From Ilha da Berlenga, Portugal

Oct. 14Th, position 39°24.496N/009°30.260W; Ilha da Berlenga, 4nm NW of Peniche

We left Leixoes Oct. 12th, around 5 pm heading for Ilha da Berlenga about 115 nm SSW.

Ilha da Berlenga is a group of 3 [very] small islands which according to the pilot book were worthwhile visiting. The trip was okay but we had to motor a lot. Twice the wind picked up enough to set sail. We even hoisted the spinnaker but that didn't last long as the wind died again. For downwind sailing we need at least 10 kts with the swell, even if it's a mild swell.

Anyway we arrived around 3 pm next day and dropped the hook. It was indeed worthwhile :-) The 'main' island has a lighthouse and is inhabited by a handful of  people. The islands are a national park/bird sanctuary with trails for walking. Also there is an old monastery which seemed still in use according to the lights that were on at night...

We launched the dinghy, went over to a small beach and walked around for a bit. We didn't see that many birds but for the rest the view was great. Rutger walked over to the monastery were Monique and I picked him up with the dinghy later. We did a short tour around the cliffs in the dinghy and went into a cave that was in fact a tunnel. `The steering was a bit special because of the funny waves and eddies but we managed to avoid the rocks and the walls :-)

We had a very nice barbeque that night and stayed for the night. The wind had picked up a bit, so we hoped that we could have a nice sail to Lisboa the next day. Actually, we'll be heading for the marina in Oeiras at the entrance of the Rio Tejo. From there it´ll take about 40 minutes by train to get to the center of Lisboa. The plan is to visit Lisboa on Saturday.

The marinas more upstream are very crowded and don´t have any berths reserved for visiting yachts, according to the pilot. Only in high season there might be some spaces open from boats that are away. Cascais is the marina where most passing yachts go to, but that is a pretty long ride to Lisboa - and also very expensive.

Anyway, when we left the beautiful anchorage at Ilha da Berlenga this morning, the wind had died again so at the moment we are motoring, hoping the wind will pick up later ….
However, since we left Scheveningen, we have had no rain, apart form a few lost drops, only sunshine and starry nights and that´s really nice, too! :-)

Birthday in Porto

We arrived in Leixoes oct. 10^th at around 9 pm. Of course we waited till midnight to have a birthday drink but since we wanted to visit Porto next day we went to sleep not much later...

Next morning when I got back from a shower Monique had decorated the boat. That was really nice although it took a hint from Rutger for me to notice it … :-o. Anyway we left after breakfast and took the bus to Porto. The half hour trip was sort of a site seeing ride. It was a beautiful day and warm too. Walking in Porto means going up and down narrow and very steep streets and we had to walk in the shade because of the heat...

Porto is really worth while visiting and with Monique being our on shore navigator we got to see almost all the places that were in the book :-)

We had lunch at the banks of the river Douro that runs through Porto and went on with our tour, crossing the old bridge to the South side. Of course we there visited one of the port cellars ! We went to the oldest one which happened to be founded by an Englishman in 1790, called Sandeman.

Next English spoken tour however was not until tomorrow... so we did the first one that was on and that was in French.... None of us speaks French so apart from the few words we could pick up we were clueless about the story the guide so happily told us. Nonetheless it was nice and for sure worth while to be there and see all the huge barrels full with port. Some of those are itself ancient.

All the guides were of course dressed with the Zorro cape and sombrero so we had about a dozen Sandemans running around :-) The tour included a small tasting session of course. I had only once before drunk port and I didn't like it too much.. too sweet for my taste. This port however was much better!

Because of the heat we took a break several times to chill and enjoy the scenery. The ebb tide runs at an amazingly strength. In the pilot book it said that with heavy rainfall it can get up to 8 kts.

We had no rain but it was close to spring tide and that you could see!

Anyway after having tapas we went for a restaurant for dinner. My desert was served with candles on it which was a nice surprise and Monique had bought me a nice present, ..a Sandeman cap :-).

We took a taxi back to the marina. I must say that all Porto is not expensive at all. The cab ride was only € 13 and dinner for 4 including wine and desert € 70 and a bit.

We had a little sip of port when we got back to end a really wonderful day, and a very special birthday!

Oct, 10th, on our way to Portugal …

We had a lovely night in the Baiona bay. No wind, clear sky with moon and stars and a beautiful sunset. The barbeque was delicious :-)

Next morning we got up at 7am. The weather is great but there's not much wind, about 5kts S/SW

It's supposed to veer to W/NW but not to increase much.

Since Spain is one hour ahead of EST we had a really nice view of the sun rising at our stern while we motored out of the bay.

At around 09:00 UTC we crossed the border and changed the courtesy flag:-) We were welcomed by 15 kts of wind and a pack of dolphins that came playing at our bow.

We had all sails out including the stay sail and did 8 kts over ground :-)

That didn't last long though. After an hour or so the wind dropped to 3 kts and we motor sailed for a while. Then the wind picked up a bit but from the East... it was a broad to beam reach so we set the genaker. By the time we had it set, the wind had backed to North-West so we set it on the pole. That didn't last too long either.... and we were back to motor sailing.

A few hours later we could sail again with the spinnaker this time. This time the wind stayed steady for about 3 hours. It wasn't much but enough to enjoy a lovely afternoon sail,

After 73.6 nm and 13 ½ hrs we arrived in Leixoes and moored up, finding the office to open tomorrow morning at 8 am :-)

Islas Cies ..

After a great nightly sail where Rutger set the speed record to 11.4 kts over ground, we came in to Vigo and were looking for a short stay to do some shopping and get the permit to anchor in the Islas Cies national park. The marina that was supposed to be the newest one with all facilities was obviously not the one to go to... the man at the 'office' spoke not a word of English and there were no shops at all, so we went to another marina just in front of the old city.

It took us some time to get moored because and by the time we were all set, we thought it a waste to go through all that trouble for just an hour or so. Also the facilities were perfect, with a gym, swimming pool, wifi and excellent service. Rutger in particular was excited about the gym and is working out right now...:-)

Anyway, the lady at the marina office explained to me that in order to get the permit to anchor at Islas Cies, I needed to have a permit to sail there. That permit would take a week to get... So I needed to have a permit to apply for the permit I needed....

Well, it was not her fault but obviously this would not work out for us. So, instead we'll go to Panjon a little place in the Baiona bay nearby and anchor there tonight. We'll have a barbeque and sail out early next morning to Porto. There we'll stay for 2 days or so. We can't sail in to Porto it self, the river is way to shallow. We'll go to a marina at Leixoes just North of Porto.

Cabo Finisterre

Oct. 8th, 04:10 UTC, position 42º54.083N/009º24.482W

We are rounding Cabo Finisterre, the most western point of Spain. I got up an hour early for my watch. I took off my watch in A Coruna when it was still on BST, that is one hour earlier than Spanish time... :-o So I thought to write a small update for the weblog. No pictures this time, they won't go over the sat phone. Too bad... we took a lot of very nice pictures today in Corme.

We left A Coruna as planned around 9pm [local time]. The wind was good, as in 14 kts and on a beam reach we made a great speed., over 7.5 kts on average. So we did arrive in Corme in the dark. That wasn't too bad though, although the chart plotter in the saloon went down after we gibed. I don't know what the problem is, but it's working again. Anyway I could steer on the lighthouse and the buoys that marked the harbor. It helps when you look at the chart before you go, and have a picture of what to expect. But of course; the chart plotter at the helm helped too :-)

Corme is not the picturesque village we sort of expected. So the village itself is not worth a visit, but the bay and the landscape is!! Since we had arrived that early we decided to sail down to Vigo the same night. After Rutger had got us some nice croissants from the village, we walked around a bit, sat on the beach for a while and did some shopping for dinner - when siesta time was over...

Just as Rutger picked up Andy and me with the dinghy, we saw the local police launch theirs and soon after they came on board. Andy and Rutger were asked to give some more detailed information about the collision, especially about the visibility and the distance between the two vessels. Anyway, Andy had to write down and sign a second statement and that was it.

We had another great dinner cooked by Andy and I went to sleep. We would leave at the start of my watch at 11 pm. The trip to Vigo is about 120nm, so we would then get there around noon or so.

The wind was quite fresh when we left, about 25 kts, so was the swell. However, on a brad reach we did hit the 10.6 kts ground speed, towing the dinghy :-) Later the wind decreased to 15 kts and after the gibe, the swell was pretty much gone, which made it a bit more comfortable ride. The night is very clear though, at first the moon and a lot of stars when the moon set. Rutger saw dolphins alongside the boat but nor Andy or I could see them.

In Vigo we'll do some shopping and get us a permit to go to Islas Cies, one of the national parks, to anchor. According to the pilot book, that would be a very nice place to stay a day or so..

Next time when we have wifi again I'll upload some pictures … :-)

The morning after, update

With the help of the wine finally we all went to sleep. Waking up was a bit unreal though.
When I went over to the marina office, I learned that they were still searching for the 4^th man.

He might have been down below at the time of the collision and didn't manage to get out in time or injured by the collision. We only saw 3 man …

We all feel very sorry for the loss of the 4^th guy. We could not have done more or anything different but still.. you keep thinking what if …

Today we'll go for Corme after all. There's nothing more we can do here and there's no point in staying another day.

Andy posted an message on the Yachting Monthly forum and they asked us to write them the whole story and send it in. I think by writing and talking about it, it helps us to digest what all happened. Also we'll do some practicing in rescuing manoeuvrings on our way to Corme. We're all trained quite well but you have to keep practicing, although ... I really don't want this to happen for real again.

See for the artical of the local newspaper http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/coruna/2011/10/06/0003_201110H6P30991.htm?ok=1#

In the mean time we all went for a shower and Rutger gave a radio interview.

Some time later we were asked to go over to the port control office to give a statement.

Andy and Rutger told what they had seen and Andy was asked to write a statement and sign it. They also made a copy of my log. What seemed to have happened was that the fishing vessel tried to overtake the freighter but miscalculated their speed difference and the distance.

The man we got out of the water was probably the skipper and the one that's still missing is his son.

There were divers out now to try and find him. The other 3 are still in the hospital, one of them broke his leg.

We had a coffee and decided to pick up the plan we had yesterday, leaving for Corme tonight after dinner to get there by sunrise tomorrow morning. That is, if the visibility is good enough to get out of the marina.

may day, may day !!

What started as a lazy day ended with a disaster! We are okay though and so is the boat.

We, that is Rutger, Andy and Monique slept in and after we had brunch we launched the dinghy. We couldn't get the outboard started... no gasoline and I then remembered I forgot the external gas tank in Rijswijk. There was too little gas in the internal tank. A local fisherman came rowing alongside and wanted to help us. He only spoke Spanish and no English at all. Finally he understood that we were out of gas. So he rowed over to another vessel nearby and got us some. The outboard started but didn't run too well for some reason. The fisherman explained where to get some more gas and Rutger and I went ashore to get some. I thanked him very much and gave him € 10 for the gas and his help. He took the money for the one he got the gas from but didn't want any for himself. Instead he gave Monique 2 fish while I was away. While I was waiting for Rutger to come back from the gas station he came along and trew me another fish :-).

Anyway after a great diner prepared by Rutger with Andy supervising we left for a night sail to Corme, some 40 nm west.

We had just set the mainsail. I was down below checking the chart plotter when Andy and Ruthger urged me to come on deck. They just witnessed a collision between a fishing vessel and a big freighter. We immediately dropped the mainsail and went full throttle to the location of the collision, about .3 nm ahead of us.

I could steer the boat by the lights of the sinking finishing vessel. We heard people shouting in the water. Within 3 minutes we were there and saw 3 men in the water. Andy send had already send out a May Day. We picked one of the men out of the water, the second and the third one being picked up by a pilot vessel that came right after us at the place of collision. The man we picked up was not injured but in shock obviously. We could manege him to tell us there were 4 people on board of the fishing vessel.

I tried call the pilot vessel over the radio but the didn't seem to respond, at least not in English, so I handed over the radio to the man we picked up and they spoke spoke for a while. The pilot vessel picked up our man. We cruised around for some time to help searching for the 4^th person. By then there were at least 5 vessels and a helicopter nearby to search, using very bright search lights so we headed for the marina where I reported to the police. They made a first report and would be back next morning if needed. I also was interviewed by the newspaper that was already there...

We all had a drink and send out mails.. the modern way to write things off....

Anyway, we all did a good job I think, no panic, working well together with the search light, getting the man on board , making sure not to run over the sinking vessel... The throwing line didn't help though. There was an elastic cord on it I didn't know about and the brand new man over board system I bought in Brighton wasn't much help either. The rope was a mess!!

I'll have to check that out and make sure they're ready for use.

Anyway we made our way into the marina, not in for a sail anymore and all had a good glass of wine. Then it really sank in what we had experienced.... sort of... wondering what happened to the 4^th man...