With no wind, we had to accept that the passage to Viana do Castelo would be made under engine alone. Crossing into Portuguese waters, we changed the Spanish courtesy flag for the Portuguese flag and, perversely, changed the clocks back an hour to Portuguese time. With no (obvious) offshore hazards, we could just run down... Continue Reading →

Sailing along this coast is quite challenging with a capricious wind which can be blowing a gale one minute and dead calm the next. On passage to Bayona we put reefs in, shook reefs out and ended up ghosting along but we were relaxed and pleased to be just sailing on the level for a... Continue Reading →

The hiring of a car could not have been easier and this was the main reason for focussing our crew change at La Coruna. Europcar delivered the car to the Marina and the agent spoke good English, even though he had attended school at Charters in Sunningdale and spent his youth in Virginia Water! The... Continue Reading →

La Coruna seems to be quiet anyway but closed and deserted on a Sunday evening so, in the absence of even a ‘Kebab Van’ alternative, there was no choice but to return to Hejira and plumb the bilge for another couple of cans of Fray Bentos. The meal was very enjoyable which is probably a... Continue Reading →

You may, or may not (more likely) be wondering why there has been no mention of the Watt & Sea hydrogenerator. Well I have been putting this off and it pains me………… Yes Bob and Barry, you were right! The single central bolt with rubber pad is not enough to stop the bracket turning under... Continue Reading →

Another day, another problem solved. Yesterday’s challenges revolved around the ability to obtain a forecast, not only for our days passage but so that I could assess whether we needed to press on beyond La Coruna because of weather conditions at Cape Finistere next week for the following crew. Despite repeated re-boots, calls to Gandalf... Continue Reading →

Ribadeo proved to be a very sociable place. After squaring up for our berth we put a wash on in the laundry room where we met Steve and Fae. We were on our way to our long anticipated ‘dirty pint’, it being our first since leaving France and they joined us for a drink. The... Continue Reading →

As expected we had to motor for the remainder of the crossing in light winds through a lumpy sea left over from the unexpected gale. With the prevalence of AIS (Automatic Identification System) to identify shipping it is easy to be lulled into watch-keeping from the screen but a couple of incidents re-enforced the need... Continue Reading →

The Parasailor had provided us with good speed and distance but as the afternoon gave way to the evening, the wind backed and strengthened to what we now consider to be the limit for carrying the monster sail on a reach of 20kts true. Reverting to reefed white sails, we were able to bear up... Continue Reading →