Dos Cervezas Por Favor

Life can be tough at sea, so we hung around in St Giles-Croix de Vie for a while, for the nasty waves to die down.

Croix de Vie Patisserie

Of course, it's important to stay fit, even in port, so we took a walk around to see the Biscay waves, crashing onto the local beach.  The waves were quite difficult to notice, due to the lovely bodies laid out on the sand below us.  It was an amusing contrast between fully clad Muslims, playing in the waves and topless heathens, trying to get their bodies darker.
A yacht did come out of harbour while we watched.  Twenty minutes later they turned back for home!

Grande Plage, Croix de Vie

And so back to sea.  We left at dawn, 05:00, and motor-sailed out into the bay, planning an overnight trip to reach Spain.  As the hours passed, the wind died away, the cruising chute went up and down, and the sails flogged in the glassy swell.

Doug Feeling Very Annoyed, Boat Rolling, Yanni Motoring, George Steering

We poured the spare 20 litres of diesel fuel into the tank and motored on, Doug gritting his teeth and begging for wind, but you must be careful what you ask for!  At dusk the wind filled in from the NE, nearly dead astern.  In the pitch black (no moon) the first reef went in at 23:30.  Soon Rapport was careering and lurching down the growing waves, crests breaking around us, and the second reef went in at 01:30 next morning.
Ever testing, the wind then died away again but I pretended not to mind (we now had enough fuel to go the whole way if necessary) so it filled in again from the WNW to give us a sparkling beam reach into the Spanish coast.

Coast of Cantabria - Beam Reach at 7 Knots

We arrived in Laredo in late afternoon, 20 miles away from our planned landfall at Santander.  The change of plan was caused by our sleigh-ride in the night, when we didn't dare run dead downwind.  It was a fortunate turn of weather because Laredo turns out to be very lovely indeed.
When we sailed from Belle Isle in S Brittany to Noirmoutier Isle in The Vendee, there was a startling change, in very few miles, from Breton slate to Vendee terracotta.  It suddenly felt South, not North.  The change here in Spain is much more dramatic.  Suddenly we are surrounded by mountains, a darker race, lovely old architecture, strange new architecture, a different language to play with.  It's very special to arrive by sail!

Cool Cervezas, Dizzy Tiredness!



Comments

  1. Bruce&CarolJuly 20, 2023 at 12:55 PM

    Well done reaching Espana-hope it's not too hot. We've just had tapas in Fowey but I think they're better where you are!

    ReplyDelete

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