The cheap life

After a day of organizing things and talking to people, Victor Too is now ashore in Póvoa de Varzim. This is a bit to the North of Porto and generally a nice place to stay. After a night at the waiting pontoon, we put my temporary home into a crane and on the land.



So now I've been doing the many chores which I've been putting off, scraping the antifouling, drilling holes for new senders, and getting the keel sand blasted. It's been a while since Victor Too was on shore and I hope to get the prop replaced with a folding one, for I have gotten tired of the sound of the prop turning while we sail.

So now the boat is a mess once again, for all the work tools have come out of hiding and certain inaccessible spaces had to be made available to put stuff in them, such as: holes!

This is the one for the log transducer. I re-used an old log site so I didn't have to make yet another hole in the hull. I just made the existing one bigger. Making a new one would have been easier, but the hull already has so many holes a Swiss cheese would feel quite inferior to it.

Yesterday I celebrated the sale - finally - of the bike and the termination of some more contracts I was bound to, such as insurance, insurance and even more insurance. I now only have two more insurance contracts going and it feels good to get away from some of the modern entanglements.

I need to get a replacement for the autopilot motor since it packed up while we were crossing Biscay. I already got someone on it but I dread to think what it'll cost. These Raymarine parts rarely come cheap.

But last night, I went out to eat and I found a local eating place which serves good quality Portuguese cooking which set me back a total of 5,5 Euros for food and half a litre of Vinho Verde. It's hard to think of a reason why I should go to the trouble of cooking, washing up, let alone get the ingredients for this type of food at these prices. Life can be cheap and it's about time, because getting here sure cost me enough. And that Romeo y Julieta cigar I savoured yesterday, was a well earned treat after a 1000 Mile trip South.

Trees and cathedrals

I got a chance to see the famed Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Ines and I went to see it on our last day in Vigo. So we took the train, a very nice and clean one, which took us there in just over 90 minutes.

Once we got to Santiago, we walked to the cathedral but there was a mass going on, so nobody could get in from the huge crowd already inside. So we went for lunch in a local bar and afterwards walked around some more until we could finally get in. The church is a very ornate Baroque style on the outside, but on the inside it's quite sober - apart from the huge gold altar ornaments, undoubtably a remains from the colonization.

I didn't feel any sort of catharsis, so perhaps I should walk there next time. I remember reeding the book "O caminho de Santiago" by Paulo Coelho and there wasn't a real catharsis at the end of that journey, either.

After getting back to Vigo, I took a picture of our boat tree Bao, which is short for baobab. Our tree got a shoot the day before we left, and now it's coming along nicely. I've had it for 5 months now and I was sure it had died, but baobabs are the most amazingly resilient trees.

It is my companion to care for while the trips lasts - and hopefully afterwards!

It's deep, over 4000 Metres. That's a lot of water!

We're in Spain. We are in Spain. It's 30 degrees outside and 34 inside, which is nice, and it's warm. We've been so cold getting here, both in France and crossing Biscay, but now all that's forgotten and it's warm.

Last blog post saw us in Brest, waiting for a weather window. We got that, and we left, first for Camaret to wait for the rain to pass. And it rained, it rained and it was cold and only Sven and Tony were brave enough to hop in the dinghy to get some fruit. By nightfall we got the fuel tank full on the diesel pontoon - at 1.33 Euro per litre, which is 10 cents more than the already elevated price in Brest. So much for gambling Camaret would be cheaper.

After we left, we got the promised North Westerly winds, but unfortunately it didn't quite get high enough to get us past Raz De Sein in one go, so we motor sailed once more until we passed the cape - another one. The good thing about the wind not being very strong was the wave action at Raz De Sein was not too bad. It's not a very pleasant place to be otherwise. Once we passed into the night, the wind turned West Southwest, instead of the Westerly winds we were promised. So we sailed South, confident that the forecast of North Westerly winds would make sure we got back on track. Our course was, after all, 214° for 354 Miles until Finisterre. After that, another 55 Miles saw us to Sanjenjo to wait out the storm anounced for Sunday evening.

After sailing South for 12 hours and getting 30 Miles off course, the navtex got a bit uncertain about the North Westerlies, especially in the area we were in (Iroise). So I decided to head back North West, to get more to the West where the wind would be more favourable. So we beat back to our track and just 5 Miles before getting to our track, the wind veered North just enough to start sailing South West again. In 24 hours, we gained just over 70 Miles. Now our speed was good as well as our heading. The only problem at that time was Sven who kept getting seasick. But after taking some drastic measures, that problem got sorted and and he remained free of sickness afterwards.

We were sailing fast and made good averages, reaching our half way point after 54 hours out of Camaret. After that, the wind started veering to the North and then North East. As it changed, it became much less, about Force 3. So after 66 hours of sailing, we had to switch on the engine for 12 hours. After that, the wind freshened and we sailed another 8 hours before rounding Finisterre, completing the crossing in 90 hours or just under 4 days.

We got into Sanjenjo late that night to be told that we couldn't stay as the marina was fully booked for an event with the Volvo Ocean boat Movistar. After some pleading ("We just crossed Biscay") we could stay until 10 a.m. so we went to the all night party to celebrate Ines' birthday - she was sick that day - and managed to get 3 hours sleep before the ferry arrived and we had to get off.

There were still no berths available and a force 7 or 8 was predicted later that day, so I decided to head for Vigo straight away. In the old Real Clube Nautico, it's nice to stay before leaving again, to Póvoa de Varzim in Portugal. There I'll repaint the antifouling and do some chores before Ingrid joins me later in August.

The Cape Route

Exactly a week after leaving Jersey, we finally made it to Brest. South Westerly winds, a Southerly storm force 9 and seaweed contrived to keep us from getting West. We spent three days near Tréguier waiting for the weather to improve, playing Colonists of Catan and visiting the bar on shore for ice cream. It's called Pesked and is very picturesque and they have good mussels. The oysters, however, may have had something in them as all of us got sick two days after eating them.



Once we got going, the North Westerly the forecast promised turned out to be rather Westerly, so no good progress was made and lots of diesel used. After the tide turned in favor for us, the waves got even higher so we made a short stop to sleep somewhere near Morlaix. After the wind and tide turned again, we left to make for Ouessant.

The wind was North Westerly at last, but it didn't last. After two hours, we were beating into a Westerly again and the engine stayed on for the next 12 hours. We had just rounded Portsall on the outer tip of Brittany, when a big field of sea weed got pulled into the propellor and stalled the engine. Just prior to it dying, I got it out of gear and now we were stuck with a prop full of weed and neither forward or reverse made it come free. So we stopped the engine.

Now we were drifting slowly towards the rocky passage of the Chenal Du Four, with hardly a Force 2 South Westerly and no engine. But as we tried gaining speed, the prop started turning along. So we tried starting the engine and it worked, but only forward. So we made for Camaret at slow speed. By 6 a.m. I tied to a buoy in the bay of Camaret and later, dove to free the prop from a thick layer of weed.

Later that day, I sailed the boat with two sick crew and a rather bad lack of sleep to Brest, where we moored next to the visitors pontoon at 5 p.m.

We were in Brest, and ready for the first big crossing.

South, always South.

It's been a roller coaster ride up till now. Our departure was delayed due to bad weather, but on Monday evening we finally left.



Lots of family and some friends made it to wave us goodbye, for which my thanks!

We set off with 6 crew, Troy and Helen from China, Ines and Tony from Belgium and Ingrid and me, obviously. Our first evening and night was uneventful, we sailed and motored and soon we were past Calais and getting some distance between us and the traffic system. Helen, unfortunately, was never without sea sickness. She managed to get some sleep in between of her exhausting dizziness, but could hardly eat or drink. After a rough night on the third day, on which we stopped over at Omonville-la-Rogue, just past Cherbourg, a decision was made.

Troy and Helen would get off the boat at St. Helier, on Jersey. This would put me two crew short for the Biscay crossing. Since this was already the 8th of July, it would be difficult to find new crew for the next part. So once we made it to St. Helier, I got busy with internet connections, e-mail and contacts I made earlier while looking for crew.

After a nice day at St. Helier, we left the following morning - or so we thought. Upon starting the engine, nothing happened. This was a first, and with only 30 minutes before the tidal gate shut, a tough decision was made to get a mechanic in order to make it for the next tide.

An hour later, a robust man showed up, said hi and jumped into the engine room. After a minute or so, he said to start the engine, got into the other side and said start her now. And at the first turn of the switch, she started! It turned out a wire had come loose from the starter motor. 10 Euros later, we were a happy crew again and the rest of the morning was spent in laziness.

Getting to St. Malo in Brittany was easy enough, although now we had to make the approach in the dark, as we couldn't start in Jersey until 4 p.m. But with the help of our trusted chart plotter, we got in alright and at 4 a.m. the next morning, tied on to the last available berth. We got around the Cherbourg promontory alright, although with 2 crew members less than planned.

Day One: crew arrival

It's still a big mess to sort out, but we're getting closer. Six people loaded 360 bottles of mineral water onto a 36 foot yacht. There are some nice mathematical remarks to be made about that. There is now some less space on the boat, especially in the lazarette. But that was always too big and easy to lose stuff in. A lot of the stuff that resided in it, is now sitting in the cockpit, so a nice challenge there to get rid of it all - or at least a lot of it.

And we still have some more equipment coming today, sails and a generator and diving gear. But everything will fit in there at some time so today I'll do some sorting out of all that's not where it should be.

Also today, two people of our departing crew are arriving. They will be staying until Portugal, so it's nice to meet Helen and Troy face to face at last. The other two crew we've already met, tomorrow everybody will be together and we'll see what happens.

Last week, I got all the odd ends sorted so the boat is ready to go and so am I. There still will be the usual pre-departure stowing and cleaning, but today, a good year has already begun!