Nick W.

Started and ended at Four a chaux anchorage. The conditions were excellent. The wind was predominantly E but the flow was affected by the high ground of Martinique. Close to Four a chaux we had light wind but increased to 15 kt as we sailed N. N of St Pierre the wind was NW 15 kt with gusts to 20 kt. We tacked the last part to Couleuvre. We anchored at Anse Couleuvre in 8 m and had a great swim. Dark sand with isolated patches of grass. Saw a ray and lion fish. The sail back was exhilarating, especially the part off St Pierre where we had E 20 kts and were making 7.5 kts with 1 reef.

Days 1 - 8: We left Santa Cruz on 12/12 and anchored 6 n mi SW at El Varadero. 25 kt NW winds overnight but good holding and moderate sea. Decided to leave the following evening but it was too early so we were caught in squalls and torrential rain during the early night. It would have been better to wait another day. The wind was weaker passing S of Roquetes and Salema but strengthen as we sailed further W to NNE 26 kt. Seas were confused at this point. By 15/12 conditions were good with NE - N 15-19 kt. For the next 6 days we had ~NE winds varying between 12 - 22 kts, sometimes gusty and with occasional squalls. The sea state depended mainly on the wind though we did have some periods with cross swells. Days 9-14: The wind gradually veered through E to SE during this period and we headed predominantly SW. we had squalls in the beginning with periods of 30 kts but mostly it was between 12-20 kt. We caught a 5 kg dorado after trailing a line and lure for a few hours. Tasted so good! We had the furling line fail on 26/12. The upper edge of the furling drum has a sharp edge which we think chaffs the line. We had taped the edge but the rope wore through that. Days 15-19: During this period we had weak E winds (5-12 kt). We experienced lots of failures of the autohelm on 28 & 29 but could not identify anything wrong. After many hours of hand steering it suddenly started working again and we had 5 days without a single failure. Days 20-24: Here we had E 15-20 kts and sailed with the asymmetric spinnaker alone. As we approached Martinique the winds weakened but we continued sailing. We were passed by a couple of tankers heading away from the Caribbean with no AIS - presumably part of the shadow fleet fleeing from Venezuelan waters! During the night of Jan 5 we could see the glow of the lights of Barbados and Martinique in the sky. We saw Martinique at daybreak and anchored at Sainte Anne a few hours later.

Day 1: Fuel Depot was broken so could only obtain 150 l. Set off at 16:53 UTC with wind NNW 11 kts and clear weather. We were heading 225 and the sea was 1 m. The wind dropped to 7 kts by midnight. Day 2: Wind increased to 14 kts by 8 am but moderated almost immediately to 8 kts and then faded further in the evening. It was partially cloudy and the sea was slight. We motored through the night. Day 3: The wind picked up at 1100z and was NE 13-18 kts pm. We used the asymm spinnaker in the afternoon and then switched to goosewinged with jib during the night. Sea was lumpy during the night. Day 4: ENE 15 kts in am, fading to 4 kts at 2300z so motor sailing from mid afternoon. Sea was rough in the morning but calmed down after noon. We were sailing in the company of Luna (NL) and Foxy Lady (DK) for part of the day. Luna was also heading for Santa Cruz Marina. Day 5: Wind variable NE-SE, mostly 4 kts with a short spell at 9 kts. We used motor for most of the day. We heard two distress calls one unreadable the other for a MOB off Los Gigantes - far away from us! The starlight was brilliant! Day 6: Started ENE 4 kts, veered SE 7 at 0400z continuing through S to W 4 around 1630z. It then backed to end S 7 at midnight. Skies were clear and sea with slight swell. Heard PAN PAN for migrant launches between African coast and Canaries. Used a lot of motor 😔. Day 7: Started SSE 9 then abruptly veered to NW 10 at 0500z which gave good sailing on the SW heading. But 2 hours later it veered back to S 10 for a short while before settling at SW 10 so we tacked the last couple of hours before taking down sail and motoring into the fishing harbour to refuel at 1000z. From there we motored to Santa Cruz Marina arriving 1120. During the night Diah heard a bump and in the morning we saw a splattered brown stain on the foot of the jib and foredeck. There was also a weaker patch on the aft stbd deck. There was no other remains. In the end we concluded a bird had dropped a squid that left an ink stain but are very unsure. Summary: 742 n mi in 138 hours. We used 282 litres of fuel!

We waited a night anchored off Sagres for the wind to calm down which is did around 5 am CET. We slept in a bit and left at 8 am. We had NW 10 kits and calm seas initially with the wind strengthening to 14 kits by noon. However the wind then dropped to <5 kits until 1600 when we had W 13 kts and we set the spinnaker. A large group of dolphins came to play in our bow wave. By 1800 the wind was 20 kts and we were running with main and jib with 2 reefs. Wind peaked at NW 25 kts around 2000 and we put another reef in the main before sunset. That was the signal for the wind to start to fade! By 0150 we were motoring with the main out, but stowed it later because it was slamming in the swell. We just motored the last 10 hours. Off Cape Trafalgar the tide was against us so we followed Reefs’ advice and followed the coast around the cape 100 m from the shore. No swell so no issue with breakers.

We had planned to sail directly to Barbate but decided to break and seek shelter off Sagres from an unpredicted 23 kt NW wind and choppy seas about 4 nmi E of C St Vincent. We left the anchorage just by the Sines fishing port at noon and set the spinnaker in NW 8 kts outside the main breakwater. The sea had only a slight swell and sky was clear. We had a nice downwind sail until the wind dropped around 1900 CET and we motored for 4 hours until it picked up again NNW 13. By 0040 we had rounded Cape St Vincent in some seas and had put a precautionary 3 reefs in the main in NNW 20 kts and rising. By 0130 the seas were quite confused and short and we had 23 kts and rising so decided to take down sail and return to Sagres to sit out the wind. We anchored in 7 m off Sagres beach in relative tranquility!

Set off in NNW 12 kts but wind dropped to 6 kts and we dropped sails 2 hrs in. It was misty along the coast around Nazaré but cleared as we approached Peniche and the wind picked up to NNE 18 kts. We were running with 2 reefs in main and jib. By Cabo Raso we had 26 kts and 3 m seas and had to go to 3 reefs which was tough given the conditions. We need to look into single-line reef at least for reef 3 to make it easier and safer. About an hour later the wind had died down to 10 kts and we shook out the reefs and continued with full sail until we reached Sines. We motor sailed for a couple of hours before the wind picked up to 14 kts. Again a pod of dolphins came and played in our bow wave when we had 18 kts and were doing 6-7 kts.

We started out with little wind at 16:25 and motored for 2 hours roughly SW to catch some wind. At 18:45 we had NNE 10 kts and set the spinnaker. The wind was variable thereafter with us changing every few hours few hours between sailing (mostly with spinnaker), motor-sailing, and motoring. The seas were calm to moderate and we had some clear sky most of the time. The first night was spectacularly clear and for the first time I saw Uranus, easy to find with binoculars and just visible with the naked eye. There were plenty of meteors and satellites too. A large pod of dolphins came and played for a while on the first day and we had frequent revisits by smaller groups all through the voyage except when we were off the continental shelf. Off Viana we responded to a call from John on Alenbar (?) as they were receiving unwanted attention from a group of orcas. Alenbar lay silent in the water and after a while the orcas left with the boat unharmed. We arrived off Figueira da Foz before dawn so killed a couple of hours sailing out and back arriving at the marina at 9:55 local time.

We cast off at 1215 and motored out NW to catch the wind setting sail at 1300 in ENE 8 kts. At 1445 10 nmi NW of Avilés we turned W heading for C Bares. The weather was clear with slight seas and NE 7 kts. At 1600 we had ENE 13 kts and set the spinnaker. The wind strengthened and at 1820 we switched to main and jib with 1 reef in 18 kts. The wind continued to strengthen and by 2020 we had NE 24 kts so went to 2nd reef. The wind eased a bit to 19 kts at midnight but the sea was rough. We passed out of the Bay of Biscay rounding C Ortegal at 0330. We entered Ria Coruña at 0730 but then decided to make use of the favourable wind and continue to Camariñas. At 1130 we had ENE 12 kts and ran with the spinnaker until entering Ria Camariñas. We anchored off Praia Lingunde at 2010 in 5 m at 2 m tide in the company of 4 other yachts. Another joined us an hour later.

Having rested 24 hours from the beating we took the previous night, we weighed anchor at 1105 and set sail with 1 reef in a pleasant NNE 14 knot wind. The sky was clear and sea calm within Baie Bourgneuf. Outside the bay heading south between the wind farm and Île de Noirmoutier toward Pont d’Yeu SCM the wind freshened to 18 knots. We had one 10 minute gust of 24 knots in the late afternoon and went to 2nd reef. During the night the wind weakened and we gradually shook out the reefs until by 4 am we started motoring. After tracking down the coast until 0720 24/9 off the entrance to Bordeaux by which point the wind had eased to NNW 8 kts we heading out SW to chase the wind. Further offshore the wind was NNW 20 kts around noon but then weakened until by midnight we had to start motoring in 5 - 10 kts. We motored the rest of the way helping with sail as the conditions allowed. During the first night we passed many relatively small fishing boats fishing individually. On the second night we passed through groups of larger vessels which appeared to be trawling together. We encountered several sail boats when crossing Biscay to Santurtzi mostly sailing in the same general direction. Unlike the earlier passages around the coast of Bretegne, we did not see any dolphins.

We intended to leave Le Palais as soon as the wind turned from S to NE which was forecast to occur around midnight. However, it had already turned and strengthen to NE 17 kts by 23:10 when we slipped lines from the mooring buoy. We set sail with 3 reefs in anticipation of the predicted strengthening and by 0144 we had NE 25 kts. We struggled on in poor conditions with a choppy sea, rain squalls and occasional lightning flashes. By 0535 the wind had veered to ENE 22 kts and we were not able to make 128 T which we needed to clear the wind farm so we decided to abort and seek shelter in Bay Bourgneuf. We tried to anchor off Prefailles but the bottom was rock so we move further SE and found sand in end of the bay before Pornic.