i thought i would post a few pictures of the
delivery i did last week of a 26 ft Westerly griffon
bilge keeler from Newlyn, cornwall to Ribadeo, north
spain.
the crossing which was aproximately 400 miles went well with no major dramas,unusual for the dreaded Biscay!,
apart from the auto pilot bracket on the tiller breaking and bow light needing rewiring both easily fixed it was a great trip,
a bit bumpy with f 5 ene winds across the channel and ushant,allowing us to sail nearly half way untill the winds became very light as we entered biscay proper.
the 20 hp nanni
diesel performed perfectly,using about 1.2 liters an hour and a steady 4.9 knots till the spanish coast where a dawn arrival was planned to get into the Ria of ribadeo at high
water,as the
current runs at about 3 knots on a falling tide.
alas at 4.30 am we had thick
fog,no
radar,and about 3 miles off we were forced to wait till the
fog cleared and arrived in about 2 hours after hw,
by this time the
current was flowing full speed in the enterance channel,but we gave it a go with the
engine flat out and
boat speed over the ground down to 2.5 knots!
along the way we picked up a very tired "hitchhiker",a
racing pidgeon,poor thing could hardly hold its
head up,till we fed it some
water and bread!
it stayed the night and flew off in the direction of La Coruna the following morning.
the crew were great,both missionaries who have traveled and worked all over the world,so interesting company,though not sure if they approved of all my jokes!
the owner (who was one of the crew) took me out for a great meal where we had the local speciality,octopus cooked in ham stock,with piment"padrones",and deep fried baby squid as side dishes.
getting home was a 5 hour bus ride to Santander,a night in a nice "pensione",then on the
ferry over night to plymouth.
santander was great with a "fiesta" going on in the street adjacent to the pensione,lots of nice
food and local specialities free as tasters!
nice to go sailing and get paid for it!
all in all the westerly performed well,though i'm not sure i would like to be in open ocean in anything above a force 6 in it as the
bilge keels,small size and
shallow draft made things lively in 6 ft waves!
Re: atolls biscay adventure!
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