05 Sep 06 - 11 Sep 06 - To La Coruna Spain

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Before departure from south Portugal (Vilamoure) in the early afternoon of Sep. 5, we noticed that the weather reports were reasonable favorable for trying to go directly to UK, which would be a 10-11 days sail trip without stop.

So we bought a little more additional important proviant like chips, coca colas, candy etc. to make the trip enjoyable.

First leg started out going south west for approx 3 hours, the first hour going by engine, and then primarely by sails. The idea was ofcourse to get around the south western point of Portugal.... we havnt installed wheels on the boat, so no crossing land abilities yet.

Next leg was planned to be sailed only by sails, going north west, to a distance from the Portugese coast of about 200nm (approx.360 km). This distance would give us the ability to tack over to a oneleg sail to UK. This leg was started on, late on the 6th Sept. 

We sailed by sail the majority of this leg. Sometimes going 6kn, sometimes 2kn. And occationally we hadnt any winds at all and went by engine. At 06:00 on the 6th, we encountered some quite dense fog, the first we have seen on this trip. It lasted until about 12:00. We used our horn to the best of our abilities. Some distance away we could hear the deep thunder of a horn of a major ship, so we were certainly awake and on the lookout.

On the 7th to the 9th, we dont have any real news to talk about, except we had to start the generator rather often due to the seemingly bad condition of our service batteries. Its quite annoying having to use diesel for the generator, knowing that we didnt draw much amps.

Esmeralda cooked our meals, which ranged from tasty frozen leftovers from previous dinners (Minudo.. a very tasty Philippine recipe, soups with rice etc.) and the traditional spaghetti, potatoes etc. Often we eat Greek salad. We still have some original Greek feta with us.

Because we used our main engine more than I was hoping for, I decided for that we would refuel in La Coruna, instead of going directly to Dart Marina, UK.

On the 10th Sep, Esmeralda woke me up (from my watch) telling me that there were large numbers of Dolphins around the boat. I could see about 200m aft, that several dolphins were jumping around in the water. They seem to like to play in the surface, when the water is close to mirror like, without any waves. All the night was without any wind at all, which ment we had to go by engine.

In the afternoon (14:45), the wind was starting to pick up.  Actually, despite our barometer telling us that there werent any apparent big weather changes on their way, the sky did look suspicious and I was expecting even more wind, perhaps with gales. Heavy rain may be approaching.

The rain never came. Winds did pick up but fortunately no true gales.

At 19:30, when Esmeralda was about to serve me a plate of food while on my watch, sitting outside, a family of 3-4 whales appeared 20m infront of the ship. They were about 10m long, dark gray or black skinned, and had a soft curving back fin. It was something of a sight! Unfortunately I didnt have the camera ready. Its nice to see that despite humans ability to destroy the environment, water creatures still exist to see out side the Zoos. At the time we were at 43N10.18, 9W23.33 going 6.7 knots bearing 28.

In the evening, just when we were sailing the north western part of the Spanish coast, we encountered another dose of thick, dense fog. We fortunately had already at this point crossed the traffic seperation zone (where the big ships usually go), and were in the intercostal traffic zone, where we usually would only encounter fishermen and private yachts. Again our horn came handy. I only hoped that the fog would lift when we were to turn bearing 90, as the sun was setting and it wouldnt be much fun sailing in fog during the night. Fortunately the fog lifted completely about 30nm from La Coruna, shortly after the sun had finally gone down completely and the moon up.

Today, the 11th Sep. we reached La Coruna at 3:30 in the night. We decided to anchor up in a small bay, which is sheltered quite nicely from winds and waves (43N22.76, 8W20.60). I had my first shower (we have been rationing our water due to the expected 10-11 days on sea) since Vilamoure. Esmeralda and Katharina had their shower yesterday in the evening. We expect to be able to refill in La Coruna. But even without, we still have ample amounts of water left. Diesel wise, we are getting close to the red area, which means (my estimate) about 200l left. I expect to have to refuel about 350l of diesel for the main engine, and another 50-60l for the generator. 

Now off to the marina! 

 

 

 

 

Vilamoure 1	Vilamoure 2	Vilamoure 3	Vilamoure 4	To La Coruna 1
La Coruna old tram	La Coruna 2	La Coruna 3