Where now?

June 2005:
We were delayed in completing our fitting out and finally left the River Orwell on 8 June, headed for Falmouth. This is a good starting point for crossing the Bay of Biscay. Crossing the Thames Estuary was calm but we found wreckage from a motor vessel and reported this to the coastguard. A night in Ramsgate was followed by day sails to Brighton, Studland Bay and Dartmouth. With strong South Westerly winds around we retreated up the river to Dittisham for a quiet few days to complete some fitting out and relax generally.

While in Dittisham we were adopted by a large flock of local geese. Having been fed by us the first night they kept circling the boat at a discreet distance in hope of more food. The weather faxes and forecasts were carefully monitored and when the strong winds had abated we set out for Falmouth. The wind turned out to be South West again so a decision was made to explore Fowey for a few days.

As we arrived in Falmouth and stayed the night it became plain that our weather window had already arrived. The following day we went shopping for food and made our final chandlery purchases. We filled the fuel tanks and also three ten litre containers. It was already clear that light and variable Northerly winds were probable and we had no real idea if we would have enough fuel. We knew of other boats who had had to go to La Coruna just to refuel.

Fowey proved a delightful place to stop for the weekend. The local one-design racing boats put on a splendid show in gusty conditions and we speculated why none of these classes ever have reef points in the main. They were grossly overpowered and buried their bows and sometimes the bowsprits with each gust. The weather remained fair and we set out for Falmouth to complete fitting out and await a five day weather window to cross Biscay.

This was our first passage of several hundred miles in our own boat as a couple. The experience was tiring but great fun and we felt great satisfaction at completing it. At first we were visited by small groups of harbour porpoises but these rapidly changed to bigger groups of common dolphins. On the final day we could see dolphins all day and all night. At one stage we had about fifty of them cavorting around the boat!

The weather remained light and variable so we limited engine revs in a compromise with boat speed and watched the weather faxes carefully. As the days unfolded it became apparent that we would have enough fuel after all. The crossing to Villagarcia in the Ria de Arosa took 3 days and 17 hours for a total of 550 miles and 272 litres of diesel. We had over a quarter of our diesel left! We have been gorging ourselves on sardines and lobster and checking out the local wines. A visit to the medieval city of Santiago de Compostela was a must and turned out to be well worthwhile. We will now explore the Rias Baijas before continuing South.