Hola!

We have made it across Biscay! We left from the Rade de Brest on Monday the 23rd, at 5am and arrived yesterday at 2pm. We had a good crossing all in all, but we did have to motor for a day. When it picked up again on Tuesday it was a kind north easterly so we made good progress with that. We took three hours each on watch, so fairly relaxed! 3 on and 6 off. After the day of motoring and hand steering , when the wind picked up again the self steering wind vane, did all the work. The sea was fairly messy on the first day out, we had strong tidal currents to get out past as we left the Rade de Brest and the was quite a swell and chop left over from the previous few days strong winds. It settled down though as we got into the passage and we had some lovely sunny days and moonlight nights, dolphins, whales and submarines to watch!

Arriving in spain

James and dan

We have arrived into Ribadeo, east of La Coruna. Its a lovely old town, slightly crumbely , warm and breezy, there are fairly high hills overlooking the town just inland, covered in trees and open pastures. Its very pretty. We arrived into the marina in the town as we were rather keen to use their facilities , showers and washing machines, and for a night of relative calm. we had a wander round the town and stopped in a little bar for tapas and a refreshing beer. Then after lunch when the office was open again, we checked in. Very friendly people, Dan and I have absolutly no spanish! And they didn’t have any english, James was able to help with some words, and with a lot of cheerieness we managed to produce all the many documents they seemed to need.

Later we had a visit from the customs onboard (unlike in France) . They also didn’t have any english, and James had gone ashore at this point to check for bus times as this was the point he has to leave us. We managed again to provide all the nessisarys for the customs, Dan resorted to speaking the most amount of French i have ever heard him speak (even though they didn’t speak French either) and making a lot of diffirent noises . They thought we hadn’t understood what they were asking when we kept saying she was built in 2012, as she now looks like she has been around a while!

we went out for a very lovely and fun meal last night as it was James’s last night. Very nice friendly bar people even again though there was’nt any common languge Between us. We had drinks after on the house and were treated to some local spanish songs being sung in the bar.

James has left this morning. Its was really great having him with us, we enjoyed his company and help very much. And he fitted in with our systems and life aboard Hestur very well

dan and i fancy going to the Picos de Europa for a spell, so we are thinking of sailing east tommorrow morning.

I have downloaded a teachyourself spanish app for the ipad….

Here are some photos from the Rade de Brest, when we spent some time at a really nice little place called Fret.

Oysters!

Our new rowing style

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