Biscay Crossing
Walkabout has gone Sailing
Andrew and Traci Roantree
Mon 23 Aug 2021 00:00
Our crossing was one of all three!
We left Falmouth in glorious sunshine, wind from the north west and we literally flew along the coast before heading south west leaving The Lizard behind and soon out of sight.
By 1700 the wind dropped to 2-3 knots and we ended up motoring for 16 hrs. We were then joined by drizzle and low mist in preparation for our first night across the bay.
By midday on day 2 the wind picked up to a lovely 9 knots and we are sailing again, YAY!
The wind continued to increase until the first reef went in at midnight at about 15 knots wind. Reef 2 went in early hours of the morning with Walkabout cruising along at 7 knots and the sea became really rather rough!
As the wind only increased, we sailed on reefed Genoa and Main sail (a small amount of sail out only).
From day 3 the wind continued to increase with a steady 25-28 knots showing on the chart plotter. We headed a little more downwind to make the passage a little easier and the boat a better angle to handle the large waves - at this stage averaging about 2-3 meters.
It all just got bigger and rougher! Wind a steady 30-35 knots and the size of the waves hunting us down must have been between 4 and 5 meters! Better not to see them in the dark I guess!!
From midnight on day 3 to the early hours of day 4, both of us were hunkered below with the hatch to the cockpit closed and locked, we both felt it too dangerous for one of us to be up top on watch overnight by ourselves.
It was not until the early hours of day 4 when the wind began to drop, the seas settle and we came up on decks for the first time in 7 hours!
The auto helm (steering wheel) did an amazing job through the night, steering us over the waves. Soon after we were back up on deck, we had some kind of power failure and lost steerage and all out chart plotter screens went black! Luckily, the old ‘switch it off and switch it on again’ worked and we were back up and running!