Biscay Crossing - taking stock
Walkabout has gone Sailing
Andrew and Traci Roantree
Thu 26 Aug 2021 07:30
  As things settled down after the big blow over night we started to take stock of the previous 24 hours. We had learnt a lot! Walkabout handled the rough stuff and the wind really well. We handled it pretty well - neither of us were ill, but we compared notes on our state of fear/anxiety through the night (unspoken at the time). We talked through what had got us into this position - fundamentally we had gone too quickly over the previous 48 hours, and had reached this weather system too early - before it had started to abate. So some good learning points to implement in future.Gradually through Wednesday 25 August we returned to full sail through sensible seas. The Spanish coast was getting closer, and it felt like we were nearly there.  Sailing parallel to the coast, we picked up some hitch hikers -   what looked like very tired sparrows, some 50 miles from the nearest land. They must have got blown out to sea in the wind that we had experienced the night before. At one time there were about 6 of them - in the cabin and in the cockpit - very happy to sit beside us or in the shelter of the spray hood. During the night we are not sure what happened to most of them, but sadly the 2 that had hunkered down behind our seats in the cockpit didn't survive, despite our efforts with water and food. They had to be committed to a burial at sea...❤️ During the final night we worked our way across the shipping lanes towards Baiona. Plenty of big container ships and tankers, and only a couple of small course changes to stay out of trouble.  We arrived in Baiona at 0728 on Thursday 26 August 2021. We anchored in the bay outside the marina to sort the boat out a bit and have a rest before heading into the marina to check in. We had sailed 600.6 Nautical Miles in 95 hours (1112km, 691 miles). An average speed of 6.3 knots. The longest trip we have ever done - so far... To say that we felt quite pleased with ourselves was an understatement! We tried to get some sleep - but we were just buzzing, so we picked up the anchor and headed to the marina (Monte Real Club de Yates).  We went to check in at the office, not really knowing what to expect. Two major factors have affected sailing to other countries since we last went to France in 2019 - Brexit and Covid. We had all our boat papers, VAT receipts, passports, vaccine certificates and fingers crossed. Shouldn't have been concerned at all - yacht registration, insurance and passports was all they required. No stamp in the passport to show us entering the Schengen area - but we are counting our 90 days as having started from this point, and our cruising, liveaboard life is definitely here!!! |