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...

ola, ola A Coruna

Yesterday we arrived in A Coruna. The last 24 hours we did not have any wind at all, so we motored the last part. The weather is wonderful however, warm and sunny.

We changed the watch system. Instead the 4 hour system we are on a 3 hour system with Rutger doing his own watch by himself :-)

Our route is about 40nm east of the 'shiping lane' from the TSS by Finisterre to the TSS at Brest.

That doesn't mean no ship's crossing us and there are a lot of fishing vessels as we came closer to Spain, so you still have to keep a good lookout.

The nights are getting less and less colder. The last night I didn't even had to put on my sailing jacket!

In the evening you here the dolphins close by the boat, but when you take out the torch to spot them, they stay out of the light as if they're playing hide and seek :-)

And then, suddenly in the morning mist, the coast of Spain doomed up :-) That's a great experience after 5 days and 5 nights at sea :-) before that we could see the lighthouses of course but still...

Mine was the last watch in the dark, form 04:00 till 07:00 hr. There was this very annoying purse seine fisher, with that yellow flashing light. At first it looked like a north cardinal since it didn't seem to move anywhere, but the map didn't show any N cardinal. So it had to be a purse seine fishing boat. You know that from the book but they don't use that kind of gear in Holland.

They annoying thing is though that the flashing light is so bright, you can't see any nav lights. So you have no idea where he's going. Also the light was so bright that I could see it from 5 nm, but in the dark, distances are hard to estimate..

Anyway, getting into a marina was nice too.. We got the laundry done, clean out the boat a have a nice long shower :-) After 5 days at sea, everything gets a bit damp …:-o

Today Monique got on board and we'll go a mile or so further where, according to the almanac, there's a nice anchorage close to the beach. We'll try the barbeque to make dinner tonight:-)

Gently :-)

Sunday Oct. 2. - 12:00 hrs - Position 45º16.695N/007º15.557W, about 120 nm to go.

Sailing into Biscay is always said to be tricky. That might be very true but so far the the weather is magnificent. With a gentle breeze and a very gentle sea state we're having a gorgeous crossing.


We have crossed the deep water line and are now on the Atlantic.

We picked up a small bird around Brest I guess. That had to stay with us because we were too far from land for it to fly back. At one time it came to sit on Rutger's head and of course it didn't only sit but shit, too :-). It was a little bird so the dropping was small. Unfortunately, the stress must have been too much. It went to sleep last night under the spray-hood but Andy found it dead later :-(

Yesterday we had a lot of fuzz going on with a may day relay. There was a lot of talking over the radio and the distress signal went off a few times. Although we were in international waters, they only spoke French

over the radio. We had no clue at all, no position was given, whatsoever. Anyway, there were a lot of vessels in the AIS so I figured the rescue operation would not need our assistance. I guess we were too far away anyway, because I heard them talking about a cell phone number of the vessel in distress, so they had to be close to shore.

Later that day Rutger spotted a whale. We could see the spray of water a couple of times and it's back coming slightly out of the water. That was great. We tried to film it, but that didn't work out and it only lasted

for a few minutes. Too bad for Andy he was asleep ...

Last night was fantastic. We did about 6 kt over ground with 9 kt wind; it was not cold at all, and the sky was full of stars. The only light pollution came from our tricolor. 4 times I saw a shooting star, not just vaguely but like you see in the movies - right in the direction I was looking. So I made a wish: that everything would just continue as it was right now.... it was just perfect :-)

We have had no luck with fishing so far - all we caught is sea weed... The line obviously wasn't set tight enough when we put it out, so without us noticing it, the whole reel, about a mile, rolled out.  It took us quite a while to get it all in again...

Anyway, if the winds stays like this, we will do the whole trip from Brighton to La Coruña in just one
- port!! -  tack. That would be quite unique :-)

48º38.808N / 05º05.820W

BAY OF BISCAY  -  We left Brighton around 5pm Wednesday and started off with the genaker :-)

After a while though the wind dropped and we got down to 1.8 kt speed.

We started the engine to keep some speed. The night was clear and full of stars.

The winds stayed very light so we kept on motorsailing into the second night.

For a few hours we had some really thick fog. So again I was very pleased with the sea-me and the AIS.

Today, Friday, again the weather is very nice. The wind picked up a bit and we killed the engine, still doing 8.5 kt over ground !

The wind is supposed to become easterly. That would be great for a direct leg to La Coruña. If that would really happen, we'd make the whole trip from Brighton to La Coruña in one single tack !!