Barcelona to the Solent

[Differentroads]

Much good advice above.
I've only done the reverse of your route. The one thing I would add about the Portugese coast is it can be very foggy in August and September. We took four days to get from Vigo to Villamoura on the Algarve in early September two years ago two legs) and had unforecasted thick fog on three of them (36 hours and 12hours of visibility less than half a mile). No problems though. We were just five miles off the Finisterre to Cape St Vincent shipping lane and saw only one vessel going towards the Portugese harbours on our AIS on the westward coadt and three or four past Cape St Vincent as the fishing fleet started to come out antipating the fog lifting. Hugging the coastline would have been a bad mistake for us.
The big waves in Portugal that you mention are close inshore. If you are 5 to 10 miles offshore you only feel the ocean swells. But a 2m or more ocean swell can end up with bigger waves closing harbours that have bars at their entrances.
This is the website of the Portugese maritime agency. Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera. As well as weather and wave forecasts, there should be a link somewhere there to a map showing which harbours are closed due to the waves and weather.
Otherwise our modus operandi (husband and wife crew) is to sail 24 to 36 hour legs to make distance on the Spanish coast and then rest up for a few days before pushing on again. We like night sailing though.
We took Biscay in a five day leg from Falmouth to A Coruna. Loved it (F6 to7 in the Channel Approaches wasn't fun but once offshore the weather was very kind to us. Our tactic was to stay about 5 miles west of the Ushant to Finisterre shipping lanes so we were away from ships but within VHF range if the worst happened
Most ships travel in straight lines from one TSS to another so we plot our passages to run in parallel with those routes or cross them at right angles as though they were one long TSS. Makes life simpler and safer for us. Marine Traffic AIS app has a useful 'Density Map' feature that shows where shipping is heaviest.
If you were thinking about coast hopping around the Bay of Biscay I'd recommend that you consider sailing directly across (the whales and dolphins on the continental shelf blew my tiny mind!). Some of the time you save could be spent in thein the Rias of Galicia. We loved them.

[Simonradiohead]

Thanks Differentroads - great advice.. I have a crew of 4 so reasonably comfortable for a decent watch pattern. The passage is really a leisurely delivery / return of my boat to the UK. I'm currently planning to stop in Gibraltar for favourable tides and winds - fuel up and then head for Baiona / Vigo (stocking up on the lovely Alborinho wine from the Rias!) or A Coruna for the direct crossing. I haven't done the fuel calculations yet, but may need to refuel before reaching Galicia - so would probably do that on South Coast, before turning north at Cape St. Vincent. We plan to go out to about 10 deg longtitude and probably head for Plymouth, before doing the last hop to Swanwick..

[barnakiel]

There is also some excellent wine in the Setubal area - impossible to buy elsewhere.


The grapes are Moscatel, it is a dry wine (atypical as most Moscatels are done semi- or sweet - think of the Alicante varieties).


Very light colour and drank 'yong' (jovem) - always pick 2019, max 2018 bottles, never older.


A local treasure.


b.