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Sailing through huge waves along coast of Portugal
October 26, 2020 When we where ready to start sailing from Viana do Castelo there where some really big waves that where about to hit Portugal, and we spent a lot of time researching before we decided that we would give it a go. Here is two pages we found useful: https://www.noonsite.com/report/portugal-general-advice-for-sailing-the-west-coast/ http://www.manorhouses.com/ports/geninfo.htm And from those pages we found this website: https://www.marinha.pt/pt/servicos/informacao-maritima/Paginas/Estado-das-Barras.aspx which shows green, yellow or red on each harbor to give indication if one should try to enter or leave. There is a comment in Portuguese but that could easily be copied and translated. Anyway, when we decided to leave Viana do Castelo the waves where about 4…
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Night sail to Portugal and Viana do Castelo
October 22-25, 2020 After 4 nights in A Coruna we found a weather window to continue and as there was a lot of strong winds coming in later on we decided to skip the rest of the Spanish north-west coast and do an overnight sail to Portugal. Have we not been so late we had loved to explore this coastline but we really longed for getting to warmer latitudes and we didn’t want to get stuck. It wasn’t the most comfortable night sail, it was rainy and not so comfortable waves and we where really happy when the sun started rising and morning came. We arrived to Portugal and the…
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A short visit in A Coruna
October 18-22, 2020 After our Bay of Biscay crossing we arrived to the town A Coruna and as it was sunny and we were surprisingly fresh we decided to talk a walk around town. After three days of sailing and a walk around the town we where really tired and went to bed early. The morning after it was very rainy and we stayed inside the boat for most of the day and fixed a couple of things. One thing was to change oil in the engine again and also empty the water separator from the diesel filters and the tanks. We also met up with another Swedish boat, Taipan,…
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Sailing over Bay of Biscay in October
October 14-18, 2020 Finally the day had arrived and on October 14th we started sailing over the bay of Biscay. Normally all books say that you should sail over Biscay as early as possible, as the further into autumn you go the likelihood of bad weather increases. As we departed late from Sweden (late August) we knew that finding a weather window for Biscay might be hard, but we hoped that we would make it across anyway. Today with the good and detailed weather forecast finding good weather info is easy, but still it might be unreliable. The weather system is complex and no forecast can be fully relied upon.…
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Our last days in France before the Biscay crossing
October 11-13, 2020 We ate a good, steady breakfast before starting our sail from Fecamp to Cherbourgh. We have learned that it is worth a lot to eat breakfast before leaving than leaving and then eat breakfast on the go. It takes time before you can settle to make breakfast and it is really nice to start the day with a proper meal even if it means leaving a bit later. Our sail to Cherbourgh was followed by more seasickness for Petra, and more throwing up. But apart from that it was a pretty okay sail. Still it has been cold and we have a lot of clothes on, which…
