The final Voyage La Coruna to Hamble

Diatonic
Anthony Warr
Sun 26 Jun 2011 11:00

20June 2011

43 22.0N 8 23.7W

 

Well things turned out a bit different. After some really bad weather David had a bad turn and decided he could not go on so diverted east to La Coruna. This took nearly 3 days only to end up in the marina with a fishing net wrapped securely around the prop. With some difficulty we did manage to berth and the snorkel and knife sorted this out.

 

Dave and Ian came to the rescue, dropped everything and flew down to help me get the boat back and we were off again within 3 days of arrival. Then commenced one of the best sustained sailing experience any of us had done. Once we cleared the mainland we put the kite up in SW 20 knots and took it down again of  4 days later in the Solent. We had been steaming along at anywhere between 5 and 8 knots sustained plus extra surfing speeds straight through the islands of Ushant and managing to pick up fair tides just at the right times.

 

We arrived in the Solent in thick fog at 4am just after the Round Island Race had finished. Managed to work our way up the Hamble by radar in a pea souper and finally secured alongside at 6am.

 

The family all came down to see us which was wonderful after 2 months away.

 

That day was the start of 3 weeks hard work clearing everything off, cleaning and repairing till Diatonic was spic’n’span.  Despite the anti-sales capabilities of the Bavaria broker we finally sold her to a good home in Grimsby where she was about to start more journeys to Spain and beyond. After 12 years and 20,000 miles looking after us it was a sad parting.

 

Then began our quest to find a Bavaria 47 Ocean.

 

The last Amigo signing off.