Towards summer
It seemed that we never would get a decent weather window for crossing the Bay of Biscay. We had waited for more than a week in Darthaven marina for winds to get below 30 kn and from another direction than from SW. Anyway, our MD22 Volvo Penta’s heat exchanger was cleaned together with som more important maintenance that were done. So, not totally a waste of time.
The window arrived and we took off at dawn on 4 August, still SW but only 10 kn hoping for the wind to wear to NW as being promised…Did not happen until 24 hours later when we had reach a position outside Brest in France. The wind speed during the night was approx. 20-25 kn which went on but from now, NW, hurray! Bay of Biscay, here we come.
We had good sailing for 24 hours right on track, towards La Coruna. Then no wind at all and our engine had to kick in. The good thing with the calm weather was our sighting of whales, or rather their breathing air. They were unfortunately to far away for photos. On the other hand dolphins visited us frequently, lovely animals they are. In fact, we did not have any real wind, but a lot of swell, until we found us positioned outside La Coruna at 8.00 pm. We decided to continue further down the Spanish coast to a small fishing village, Camarinas. The village was the destination for some German friends we made in Darthaven with whom we also joined up with in Camarinas. They sailed a HR 38 by the name Triton and started from the UK the day after.
We arrived to Camarinas on 8 August at sunrise and actually had som nice sailing during the night. We stayed for a few days, got diesel and took off for a lovely Bay just outside Vigo where we anchored. For the first time, we noticed the air temperature to be pleasant. The water temperature was however only 12 C which was surprising. The low water temperature is explained by the cold water coming up from the deep sea utside the shelf meaning (in our opinion) that the Spanish and the Portugise west coast is not a place for those who wish to swim in warm, nice water.
We moved on to Leixoes (Porto), Figueira da Foz, Peniche and finally Cascais (Lisboa) where we were met by real summer, 30 C. By the way, on our last leg we spotted shark fins close to Peach which was exiting.
Cascais is a nice place with good food, cozy streets and friendly people. The marina is top of the class although the strong N’ly gusts that blow down from high ground late pm/evening was strenuous, sometimes reaching over 30 kn.
Next, Las Palmas?