now I sleep 😴
First the parcel, which was sent from the UK, its a replacement windlass and it was held up in customs. I knew I had to pay french vat and duty on arrival but didn’t know how this was supposed to happen. Apparently somebody on the French side should have contacted me to tell me. Nobody did and I had no contacts except the shop I bought it from and a DPD Web page that simply said in transit then to be delivered Friday (last week).
Yesterday the DPD status changed to time expired to pay duty, return to sender. 😳 How are you supposed to pay if they don’t contact you and you cannot contact them?
I would have been here until at least Friday anyway due to storms in Biscay and have arrived here now. Hey ho, go with the flow.
The shop (YouBoat) have been very good, it’s not their fault, they have now sent a replacement which should arrive this coming Friday.. we will see.
What’s Stramash I here you ask (or am I phsycic?). Stramash is a 44ft boat solo sailed by Darren who has similar plans and goals as mine and is going South as I am. We met in a facebook group for sailors looking for crew, more on that later. Realising we are both in Brest we arranged to meet at an anchorage. More on how that turned out later (are you on the edge of your seats yet?). We shouted our hellos across the windy water when he arrived. At least I think it was hello, he is Scottish and although I am a quarter Scot and lived in Aberdeen in my youth, I have trouble with the accent at the best of times. In that situation he could equally have been saying “fuck off you sasanach bastad”
OK the anchor.. here is my Facebook post at the time…
Well that was exciting. Making pizzas and the anchor alarm went off. Looked out and shit!!! I am moving back fast toward my new sailing friend Darren. Engine on, forward gear while i went forward to let out more chain. My windlass is broken (parcel I have been waiting for) so no way I am pulling in the anchor with this wind and current. Luckily it caught again and I am stable but idling the engine to reduce strain on the anchor. Sorry for scaring you Darren, pizzas are ready and we plan to go back to the marina tonight when the current slackers and have pizza and as Darren put it “get shitfaced” that sounds like a bloody good plan to me.
Getting too close to Stramash
And the next day….
Soon after my last post yesterday about all the excitement, it all kicked off again. My anchor slipped again and now I was far to close to Darren and getting closer, I had to move; fortunately the tide had started to ease. After a bit of maneuvering by both boats trying to get anchors in and stay clear of each other, the shore line and other boats, we were away. 3 hours later we were in a packed marina looking for a free slot. I got in between two bigger yachts with the help of other boaters, I have about 2-3 foot gap fore and aft 😳. It’s been a day of uncomfortable closeness. Darren found a spot in the residents area but has moved to the visitor area this morning. We never did get shitfaced, I hope we can remedy that some time. I have saved you some pizza though Darren.
And finally… the great news you have all been waiting for…. come on play along…. drum roll….. I HAVE CREW 😊🤣🤗😘🥰🙂🙃😊 or I will have when I reach Spain. Can you tell I am happy 😊
Her name is Nelly and she has sailing experience. She will join me at a point to be decided on the Spanish coast. More on this another day but it improves my safety with an extra pair of hands and eyes, it reduces my workload and stress in sailing, anchoring and docking, I can sleep more than 20 minutes at a time on long passages and it will be company for dotty who gets lonely occasionally and says I don’t talk enough to her. I may have got me and dotty mixed up there.
Plans for today were to go to an anchorage tonight but you know me and plans, we just don’t seem to get along. Darren came around today and we decided that stopping tonight and going out to get the long neglected shitfaced was a better idea. So we planed one more night. No, we cannot have that.. a plan? It has to change! I went to the marina office to pay for tonight and they kindly offered to bundle all my nights here and give the weekly rate (basically a free night), oh no, sorry Mr Barret with tonight you have only been here 5 nights, you need 7 to get the 7 night weekly rate. 🤔 so if I stay 2 more nights, the second is free? Yes, 🤔 OK, I’ll do that…. wait a minute, that’s a plan!!! It has to change!!. So I am staying 3 nights here (paying for 2) so I am here Friday for the parcel.. unless plans for its delivery change…
Oh yes, I forgot something I know you were all concerned about… Darren got his pizza today.
I have been at Chateaux Marina in Brest the last few days waiting for a new Windlass to arrive. DPD tracking says it should be with me today 🤞
Cleaned side name canvas
In the mean time I have been doing some cleaning and maintenance and had a look around the Town and the Naval History museum
I have had two very sad and personal things to deal with. I will decide either later today, or next week how it effects what I do next. I have a 3 day weather window from this afternoon to cross Biscay, if the parcel arrives I may take it. If not, I may move to an anchorage and spend some time reflecting.
