Crossing the Bay of Biscay

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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 water experience and the sea was quite turbulent with short sharp waves with occasional quite large rollers coming in.

Nikki took them on with real confidence and determination and rolled the boat over the waves like she had been doing it for years. I was incredibly proud of her and watching Swagman head up and down over the sea made me think that another 290 miles of this was not going to be much fun at all. Poor old Debs was suffering from some sort of gut bug and was not a well girl at all. Fortunately the sea conditions didn’t last and it wasn’t long before we were in beautiful calm water and whilst it would have been brilliant to have some suitable wind to be able to sail, the calm conditions were very suitable for our passage plans for our premier crossing of the Bay and to try and give Debs some respite from how crook she was feeling with the old combo of vomiting and diarrhoea causing total discomfort.

As the day progressed Debs improved and the conditions remained as they had started. We motored sailed all day and were getting a bit of tide against us so our speed over the ground was not as good as we hoped. We had formed our watch system and that was working really well and we kept in regular contact with John and Sue with 6 hourly radio skeds. They were ahead of us for most of the day and they very kindly chose to ease back on their throttle to allow us to catch up so we could sail together throughout the night.

We were rolling along in the late afternoon and we passed quite a few smaller sunfish bobbing around on the surface and then a pretty big pod of dolphins decided to amuse and excite us for about half an hour, leaping out of the water between the two yachts and it looked like they were taking it in turns to put on a show in front of our bows. It was spectacular. Debs provisioning was working out brilliantly and we had heaps of great food and meal times were really looked forward to.

Our first night out was very calm and sedate with hardly any swell and the night became more brilliant as time went on with the sky full of stars, the lights of passing aircraft and the odd satellite going over head. Dolphins continued to join us throughout the night and I remember waking up at one point with Luke on watch and at the helm, being completely at peace with himself on the ocean. He told me he had spotted a little bird flying through our rigging and at the same time, a single dolphin had been swimming beside his helm on the starboard side. The way he described it, it appeared that his world only comprised of the sea, the bird, the dolphin and himself. I think he had found a new place in his life.

He and Nikki had stayed up on watch and beyond taking in all the beauty that a calm night at sea can give, Nikki absolutely loved being out and the conditions could not have been better for her first night at sea. Layni had been just brilliant the whole day and she was determined to be awake for some time of the night to see what it was like out on the ocean at night. She ended up making a bed for herself on the starboard cockpit seat with our cockpit cushions and the doona off our bed and she slept their for hours before heading down below to snuggle up to Debsy who was getting better but certainly not back to her old self as yet.

I had recently read a book called Sea Change written by a guy that was sailing his boat across the Atlantic on his own and he would set his alarm for 15 minute sleep periods as he and most other ocean sailors consider that another ship can not be visible one minute and then 20 minutes later could be crunching through the hull of your boat. I decided to try that out and had out little travel alarm clock on deck with me and sure enough one was able to grab15 minutes of sleep at a time, take a really good look for 360’ around the boat, reset the alarm and grab a few more minutes of sleep. I really don’t know how long you could keep that up for but it was amazing how quick you could get to sleep and then how wide awake you would be when the alarm went off.

Nikki was on watch as the sun came up and the day dawned as calm as the one before. I took the opportunity of having a shower and that was brilliant and certainly made you feel totally refreshed. Debs was feeling heaps better and day two was looking great to keep continuing south. We had decided that we would make a decision at 9.00am as to whether we headed for Gijon or La Coruna and it looked like that we were going to be able to take the latter option as the weather forecast was looking ok. Fuel consumption was now our primary concern and whilst reasonably assured we had plenty of fuel it needed to be monitored pretty closely.

The hours were ticking by and by the afternoon we could see a bit of change coming on the horizon. All was calm and we had dinner together and Luke and I took watch about 9.00pm. Nikki hadn’t had much sleep during the day as it was so nice to be able to be out in the sun that we hadn’t seen for so long. Debs was really tired so she went down for a sleep with Layni.

We had put a reef in the main and we were pushing into a sou’ westerly for ages and the wind was smack bang right on the nose so the engine was getting a bloody good work out. We had to get through an area where the continental shelf rises quite quickly from about 2000 odd metres to a couple of hundred metres and we had quite turbulent water and was very hard to get through with the best we could do was about 2 knots over the ground. For ages and ages, it was a total slog. We started to see lots of fishing boats as well as net markers which are floating pods of coloured strobe lights everywhere.

Obviously at night it was impossible to see the oncoming waves and even harder to avoid the occasional drop off which caused the boat to hit the surface with a bit of a thud and cause the propeller to lose grip and the boat would almost stop. It was not very nice conditions at all and making it very hard for anybody to get any kip. About 2.00am we got hit by a sudden wind shift that caused a few raised eyebrows going from about 5 knots on the nose with 20 to a max of 29 knots coming from the starboard stern. On top of that it was p@#*ing down with rain and it was bloody hard to see anything at all. As John had predicted, the conditions in the bay could turn very quickly. We had to get the boat under control as quickly as we could and Luke, with the little experience that he has was a brilliant help.

We finally got through the rough water and started to get a bit better speed over the ground which made it a little bit easier to re fuel under way from our jerry cans. The swell replaced the majority of the slop and there were a few reasonable sized rollers coming in from the Atlantic, it still wasn’t very comfortable but at least dawn was breaking and we were able to see where to spot the gaps to stop the crashing and bashing that we had been through for the last few hours. With a bit of wind we were able to sail for a while and as time got on, the weather did improve and the skies started to clear and the sun started to shine, bring on the Spanish weather!!

I was expecting a rather solemn looking wife to come up from down below as I didn’t think that Debs had been able to get much sleep at all but instead I was met with the biggest smile I think I have ever seen on her face!! Her comment of “bit rough last night babe” will live a long time in my memory.

We eventually had everyone up on deck and it was time for me to leave the helm as I had been there for a bit longer than I should have and Nikki took charge and then she and Debs shared the helming and I was able to get some sleep for a while.

Both yachts got into La Coruna about 3.00pm after having covered about 400 miles and headed into the very nice new marina and tied up, tidied the boat up a bit and after registering with the marina staff settled back for a few celebratory drinks and a bite to eat. We all went to bed feeling totally knackered but pretty chuffed with our first Bay of Biscay crossing. For us, it was a real milestone and I think Debs, Nik, Layni and Luke should all be justifiably very proud of themselves. Everyone has had a taste of night passages now, differing conditions and we all think that doing longer passages would get easier as time went on with sleep patterns being able to be adjusted and people able to do more and more as the passage progressed. I think that it is fair to say that for a lot of people the first couple of nights out are the hardest with body clocks being thrown out of whack and conditions having to be adapted to. We might not have travelled as far south as we had first anticipated but I am really glad that we have taken our time.

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Photos

Youngest member on deck
getting ready to lead eye spy

Getting there
About turn south west for La Coruna and the Cap de la Mort

New flag to be raised
Changing the French Curtesy flag for the Spanish one now that we are in Spanish Waters

Debs and Nik on watch
Bit of a roller starting to form at the stern

On dry land again
Lukey Bill seems a bit happy to have made his first Biscay crossing

Comments

[Fran]

WOW WOW WOW!!!!
What a joy to read all about your journey. Besides all the things u r seeing, I think the part I enjoy reading about is your experiences and special moments as a family. It is very unique and one you will never forget. Sending a big hug to all of you. Take care, Lotsa Love Frannie xx

[Jason James]

Washed overboard
I am a serving member of the royal navy and while heading for Gibraltar in January transiting through the Bay of Biscay i was swept over the side of my ship by a huge swell which hit the front of our ship and took me into the bay.It was absolutely freezing and quite a hairy experience to say the least. I only spent about ten minutes in the water which was long enough before i was rescued by my ship. I have crossed the Bay many times and most of the time it is beautiful this time though very scary.