Dartmouth to Cascais

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?

Dolphins

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Finally in Brighton

Our journey from Den Helder to Brighton started well. We left early in the morning on 17 July when it was still dark. The weather was fine but no wind why we used the engine. Passing Rotterdam was interesting with all the ships going into the Europort. We needed to find an opportunity to cross the ship lane without to much fuzz and it went well. We moved on during the night and as usual in these parts we had to struggle with the tide. Close to Dunkerque we had som rain and saw a fantastic rainbow. We had planned to enter the Dunkerque Marina but when the weather was still decent we decided to move on and we set course for Calais where we wanted to cross the Dover Straight. We did so without to much crossing traffic. No use going into Dover when we calculated to reach Brighton later that evening. Some may say this was a mistake when the distance to Brighton was 65 nm. Anyway, we went on and for once using the tide to our advantage. We had however not calculated with (nor did the forecast) a major increase in wind. Suddenly we were surfing the waves at more than 10 kn in a wind of around 30 kn.
We could not believe our eyes when we saw that our speed over ground was higher than the speed in the water after the tide had turned and worked against us. That powerfull was the tailwind which at the time reached 36 kn. It seems that we never get away from hard weather. The major low pressure area over central England had moved further south. Anyway, we entered the Brighton Marina in difficult wind an hour before a 4-5 hour storm with lightning and thunder came over us. It felt good to be safely moored.

Beautiful rainbow spotted along the Dutch-Belgian coast
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Rather Tailwind than Headwind

We took off from Cuxhafen in Germany at 06.00 am on 14 July after a good study of the forecast. It said we would get a windward leg at first which would turn to headwind for approx. 5-6 hours with force of 14-16 kn which we considered we could handle. We had calculated the distance to Den Helder in The Netherlands to around 185 nm which would take about 36 hours bearing in mind the coming headwind and considering the tide was against us. Well, the forecast was dead wrong! The headwind increased to 28-30 kn, we had a very strong tide against us and in addition to this it was pitch black. To put it mildly, we worked hard and slept very little. Our speed is not even worth mentioning. When we got fairly close to Den Helder we moved with 1-2 kn and fought the whole night. Moored in the Marina at 7.00 am on 16 July. We were happy to get to Den Helder in one piece.

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Cuxhafen

Currently to much wind, 18 m/s

Our plan was to sail quickly to Brighton in the U.K for a short visit to our daughter before crossing the Bay of Biscay via Falmouth. Unfortunately we are stucked in Cuxhafen awaiting better weather. Saturday later this week seems to be a good day for departure. Meanwhile some details on Peach is taken care of.

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Gotska Sandön

A Paradise Island in the Baltic Sea

When we first heard about the little sandy island in the Baltic Sea, in between the archipelago of Stockholm and the biggest Swedish island Gotland, we were warned not to visit unless the weather was fine. The island is a sand island, it has shallow waters, some strange currents around it and the island provides poor shelter when at anchor. There is no alternative to anchoring since there is no harbor at the island. It might also be a moving sea at night why the boat might roll pretty much.

We found ourselves lucky when finally we got to the island. When we visited the island on the 14 of July in 2010 it was some of these wonderful, but rare days, with lovely Swedish summer weather. The sun shine from a blue sky and no clouds at sight. The temperature in the air did not go below +25 degrees Celsius and the climate was tropically. The modest wind gave us necessary breath of fresh air which we welcomed. We spent most time on deck but we also walked around on the dunes, picked beautiful stones so soft edged after being polished by the sea for hundreds of years.

Our visit to Gotska Sandön is unforgettable. We find it to be a real paradise island and are so happy that we did’nt just pass the island on our way south. Our recommendations is give the island a try. You will not be disappointed!

58⁰ 22´N and 19⁰ 15´E are the coordinates for Gotska Sandön.

Read more:

http://sverigesnationalparker.se/en/choose-park—list/gotska-sandon-national-park/#

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