Bayona - Ria de Vigo North West Spain Well after getting into Bayona and seeing our old British chum in safe and sound we entered the Monte Real Yacht Club Marina which has to be in one of the most picturesque settings in this part of the world. The Marina is beneath the very impressive Monte Real Yacht Club Building which is perched up nice and high, built of sandstone and smacks of gin and tonics and big fat Cuban cigars and very pukka Spanish yachties and power boaties. All of this sits below the ramparts of centuries old Castle ramparts [View Full Entry]

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Hola Portugal and Pavoa de Vazim. We left Bayona on the 31st of August with the harbour starting to show signs of a big Atlantic fog rolling in. Sure enough it continued to fill and soon we were heading along very cautiously, eyes paying particular attention to our radar, G.P.S and having Luke and Debs up on the bow keeping a lookout with eyes and ears peeled. We got past Cape Silleiro, the western most point of the Ria de Vigo and after clearing the rocks off the cape we turned south to Portugal. At least our course was easy once [View Full Entry]

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The Three Rias we visited - Muros, Pontevedra and Vigo So many people we had spoken to told us how beautiful the Rias of north west Spain were. In all honesty, we had no idea of what to expect in real terms but essentially they are like big, long and wide areas of water, a bit like Pittwater near Sydney in some ways. They have towns and villages dotting the coastline in some of them and in others such as Ria de Vigo, the city of Vigo takes up a big chunk of the coast. Our first port of call was [View Full Entry]

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We had the boat well and truly prepared for what had the potential to be a long day trip down the coast. We had set our passage plans to stay quite wide off the coast to stay away from any potential lee shores and try and avoid any fishing nets that might be laid out. We had spoken to quite a few yachties that had come from the south who had had nets caught in their prop and by all accounts, not a good experience and one we always try as hard as we can to avoid at all costs. We [View Full Entry]

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Hola from La Coruna - N.W Spain - The Galician Coast Well we did sleep rather well on our first night in La Coruna, originally having plans of going out for dinner with John and Sue; we decided we might wait until we were all feeling more alive to do so. The Marina a Coruna has only been opened for a couple of months and so all the staff are very keen to make everyone feel very welcome and help in anyway they can. On top of that, they are doing great opening specials and so to stay here is incredibly [View Full Entry]

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Crossing the Bay of Biscay - Saturday the 25th of July to Monday the 27th of July 2009. Pretty excited getting up about 6.00am to be ready for the 7.00am kick off. We were all up and dressed, had a quick brekkie and checked the boat again and off we headed with Swagman in the lead. We went down the north coast of Belle Ille with the sea in a very calm state indeed. Nikki was at the helm as we motor sailed down the coast and as we turned the corner we were hit with a real tide over shallow [View Full Entry]

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South Brittany - Concarneau to Belle Ille Well we ended up staying much, much longer in Concarneau than we had anticipated; simple reason was that we enjoyed the place so much. We were able to enjoy the Bastille Day Eve Celebrations, Nikki wanted to have her birthday here and we were finally able to catch up with John and Sue Allison from Swagman. We heard from the Tourist Info Office that the Concarnians (for want of a better word) always celebrate Bastille Day on the evening of the 13th of July and there were going to be bands and fireworks so [View Full Entry]

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North Brittany to South Brittany via the Channel du Four and the Raz de Sein. We left Guernsey on the 18th of June and had planned to sail down to St Quay as it offers all weather and tide access and we thought it was going to be a pretty easy place to hit the coast and then make our way along the North Brittany coast to West and then South Brittany. We had thought about going to St Malo which was further east but were a bit reticent for some reason, not quite sure why as we had been told [View Full Entry]

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Through the Alderney Race and onto the Channel Islands. We left Cherbourg on the 28th of May, making sure we had got our tide times right to head down through the Alderney Race which is quite infamous for its rate of tidal streams that run between the island of Alderney and the mainland coast of France. We had to catch the tide as it turned toward the south and then go with this tide, hopefully all the way down to the Island of Guernsey and into the marina there called St Peter Port. RYA navigation courses highlight the areas of Cherbourg, [View Full Entry]

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A very happy new year to everyone. We have purchased our new home for 2009, a yacht called Sunboy and we leave Australia on the 18 March to head to Hamble Le Rice, just south of Southampton in England where we begin a whole new adventure. At this point in time, we dont know exactly where we will head to for the northern european summer, whether it is up to the Baltic Sea or head south for Morocco, we will just wait and see. First off, we hope to spend a couple of months sailing around the south of England and [View Full Entry]

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