The Bay of Biscay

The neighbours

We anchored for 2 nights in the river Odet whilst we waited for the right weather to cross Biscay. It was a lovely spot with reasonable shelter from the wind just up from the large bridge at Benodet.

At 0600hrs on 2 May we moved briefly to Benodet to top up the water tanks and get rid of our rubbish before quietly slipping out of the river heading south.

Our track and a sunsight plot; just a mile out!

We had completed some careful planning because the French Navy were planning some live firing exercises on our route starting on 3 May. By leaving when we did, not only would we benefit from the start of the good weather window, but we would also be clear to the south of the 150 mile long temporary danger area. .. or so we thought! Once we approached the area we were intercepted by a French Navy ship and told to head to the south-east for 10 miles before resuming our course for Spain. We did as told and then found that it was not just us who seemed to think the exercise started a day later. Several freighters were diverted as well as a host of fishing vessels. When queried by as to why we were all being moved away a day early the response was, "yes it was supposed to be tomorrow but we changed our minds yesterday and the exercise started yesterday." A shame they didn't put out a new warning Notice to Mariners as it would have saved them a lot of work.

We spent most of the crossing running with our genoa poled out on the opposite side to the mainsail. We like that set-up when going downwind and the windspeed is around (or above) our 15 knot true windspeed limit for flying the cruising chute. With just two of us we have that self imposed wind limit so that the foredeck work is manageable.  Above 15 knots our cruising chute is powerful enough to lift me off the deck as I try to pull the sock down over it, if the sail doesn't collapse properly, which can get a bit emotional if BV is rolling.

With the high pressure dominant the wind veered around so we finished the journey on a beam reach. There was a 9 hour patch on 3 May when the wind dropped off to just a few knots and so we motored. But mostly we had a very civilised 15 knot wind pushing us along with our Hydrovane self-steering worked extremely well.

During the day we were both up reading, taking sun sights and starting to learn some Spanish, though one or other of us tended to take a nap in the afternoon in preparation for the night watches. At night we worked a 3 hours on, 3 hours off watch routine. For the first time I also tried out Scopoderm anti-seasickness patches; they seem to work brilliantly so I will be using them on all of our longer passages from now on.

On both nights we experienced amazing phosphorescence in the sea. Our wake, particularly just behind the DuoGen and the Hydrovane, glowed brightly green and was speckled with huge flecks of bright light; the bow wave was speckled but the phosporescence there was a little less intense. We were also lucky enough to be visited at night by a school of dolphins. We couldn't see the dolphins but their wakes were glowed brightly so it looked as though we were being escorted by ghosts.

The dolphins returned during the day on several occasions, staying to play in our bow wave for hours at a time. We never tired of watching them.

Around our watch system we ate together. The meals we had prepared in France made that all very easy. The mornings were cool so Nicky made porridge. Once, as an experiment, we tried porridge with pineapple; not a great taste sensation combination! The pain au chocolate was, as always, a firm favourite and Nicky used them to tempt me out of my bunk and get me on watch!

Dolphins was what we saw most of on the crossing once we had left the French Navy behind. It seemed slightly odd to us because we are normally used to dodging shipping when we cross the English Channel. Here it was all very relaxed and with the depth off the Continental Shelf at over 4000 metres there weren't even lobster-pot markers to worry about.

The depth guage got a bit confused as the depth went above 160 meters but came back as we neared Spain.

Isla Pancha lighthouse

The approach to Ria de Ribadeo is dominated by the coastal road bridge which spans the ria and, on the right, the lighthouse on Isla Pancha. The hills behind are green and were slightly misty as we approached on the morning of 4 May. With the bright blue sky and sea it was a beautiful landfall. I should have had my camera out and taken a photo but we were busy negotiating the dog-legged approach and I missed the opportunity.

We moored up in the marina without any difficulties. There was even a member of the marina staff waiting to take our lines and to help us settle in. It was a great end to our crossing and proved that it had been well worth waiting for the right weather window to make it all very painless.

Time now to start enjoying Spain!

The main bridge spanning the Ria de Ribadeo and the marina just beyond