Well, as it turned out the forecast was optimistic! We had a great sail on Thursday (we left Cork at noon after tidying the boat up) and had a good over-night sail. However, Friday dawned to strong winds and we had to tack out west to avoid being pushed into the English Channel! We saw our first gale of the crossing kick in on Friday morning and last around 20 hours during which time we had a sustained force 7-8 with force 9 gusts,as we were just crossing the biscay shelf we also had awful seas! Saturday was better and we had winds from the North and made nice progress, trying to dry out after the gales where we found a couple of leaks! However, Sunday saw the winds return. We were now in the Atlantic in over 5000 metres of water so the waves weren't short and steep, but long and big - 9 to 10 metres (we are only 11 metres long!) we had a solid force 8 for over 24 hours before the winds dropped.
We arrived at midnight on Monday but held station about 15 miles offshore for 6 hours to await daylight and arrived on Tuesday morning.
We were wet, tired and miserable - and beginning to think this offshore stuff wasn't for us! However, we were soon being congratulated by astonished locals for sailing through the worst low pressure system in Biscay this season - made us feel a little better!
We spent Tuesday drying and washing and have spent today just messing and socialising with other cruisers.
Learnt a lot crossing Biscay - and now have some repairs to make!
1) The autopilot sheared a bolt in the first gale and had to be lashed with rope
2) We found 2 leaks in the deck we need to fix (hadn't shown themselves in the last 2 years!)
3) We ripped the staysail (Small headsail) slightly
4) We broke the engine bay door
Lots to do - but the weather here is great so will re-group, repair and move on later in the week!
J
2 comments:
Well done to you both!
You never know what Biscay is going to throw at you. I crossed a couple of years ago and thought we were going to have a nice sail then six hours out the wind completely died and we had to motor the rest of the way!
Somebody told me the other day that you are no longer able to anchor behind the main breakwater. Is this true? It would be a shame as it has been a good anchorage for cruisers for as long as I can remember. Once you have finished with the bright lights of La Coruna and if you have time and want to chill out then Laxe is a lovely anchorage just around the corner.
Regards
Mick & Jan
Pinta's Pilot
Glad you made it. It does get better from now on - well could it get any worse? Kathy and I hoped that had NOT left when you did, but we thought that you, like us, would have got tired of waiting. Enjoy La Coruna, We are now in Nazare in Portugal and comtemplating our next offshore trip to Madeira.See you soon. Oh, by the way Povoa de Varsim was a good stoppover cheap and friendly.
Better winds now. Jeremy and Kathy.
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