Thursday, June 17, 2010

Over the Biscay

Perfect sail in for most of the way. Here the First Mate has a relaxing watch.

So we started out on Friday late afternoon from Camaret in France.
The sea was at time rough before you get to "the steps" where the depth goes from ca 100 meters down to 4000 meters.
We had tailwinds all the way and night sailing in 15 knots with a beautiful star filled sky.
One can almost become seriously religious under such circumstances.

Early morning on the 3rd day I woke my brother up when rounding Cabo Finisterre on the NW corner of Spain ( Finisterre= Fin De Terre= end of the world). It was now light rain an the forecast for the day was Strong winds up to Force 7 for the Portuguese coast. Not bad except that after 3 hrs the wind increased to force 8 which is up to 42 knots.
The waves were for us humongous.
We got sideways once when surfing down a wave at 15.4 knots. Rather unpleasant experience even when the sun was shining
So instead of heading to Lisbon we searched for a harbor in north Portugal.
We found beautiful Viana do Castelo, surfed in at 6 pm, and this is where we are at the moment.

Pål

Friday, June 11, 2010

Finally on the way to Portugal

So we finally got on the way one hr ago at 18.15 CET.
Boat totally ready to go with a lot of upgrades.
Just now doing 7 knots in 20 knots wind.
So just now we are two happy twins.
We may go directly around Spain an Portugal directly to the Portugese
town of Albufeira or stop in north west Spain.
Time will tell.
We will be back with updates in ca 3 days since we have no satphone.

Pål