Howdy y'all,
A vid of our trip across Biscay. Enjoy!
A vid of our trip across Biscay. Enjoy!
Greetings chums!
It's been a busy August for us so far. After exploring La Coruna for a few days, we pushed on down to Camarinhas, a great little fishing village in Galicia.
To sum up how bad the weather's been in 2015, we also had our first BBQ of the year. In August.
We also hooked up with our friends on Irreversible in Camarinhas.
After that, we split off with a couple of other boats to do a short (35nm) day hop down to Corcubion, a tiny Ria that turned out to be a real cracker. We motorsailed through the fog and around the great Cape Finisterre, before trickling into the Ria and watching the fog lift in front of us.
From Corcubion, we day hopped down to Muros, just in time to arrive for Castelo do Rock, a cracking Rock festival that had swelled the town's population with Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin t-shirts. Awesome.
The weather turned a bit ugly on us in Muros, so it was off to Cambarro, up the Ria Pontevedra. After a pretty relaxing motorsail, we worked our way up the Ria and for the first time in a very, very long time, had a warm breeze and hot sunshine greet us. Customs hopped aboard for a few minutes as we motored to the anchorage and wished us well on our trip.
The town was great for exploring and after a night anchored off, we then moved to a great little island just off Cambarro. All the locals headed there in siesta time and we could see why after a short explore. What I found fascinating was that Eucalyptus trees grow all through Galicia, and this island was covered in them. Coupled with the warm weather, it almost felt like being back in Aus.
Bayona seems like a great town (we're here now) and will be our last stop in Spain. This has been my first visit to Spain and it's been fantastic - the food is great, the people are friendly and while the Galician weather is hot / cool & foggy, it's great to be back in shorts and t-shirts all day long.
Next up will be Portugal, another country we've never visited, and another few hundred miles to knock off before we make the jump down to Lanzarote.....
It's been a busy August for us so far. After exploring La Coruna for a few days, we pushed on down to Camarinhas, a great little fishing village in Galicia.
To sum up how bad the weather's been in 2015, we also had our first BBQ of the year. In August.
We also hooked up with our friends on Irreversible in Camarinhas.
After that, we split off with a couple of other boats to do a short (35nm) day hop down to Corcubion, a tiny Ria that turned out to be a real cracker. We motorsailed through the fog and around the great Cape Finisterre, before trickling into the Ria and watching the fog lift in front of us.
From Corcubion, we day hopped down to Muros, just in time to arrive for Castelo do Rock, a cracking Rock festival that had swelled the town's population with Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin t-shirts. Awesome.
The weather turned a bit ugly on us in Muros, so it was off to Cambarro, up the Ria Pontevedra. After a pretty relaxing motorsail, we worked our way up the Ria and for the first time in a very, very long time, had a warm breeze and hot sunshine greet us. Customs hopped aboard for a few minutes as we motored to the anchorage and wished us well on our trip.
The town was great for exploring and after a night anchored off, we then moved to a great little island just off Cambarro. All the locals headed there in siesta time and we could see why after a short explore. What I found fascinating was that Eucalyptus trees grow all through Galicia, and this island was covered in them. Coupled with the warm weather, it almost felt like being back in Aus.
The weather turned on us just before midnight leaving the boat with 50cm beneath the keel, so we did a quick hop back to the anchorage from the night before, then pushed on down to Bayona the following day.
Bayona seems like a great town (we're here now) and will be our last stop in Spain. This has been my first visit to Spain and it's been fantastic - the food is great, the people are friendly and while the Galician weather is hot / cool & foggy, it's great to be back in shorts and t-shirts all day long.
Next up will be Portugal, another country we've never visited, and another few hundred miles to knock off before we make the jump down to Lanzarote.....
TWO new videos, aren't you lucky.
Last few weeks in Falmouth:
Last few weeks in Falmouth:
Crossing the Channel:
So it's been a pretty packed last week (or so....) - we left Falmouth bright and early on a Wednesday morning and after a pretty crappy overnight sail, arrived in Roscanvel (NW France).
Roscanvel was a pretty nice place, although really, really, REALLY quiet. There were some nice sailing ships out & about in the Rade de Brest.
Anyways, our days were spent visiting the local Tabac (the only shop in town really) to stock up on baguettes, cheap wine and nectarines. All for 1/4 the price of the UK. Brill.
A weather window finally came up to get down to La Coruna (albeit with very light winds), so we loaded up the boat again and set sail on the Wednesday.
What a grind. Wednesday was motorsailing, Thursday was more motoring than sailing, and Friday was a tiny bit of sailing, followed by bobbing with almost all sails down while a bit of a blow came through, then getting going again and motorsailing down to La Coruna, arriving this morning (Saturday). A bit of damage on the way - blew the genoa block 10 mins out of Roscanvel (quick replacement) but also snapped the boom goose neck (the piece of metal that connects the boom to the mast). This is a bit more of an issue, so we're going to spend a few days in La Coruna to see if it can be specially welded.
And there you have it. What we've been up to this past week.
Roscanvel was a pretty nice place, although really, really, REALLY quiet. There were some nice sailing ships out & about in the Rade de Brest.
Anyways, our days were spent visiting the local Tabac (the only shop in town really) to stock up on baguettes, cheap wine and nectarines. All for 1/4 the price of the UK. Brill.
A weather window finally came up to get down to La Coruna (albeit with very light winds), so we loaded up the boat again and set sail on the Wednesday.
What a grind. Wednesday was motorsailing, Thursday was more motoring than sailing, and Friday was a tiny bit of sailing, followed by bobbing with almost all sails down while a bit of a blow came through, then getting going again and motorsailing down to La Coruna, arriving this morning (Saturday). A bit of damage on the way - blew the genoa block 10 mins out of Roscanvel (quick replacement) but also snapped the boom goose neck (the piece of metal that connects the boom to the mast). This is a bit more of an issue, so we're going to spend a few days in La Coruna to see if it can be specially welded.
And there you have it. What we've been up to this past week.
