Leaving Falmouth was traumatic for us, we had felt so safe there and had made many good friend, had a good church,  with a great pastor who really cares for his flock and people who care for each other. It was the first time I had experienced this in 25 years of being a Christian. The church is called the Harbour Church and held in the Maritime Museum, which is the obvious reason for us first having gone there.

We motored past Black Rock for the last time as far as we could tell, very sadly and motored till we were off the Helford, reminiscing about the great anchorages, the good mussling and foraging and happy times we had had.

Off the Helford the Dolphins came to say goodbye, and the wind came up to 6 knots form the NW, just enough to put up the main and screecher in the calm seas behind the protection of the Lizard.  The Iron topsails (motors) were switched off and with the water churtling round the hulls we were on our way.

Our last glimpse of England, The Lizard.  

I realised that I had not got the sleeping bag out from its vacuum bag in the locker so as to set up our sea berth. We take the back cushions of the saloon away and sleep in the saloon fully clothed so as to be ready for emergencies.

The Vacuum bag had managed to get a hole in it, all the contents were sopping wet with condensation, fortunately not salt water or they would never have dried. They were hung out on the line under the Bimini and were dry by nightfall.

Mike in our sea berth

Scrabbling around in the lockers had, of course made me feel seasick. I popped a Valoid and took it easy until it took effect, fortunately the Balletje sop (thick vegetable soup with nutmeg spiced meatballs), I had made meant I did not have to cook,

The wind increased and we had to furl the screecher, unfortunately when the wind is up we cannot furl it properly and we have to lower the whole sail. The Genoa went out and we set off heading S by W playing the wind. The idea was that we head far enough W to keep out of the shipping lanes that go from Ushant to Cabo Vilano and should the weather report change we would be far enough W to use a SW wind to get to a port in N Spain. Weather reports are reasonable for 3 days after that it is just a chance, this time the chances were right.

It was cold, freezing cold and my “Teddy Bear Suit”, (thermal underwear) and freezer suit plus all the other layers did not make a difference. I was shivering inside of half an hour. How Mike had done 3 hours out there I do not know. As the wind was from the starboard beam and the helm is on the starboard side I decided to lower the awning on that side. What a difference. Amazing what a piece of cloth can do. I only put down part of it so we did not restrict our access to the sails.

Me dressed for the cold.

Mike with the awning down.

For the cold I was wearing my teddy bear suit, (a Helly Hanson polarfleece bought in 1986 and still going strong), thermal underwear, trousers and shirt, body warmer, fleece and freezer suit, two pairs of foot warmer socks balaclava, woolly hat, gloves. (I tried to put on two pairs but did not have another pair big enough. We did not run the Webasto central heating system as then we would overheat down below and to undress and dress with that amount of clothing and my frozen shoulder was just too exhausting. It was just so much easier to just sleep fully kitted ready to go on watch, in fact even going to the loo was an exhausting exercise. The only luxury I did allow myself was to take off my boots and use my little hand warmers to defrost my hands and feet.

The sun set directly in front of us, which was a good boost for our morale, “Sailing to the Sun”

Sailing to the sun.

In the early hours of the morning, 0400, the wind increased and turned to the N, the mainsail had to be dropped, fortunately the moon has risen at midnight and we had plenty of light to see by. We altered course for the top end of Spain, just on the outer edge of the shipping lane.

That day we passed Brittany, we saw the one island briefly as the sun appeared for a short while, the Dolphins came and stayed for both our watches, I love it when they come round, they are such fantastic animals it is always a morale boost.

Mike put out a line, caught nothing, more to the fact that we were sailing to fast than any thing else.

The wind dropped and we  contemplated putting the screecher up, but being good cruisers and believing that you reef when you first think about it and make sail again after your 3^rd cup of tea. Just as well as the wind soon came back with a vengeance, 30 knots in the gusts and we were surfing as 8 to 9 knots with only the Genoa up.

By the late afternoon we were chilled to the bone and even Mike was having trouble getting warm so we succumbed to the whispering warmth of the Webasto heating system for a couple of hours, it also dried the boat out which was starting to drip and add to the cold.

The sky was a beautiful red that night and the Red sky at night, the sailors delight came to mind and I relaxed with a grin. It works the opposite in the S hemisphere, where a red sky at night makes me get my spare underwear ready.

Mike has turned my galley fan for keeping cool in tropical heat into an extractor fan to try to keep the moisture down while cooking. It works well but as we exhale about 2 litres of moisture a day moisture and the resulting mould monster is a never ending story in the colder climes. Another reason to head for the Sun.

Day three dawned and we were feeling rather jagged round the edges. The Barometer had risen again and the chances of a S wind before we reached Spain had disappeared. “The top end of Spain is looking rather attractive” I suggested to Mike, he jumped at the suggestion and we altered course for Ria Camarina which looked like an easy anchorage to get into especially with our chart plotter. I am soooo very happy with our plotter and hate the thought of having to sail without one and bite my fingernails down to the elbows again and have to change my underwear regularly.

If going in at night we feel it is better to find a nice safe anchorage, clear of all dangers rather than find ourselves wondering round a crowded harbour or marina in the dark and a strong wind. The weather report had also given a gale round Cape Finistere and as they had been right so far and Finistere was famous for its gales, and all the shipping comes through the traffic separation scheme there, we decided to duck in before we got there and rather round it in calmer conditions when we were not tired.

We Gybed the Genoa and set course for Cabo Villano. Ria Camernia was only a few miles past it. Even with the wind coming from the Port side the awning stopped it going right through us and kept the temperature up.

We had to cross the shipping lanes, we started with the traffic from astern that afternoon and by the morning it had changed to the up traffic. The AIS was such a boon, the ships from behind altered course as they saw our AIS and the ones from the bow should give way to sail but as Mike knows they are not always watching that well and regard us as lunatics, WAFI’s they call us, Wind Assisted Flaming Idiot’s. (Polite version). So we gave way to them early and with a 30 deg course change to they could see what we were doing. The unwritten collision rule is the one I always follow, “Might is Right”. You do feel rather vulnerable in a 30 foot wind blown piece of plastic, trying to argue with about 200 M of laden power driven steel. Funny how with an AIS you always feel you are the Centre of a dart board, all the arrows heading your way.

The Dart Board

It was a great relief when in the late afternoon of the 4^th day the herds of ships were thundering off to the North of us.

While Mike was successfully playing dodgems with the ships I kept him happy by baking a loaf of bread using potato and gram flour, it was a great success so he wrote the recipe down. He knows my memory.

The sun came out to welcome us to Spanish waters and as the sun set we saw the light of Cabo Vilano. Only a few miles S and the Anchorage would be ours. The wind increased so we were going to be there sooner.

In the dusk we came across a fishing boat, as usual his working lights were so powerful they blotted out any navigation lights and he did not have AIS, we struggled to see what he was doing and where he was going and eventually I shone the torch on our sail so he could see we were a sailing boat and rather un manoeuvrable. He turned tail and moved off much to our relief.

We took the awning down as we got to Cabo Vilano so we could get to the sail easily should we have to manoeuvre in a hurry. The wind bit through us like a knife and I was shivering inside of 10 minutes. Fortunately as we got passed the cape the wind was not as bad.

There was a passage inside a reef but to play it safe we decided to go outside, just as well, looking at it from the top of a hill later it was not a good place to go at night. It got calmer as we got into the bay although the wind whistled down the gullies, it was still 20 knots in the anchorage but so calm by comparison, I thought we were aground, I checked the echo sounder and saw we still had 5 meters under the keel. Mike dropped our SARCA anchor and it dug in well, swinging us round with a jerk so we knew it was well set, we played out plenty of scope just to make sure we could sleep well. We had arrived, our kitten (30ft cat has to be a kitten) had another long passage to her credit and we thankfully fell into bed.