2020
An exciting adventure sailing from Lymington to Lagos, Portugal, courtesy of Marco!
One month to get there, 3 hours to get back
Day 22 Day 32 One month to get there, 3 hours to get back Here are my favourite photos of the trip. It is difficult to pick my favourite as they all represent highlights of different aspects. It was a real privilege to be able to travel during the pandemic.
The Day Before
Day 22 Day 31 The day before ….. I slept until 9:30am and awoke to whatsapp messages from Sue wondering what had hapened to me. Ugh…. sleep Marco noticed that the cafe at the top of the ramp was doing a full English.. well why not, we had already had a
Sailing With wind
Day 22 Day 31 A day trip Viv and Lukas were leaving at 9am. They had managed to get a lift share on a ride sharing app. Their lift would pick them up at the marina dn take them all the way to their van at La Coruña airport. This
Final Destination
Day 22 Day 30 Final Destination Lagos After 3 hours sleep we got up for the next shift. Virtually nothing happened, so we did sudoku and glanced at the vague horizon occasionally. Back to bed at 6am and then up 7 for the sunrise, which was OK, but nothing special.
Oeiras to Lagos
Day 22 Day 29 Oeiras to Lagos Day One We had a surprisingly restful night in the marina, although there were some hoodlums on jet skis earlier in the night upsetting people, including Marcello. A leisurely get up and breakfast. Quite bizarrely they deliver bread to your boat every morning.
Porto to Oeiras
Day 22 Day 28 Porto to Oeiras After getting up at 12 for the next watch, the night was looking pretty hazy. It is difficult to tell if it is hazy , misty or foggy. The only way to really tell was to look at the stars, or not, depending
Porto to Cascais or Oeiras?
Day 22 Day 27 Porto to Cascais or Oeiras? I had a bad nights sleep. Sometimes I get a little bit of eczema on my hands and at night, the itch never goes away. The only positive is that it helps me identify a little with Sam’s condition. Plus I
Porto layover
Day 22 Day 26 Porto Layover After a solid nights sleep I thought I had woken up too late to take pictures of the sunrise through the old Porto bridge. Thats what the iPad told me. I thought, oh well, I’ll just have to go back to sleep then :-).
La Coruña to Porto – Day 2
Day 22 Day 25 Portugal La Coruña to Porto Day 2 Viv and I had the 12am until 3am slot. I was sleeping so soundly that Marco had to wake me up. I did set my alarm, but for the wrong time! I made some tea and went up on
La Coruña to Porto – Day 1
Day 22 Day 24 La Coruña to Porto Day 1 Previous Next We woke up pre-dawn, a last visit to the toilets in the dungeons of the marina office before setting off. The Norwegian boat next to us had already gone. We saw and spoke to them, on the VHF
La Coruña – Layover Day 4
Day 22 Day 23 La Coruña Layover Day 4 We had a very chilled start to the day. Lukas and Viv had a tour around the boat and a few knot lessons. The Swiss neighbour came out for a chat, but also, as there was a lot of splashing and shouting
La Coruña – Layover Day 3
Day 22 La Coruña Layover Day 3 – Layover Day 3 “I have seen many storms in my life. Most storms have caught me by surprise, so I had to learn very quickly to look further and understand that I am not capable of controlling the weather, to exercise the
La Coruña – Layover Day 2
Day 21 La Coruña Layover Day 2 I woke early, so I decided to go for a stroll, as this is sometimes the best time of the day to go and take photos. The sun was coming up on the other side of the city , so it wasn’t the
La Coruña – Layover Day 1
Day 20 La Coruña Layover Day 1 After a great night out with Eva, we had jobs to do today. Clean the oven and hob, wash the boat down, do the rubbish, replace the engine oil (again) and the filter. A general tidy up and do the washing, I was
Viveiro to La Coruña
Day 19 Viveiro to La Coruña As we sailed out of the inlet, the moon was still in the sky. Being the day after the full moon , I think it would set after the sunrise. As we neared the ocean, the Sun had risen and peeked around the headland.
Laredo to Viveiro – Day 2
Day 18 Laredo to Viveiro – Day 2 After that fantastic sunset and the dolphins, I was a bit buzzed up and I couldn’t sleep. There were a few fishing vessels about, but not much traffic. I managed to get a couple of hours and then woke up. As it
Laredo to Viveiro – Day 1
Day 17 Laredo to Viveiro – Day 1 Two kingfishers on the pontoon next to us. As the marina was quite empty, I got onto the pontoons to get some good shots of the boat, uninterrupted by any other boats. Does that count as going on shore?As I wasn’t going
La Rochelle to Laredo – Day Two
Day 16 España La Rochelle to Laredo – Day Two The wind finally gave up just past midnight. By now the motor and autopilot had been on for a while. The sails were just flapping now, as we rolled along through the waves so we furled them up. We still hadn’t
La Rochelle to Laredo – Day one
Day 15 La Rochelle to Laredo – Day one So, this is probably the longest sail so far, and only the two of us. Understandably there are concerns from our families about it, but this length of trip makes sense to me. We have waited out the weather, and the wind
La Rochelle – lay over Day 2
Day 14 La Rochelle – lay over Day 2 Day 14 Chloe’s train was leaving around 11:30. We were going to have to walk there in these days of COVID. Her suitcase was about the size and weight of her! It had been repacked a couple of times and she
La Rochelle – Layover 1st Day
Day 13 La Rochelle – Layover 1st Day After that 30 hour sail, I slept straight through to 7:30. Quite unusual for me. Dawn was , yet again, pretty fiery. I had to go for a little walk to the chemists (details available on request, but honestly you don’t
Bénodet to La Rochelle – First Day
Day 12 Bénodet to La Rochelle – 2nd Day Day 12 The night becomes a bit of a blur. Having autopilot and these instrumentation and navigation aids is very useful. We always keep two people awake, more or less. The conversation sometimes comes down to, “Is that a light? Is
Bénodet to La Rochelle – First Day
Day 11 Bénodet to La Rochelle – First Day So our long 300km voyage starts today. I’m sure Marcello said up at 7. So up I got put the kettle on and had a chilled hour watching the sunrise with a cup of tea and my camera before anyone else
Bénodet – layover
Day 10 Bénodet – layover So we were moored up in Bénodet for Tuesday. I only woke at 9am , luxury. I think the ensuite helped :-). I had a lot of lovely reaction to my photos on facebook and sone of you had even read the blog, which is
Audierne to Bénedot
Day 9 Audierne to Bénedot Day 9 So today John was due to leave. We had a quick cup of tea, visited the onshore heads , back via the boulangerie and it was time for John to go and after an emotional farewell and lots of man hugs, he left
L’Aber Wrach to Audierne
Day 8 L’Aber Wrach to Audierne Got up at 6am. Went to the loo block but couldn’t find it so I had to use a public loo in the pitch dark, a bit grim, no seat etc. Luckily I had my head torch on and luckily all the cottagers had
L’aber Wrach Sunrise
Day 8 L’aber Wrach Sunrise Just pictures… Previous Next Here I am trying to show the amount of swell we were getting. Difficult to capture from the boat, especially out at sea. Having a 100ft lighthouse makes is a lot easier to demonstrate. Previous Next
Roscoff to L’Aber Wrach
Day 7 Roscoff to L’Aber Wrach Woke up, checked the sunrise out of my window (slot) looks good, so up to get a quick snap. We were aiming to set sail at 9am so we had to get a move on . We had to hang around the dock for
Roscoff Layover Day 3
Day 6 Roscoff Layover Day 3 Tomorrow we are definitely sailing. I was getting quite excited about it (little did I know). Not many photos, so I though I would put a picture of the boat John and Marco spent a couple of days drooling over, So we had a
Roscoff – Layover Day 2
Day 5 Roscoff – Layover Day 2 I awoke to a beautiful sunrise, I can peek through my small cabin window and see the harbour wall. I like that image so much you can have it again :-). I was wondering where the storm was, there was a fresh breeze
Roscoff layover – Day one
Day 4 Roscoff layover – Day one We were now settled into Roscoff. The reason for being here, apart from it being a stunning place, is that there were some pretty hefty winds arriving soon and we needed to be in safe harbour to weather the storm. We had also
Cherbourg to Roscoff – day 2
Day 3 Cherbourg to Roscoff – Day 2 This was my first night sail for a very, very long time. We all stayed up to a reasonable time with people resting as we went, Chloe took the helm for quite a while in the evening. The boat cockpit is very
Cherborg to Roscoff – day 1
Day 2 Cherborg to Roscoff Day One After a goodnights sleep and breakfast, Marco and I went to the customs office to try and get the boat cleared. However they were shut, you had to arrange a meeting by phone etc. so that was that. We had to leave –
Lymington to Cherbourg
Day 1 Lymington to Cherbourg The first days’s sailing. This is quite a long post as I was maybe a bit in overdrive. After so much hanging in the balance it was great to get going. We were aiming for a 10 o’ clock, or thereabouts, departure. This was the
The day before
Day 0 The day before We arranged to meet up on the 15th, ready to set off on the high tide the next day. I had been camping the night before, so Sue and I dashed home after breakfast, I packed my bags, said goodbye to Sam and then off
Sail to Portugal …. in a Pandemic?
Sail to Portugal …. in a Pandemic? Captain Marco, on the boat in dry dock in Swanick, Hampshire “Would you like to sail to Portugal with me, we will be leaving from the UK sometime in May and it will probably take 2-3 weeks” said Marco’s email. Sounds fab says