Observations on the Biscay Crossing

In some respects the voyage from Plymouth to La Coruña was a bit of a disappointment. We were all geared up for Biscay to live up to its fearsome reputation but nothing of the sort happened and we were dogged by calms. One day was seriously sunny and warm to be followed by a windless night with increasing cloud and I found this entry from Matthew in the log book:

1100 45 06'N 7 28'W Going Mad. Writing limericks

and on the facing page:

The fabled storms of the Bay of Biscay
Are but tales of madmen driven that way
By winds of ten knots
And an incessant chop:
Flogging sails and too many whales affect
what sailors say
© Matthew Kynaston, 08/2011

Thirty six hours with the engine more or less on continually is not what we expected at all. Conversations I have had with others who have done the crossing recently suggest that we were lucky (or unlucky if you want). One Swedish guy had SW force 7 for a day which must have been no joke at all.

We weren't without our dramas which got missed out with the previous posting about the crossing though. Crossing the shipping lanes south of Ouessant was a serious headache. With hindsight, it was probably a bit of a mistake to go to the north of the TSS and then cross over inside them to the south. By then the shipping was quite spread out and we took quite a long time to get to the east of the ships as advised by the routing guide in the almanac. It would have been better to stay due south across the Channel till we were inside of them and then used the local traffic zone on the TSS. This would also have given us a sight of the island of Ouessant (Ushant for generations of British sailors). Still we did and took the best part of a day to skate round the outer edge of the purple lines on the chart.

We had one near incident which, thankfully was only a bit of a drama. I was on watch and heading west to get clear of the shipping lines after we had been scared off trying to get through at night when there was a thump and sliding noise from the coach roof and the life-raft ended up in the scuppers and almost over the side. I hastily woke Matthew and went forward to rescue it. For the rest of the trip it stayed in the after end of the cockpit. It is back in it's proper placed now and has an additional loop of webbing to prevent it from sliding sideways.

The other highlight was a hitch-hiker we acquired a couple of hundred miles short of Spain. A very exhausted little reddish bird suddenly flew in and down below. He then stayed with us intermittently till we were closing the Spanish coast. I am not sure what he was but he liked being with us though he scorned any bread or water we were able to offer. He would periodically fly off but would then reappear and rested in the shade of the anchor on the foredeck. He really got happen when a load of flies found us not that far from the Spanish coast where Matthew described him as happily hopping round the cockpit catching as many as he could. Sadly, he flew off in the wrong direction though we hope he either found another boat to rest on or did make it to Cabo Ortegal which was the stretch of coast we were heading for.

I am looking forward to trying sailing down the Portuguese coast where there are reputed to be the “Portuguese trades” which blow consistently from the north if not consistently in strength. I think that we will then be able to make a judgement about whether ocean cruising is to be the thing for us.