I was asked to write a few words about our journey from Benodet and across Biscay..better late than never!

After a couple of evenings in Benodet we left at the crack of dawn, motoring slowly down the river towards the open sea. Tom managed to steer Prim Teaze under the centre of the bridge this time so we had a bit more room from the top of the mast to the underside of the bridge than when we were on our way to the mooring buoy!

The engine stayed on all the way to Belle-Ile just as it had across the channel and it was an uneventful trip. We dropped anchor just outside the marina at Sauzon where we stayed for a couple of nights and spent the time there stocking up and preparing for the trip across Biscay.

Tuesday 25th. Upped anchor at 6am and motored out around the North of the island and headed South-West to La Coruña. I always thought sailing had something to do with wind but there seemed to be a distinct lack of it so yet again the engine stayed on. We had a few visits from passing dolphins during the day. Although everyone was up by 6am we quickly got into our watch rota. Colette continued producing great meals for us all. All smooth going until about 02:30 on Wednesday when we encountered one or two technical difficulties with the engine. A sudden rise in temperature and a little bit of smoke was enough for us to decide it would be prudent to switch it off. After a cooling down period we discovered that the alternator belt had parted company from the engine causing the water pump and alternator to stop turning. Having diligently catalogued all the spares earlier, we knew we had a couple of spare belts and so dug them out in order to fit one - only to find they were about 2-3 inches too short!

Spotted the old belt in the bilge under the engine and retrieved it to find it was still intact. When it was refitted, it appeared that that belt was a little too big as it we could not tension it correctly. It was our best bet at the time so it was left in place. The engine was restarted by 08:30 and after 6 hours adrift and we set off again towards La Coruña. Everyone tired but relieved we had solved the problem.

The old belt lasted another hour before it failed completely and the engine temperature started rising again. Adrift again - albeit daylight now. Time to put the thinking caps on! In the absence of ladies tights we tried some rope from one the fenders in order to make a temporary belt but as soon as the knot in it reached a pulley wheel it came off. Our second attempt was with a narrower gauge piece of rope carefully stitched together by Deborah and was much more successful. We also found that in addition to the belt failing the engine had blown out a cap sealing a drainage pipe below the water pump, so the contents of the cooling system were now in the bilge! That pipe was sealed with a cut down soft wood bung wrapped in PTFE tape. The header tank was refilled but the filler cap left loose to avoid building up too much pressure in the system. The engine was restarted at 13:00 and maintained a normal temperature for a while and then...... the wind picked up. At last!

We opted to do some sailing as that's what we were out to do in the first place and we weren't sure how long the temporary repairs would last. If they were only going to last another hour or so, we'd need that while entering the marina at La Coruña. So, for 31 hours we sailed. More dolphins came to see us and ride the bow waves during the day and we managed to negotiate our way through a slow moving Spanish fishing fleet at night. All good stuff until Thursday evening just as the North West tip of Spain was coming into view, the wind died. The surface of the Bay of Biscay which I had always thought could be a bit rough at times was as smooth as a sheet of glass. We made precious little progress from then until Friday lunch time when we decided we needed to use the engine as we were going nowhere fast and we were in serious danger of running out of beer! With the engine running at tick over speed we engaged drive and achieved the amazing speed of between 2 and 2.5 kts. At least it was in the right direction. As we got closer to land Tom was on the phone to the marina at Hamble again and they found out that the local engineers for the engine were at Sada just in the next bay to La Coruña, so that's where we headed. Colette tried her best Spanglish and managed to book us a space in the marina there. Not a breath of wind to be had for ages and when it did arrive, it was on the nose, so we kept going with the engine on tick over for 17 hours and finally tied up at 06:40 on the Saturday morning. Everyone feeling even more tired but pleased to have made it. What was initially planned to be a two night crossing had turned out to be four.

Although we had some problems, we worked through them and carried on. It was an experience I won't forget and I'm glad I was on the first part of Tom and Colette's journey to experience it with them. I wish them and Prim Teaze a safe journey on from Sada and hopefully I'll catch up with them again on another leg of their adventure around the world.

Bye for now,

Andy