KATIE'S BLOG - feeling seasick

We are in Viano Do Castelo now, but later today we are moving to Leixoes near Porto, (apparently there’s seven days of good weather so we won’t be stopping for a while). Last night we climbed seven hundred and forty eight steps to what mum thought was a nun house- it turned out to be the Sanctuary of St Luzia, it was amazing, there were beautiful paintings all around the ceiling and walls.

never ending steps up.

Sanctuary of St Luzia 

amazing paintings on the ceiling

Yesterday, on the way here, I saw a sunfish about a metre away from the boat and a foot under the surface. A few minutes later, dad spotted a dark fin in the water slapping the water either side of it- it was also a sunfish we think, it looked really weird! I saw two dolphins heading inland but apart from that none came to play, surprisingly, lots of swimming crabs passed our boat about half a metre below the surface though!

In the last place we stopped, Bayona, we met a couple on a boat who told us that, just round the corner there was a small lagoon full of birds, the next day we went to investigate- it was beautiful. They came round the first evening with some muffins they had made, and apparently they are heading to the Guadiana as well, they are moving on Saturday when the wind is the right direction to sail. The next day we made some shortbread cookies and added colour dye to them – they turned out rather strange but delicious, we gave some to Mickie and Carl on the boat next to us.

Reuben standing in the water when we touched the bottom

us walking on the beach afterwards

😈


I have made up my mind, when I am older I am going to learn how to freeze time around me so when I’m at sea and feeling rather peckish, I can stop the rolling, step onto the sea and simply walk over the frozen waves to shore. I would then go on a bus to Ares and have a delicious meal of steak in the restaurant, when I am full I would catch a taxi to opposite where our boat would be, walk back out past dolphins frozen in mid-air, turtles on the surface, jelly fish, whales and lots more. When I was settled down back on board, I would click my fingers and everything would go back to normal. Simple.

Anyway, I am not looking forward to being at sea for the next couple of days, so I’m not going to write anymore because we are heading out to sea, and already I can feel my stomach churning up inside me, so, good bye.

 P.S the one thing I am most thankful for is land.    

Hasta luego Espana

Thankfully, the fires in the hills seemed to have dissipated by morning, leaving patches of bare brown on the hilltops.  The rias to our south had been much more badly affected – there was a shocking picture online of the city of Vigo with a complete backdrop of flames. It got so close to the town that people were lining up to form human chains passing buckets of water to save their houses. The next day the southerly wind brought a lingering smell of smoke up to us and the air was a hazy white.

our view of the fires near Pobra do Caraminal

We ended up staying in the ria de Arousa for ten days as first hurricane Ophelia, and then storm Brian passed, each knocking up big swells out to sea. Not much of this swell found its way up the ria to us, but enough to let Dave try out his new invention – a ‘rocker-stopper’. You hang it over the side and metal flaps open and close as the boat rolls, damping down the rolling action. I am pleased to report that it definitely made a difference,

Dave's rocker-stopper about to be lowered in

We carried on with school each morning, and explored in the afternoons. Since we were surrounded by mussel beds, we decided to go and watch the men at work one day. They were feeding medium-sized mussels into a machine, which cleaned them and poured them out into a long, mesh bag with a laddered rope through the middle. This gets tied underneath the mussel raft, the mussels then re-attach themselves onto the rope and grow for the next eight months until they are big enough to harvest for sale. Fascinating stuff, and hard, heavy work, even with all the machinery. The fishermen were happy for us to watch, and gave us a bag of undersized (for them) mussels, which was a welcome feast for Katie and I!

    exploring all the corners of Pobra do Caraminal

fishermen on mussel beds

For a change of scene, we visited Vilagarcia on the opposite side of the ria. This was a much bigger town and we bought a few supplies - a new Spanish flag, a blanking plug for the engine, and a chess set for the kids. We also treated ourselves to lunch out, and couldn’t believe that a pasty and a drink each in a café, along with a couple of free cakes, came to a grand total of 7 euros!!

Back in Pobra do Caraminal, another British yacht came to the anchorage and we soon got friendly with the owners, Ian and Charlotte, who were also waiting for better weather. We shared a couple of evenings and a few beers with them, and the kids got spoiled rotten - with sweets, art supplies and attention from somebody other than us!

Reuben with his new best buddy

Finally, the weather was in our favour and both boats set out to sea, our friends heading north back to the UK, and ourselves south to Bayona. We have stopped here several times and thought we had seen most of the town, with its wonderfully preserved castle and scenic waterfront.

Bayona's well-preserved castle

This time, we spotted a statue on a hilltop and decided to walk up to it. On the way, we saw for ourselves the damage from the recent fires. Right alongside the road, the tree trunks were blackened, many wooden posts holding path-side ropes were burned away, and you could still smell the charred remains of the fire. Only one side of the hill seemed to be affected, and the statue at the top was intact – an impressive stone lady called ‘the Virgin of the Rocks’, holding a ship, that Dave & Reuben paid a euro to climb up to!

fire damage on hillside

Dave & Reuben in the Virgin's ship!

From the top, we could see that fires had ravaged the hillside opposite, and this had almost reached the lines of houses. Again, I wondered who would have lit so many dangerous fires, and why? Amazingly, although 80-plus fires were set in Galicia, only 4 people lost their lives.

Fire damage close to houses in Bayona

On a lighter note, Reuben spotted an amazing insect on the walk up. We at first thought it was a type of big grasshopper, until we noticed that it had skinny back legs, and bigger front legs. He seemed quite placid, and let Reuben put his hand very close, before crawling away over the edge of the pavement. After searching on google, we identified it as a praying mantis. They are quite fearsome predators - there are several youtube clips of them devouring much bigger prey, even a mouse!

Reuben with the praying mantis

  

We spent a couple of days in Bayona, with three other cruisers anchored nearby – two French yachts and a German Australian, all heading south. On their advice, we took the dinghy across the bay and found a hidden lagoon, full of fish and wading birds feeding in the marshes. We had a happy hour rowing around the shallows, and spotting oystercatchers, herons and spoonbills. We walked back along the beach, which started off all clean, white and sandy and turned darker and more seaweedy until it felt like we were squelching through stinky black mud – yuk!

pristine beach by the lagoon 

dodging seaweed at other end of beach!

Today, we crossed the border from Spain to Portugal and hope to continue south quickly while good weather is with us.

Hasta luego Espana!

Galicia

We spent two days in Ares to make up for the Biscay crossing. It is a lovely little town with huge sandy beaches, a handy supermarket, playpark and long beachside walkway. A great place to unwind, especially with temperatures in the mid-twenties. The kids played on the beach, took turns in the kayak, we dug for clams and had a lovely BBQ on a secluded beach – this is more like it!

digging for clams at Ares

ashore at Ares

kids kayaking back from BBQ on beach

However, we wanted to take advantage of the settled weather and spent three days on the move. From Ares to Camarinas, then to Muros, and to the ria de Arousa. Each day starts with an hour or so of school then the rest of the day at sea. Katie and Reuben, as always, amaze us with their inventiveness. Katie decided to hang upside down from the boom swing one afternoon, so Reuben made himself some ‘armour’ and soon a sword fight was in full flow!

sword-fight at sea!

We try and go ashore on arrival, but this is quite a job in itself. It means winching the small dinghy (full of stuff) from inside the big dinghy, placing it further back on deck, then winching the big dinghy over the side. The children have been very helpful at tailing the winch for us, and Reuben was in a determined mood the other day and actually winched the dinghy all the way up. He said, “it’s good training to get your heart going!”

Muros town, with classic glass-windowed balconies

We are now tucked away in a place called Pobra do Caramiñal, way up the ría de Arousa. We will stay here until hurricane ‘Ophelia’ has passed and the sea calms down, although another big low looks set to follow. In the meantime, we are enjoying yet another sandy beach, and a thriving town. We made a repeat visit to the incredible waterfalls and natural swimming pools up the mountain - as stunning as last year.

hiking up to the pools

natural swimming pools

view from the pools right across the ria

We met another sailing family with a boat in the marina here. Their kids came over to say hi when we were topping up with water, and the parents came and had a chat. They are a ‘real’ sailing family – have just come from Alaska via the North West passage, and have spent the last eleven years sailing in the Pacific/New Zealand/South America, and spent time up the Amazon. We feel like amateurs!

view from our anchorage - mussel beds and small fishing boats

We looked out earlier tonight and thought we saw the moon coming up really red over the hills on the opposite side of the ría. It turned out to be a huge fire in the hills. There is another one raging in the hills above the town on our side. I have just looked online and apparently 80 fires are raging out of control all around Galicia, they suspect arson. Why would anybody do that?

I think we are safe out on the water but it sounds like a lot of homes are at risk.

Let’s hope the forecast rain comes very soon. 

BAY OF BISCAY

After our calm trip around the Raz de Sein, we were hopeful of a gentle trip across Biscay. The forecast was winds F3-4, starting from the W and coming round NW, then NE, possibly fading away in the middle of the bay, then coming E as we neared land. Sounded perfect!

Before leaving, we made sure we had a good breakfast, did school, lashed everything possible on deck and below ‘just in case’. I even persuaded Dave to put out the lifelines, even though he assured us, “It’s not going to be rough!”

Off we went. The wind was light and a bit too tight for us to sail, so we put the sails up and kept the engine ticking over to help us along. The sky was a murky grey when we left. The coast of France disappeared behind us within 2 hours, and we were alone on the sea.

Well, not completely alone.  A little yellow/brown bird landed on deck for a few minutes then turned and flew off in the direction of a nearby ship. Gannets wheeled all around us, and we had an early visit from a pod of dolphins. The kids eagerly wrote a list of things we might spot – whales, dolphins, turtles, gannets, giant squid, mermaids… the list was pretty imaginative!

Katie & Reuben watching dolphins

After lunch, more and more patches of mist came over us, and visibility was down to a mile at times. The predicted 1.7m swell came rolling in from the west, making us feel a bit queasy, so Katie and I were trying to stay on deck in the fresh air. It was pretty cold and damp in the ‘mizzle’, so we huddled under a blanket with coats and hats on.
We were rewarded for our efforts by a group of dolphins that came and played around the bows for about 40 minutes. They did some spectacular jumps right out of the water, and there was a baby joining in too. That cheered us up no end, although we had to ditch the blanket to watch and our clothes were soaked through by the end!

Katie looking out with a mizzle cloud ahead

During the night, the wind came round as predicted, but still fairly light, so we carried on motor-sailing. We take turns to do 3-hour watches at night while the other sleeps, and we try not to wake each other unless absolutely necessary. The constant engine noise is good for the sleeper!

The sky finally cleared in the night, and the whole sea was lit up by the full moon overhead, almost like daylight. Bizarrely, after the dampness of the day, there was no condensation and all the deck hatches were dry to sit on. Both Katie and Reuben came up to do a bit of night watch with us.

The wind kept veering though, and the sails were losing their wind. We really needed to gybe but we couldn’t do it on our own – we have two sets of running backstays to change on a gybe – so ended up altering course more and more to starboard to keep the sails from banging.

Dawn came really slowly, the moon and stars still visible as the sky lightened. The kids were awake with me, and we took guesses on what time the sun would appear. Not until 8.30!

Full moon still visible as sky lightens

sun coming up behind us

By the time Dave came up, we were quite a way off course. Together, we gybed the main over and were able to get back on course, and finally turn the engine off. No more exhaust fumes!

The second afternoon was as good as it got. We had passed the halfway point, we were sailing well, the sun was shining, and the swell was dropping. We all sat out on deck listening to music and scanning the sea for wildlife. The Biscay is renowned for its whale sightings, but all we saw were five Portuguese men-of-war and one storm petrel. No whales. No dolphins L
Katie was still feeling poorly but she ate a few morsels of food and seemed happy watching Reuben doing his ‘training’ around the hatch. Every third lap, she tried to give him a prod, and every fifth lap, he got a high five!

We sailed well through the night, the speed increasing as the wind picked up – from an average speed of 4.5 knots, we were touching 6 knots. The rolling also increased, and I wondered, as I often do, if all sailing boats roll as much as ours? The shape of our hull is very round to hold as much fish as possible, and even amongst fishermen, it has a reputation for ‘rolling like a pig’. I think this is what makes us all feel so tired and seasick…

Cookers roll with the motion of the sea!

It was hard to sleep ‘off-watch’. The rolling takes not just your body back and forth across the bunk but your stomach sloshes from side to side inside your body. Not a nice feeling! The propeller free-spins while sailing and the quicker we sail the quicker it spins. The noise of it below was like a whirring windometer, and each time it speeds up, your brain starts thinking about how much the wind must have picked up. Eventually, you drift off to sleep, only to get woken what seems like 5 minutes later to do your watch. Climbing out of that warm, cosy bed for the umpteenth time was starting to feel like ‘Groundhog Day’.

Katie's matted hair after a night of rolling in her bunk!

By morning, the wind increased to a steady Force 5. Our speed hit seven, then eight knots. One wave slapped us hard and threw water right over the deck and in through the open deck-hatch porthole. It got so rolly that water sloshed out of the toilet bowl. We have never had this happen before, not even on the Atlantic crossing!

Sailing well

Reaching amazing speeds -for us!

The forecast we had seen showed stronger winds around the coast near la Coruna on Friday, gusting to 25 knots, but dropping to nothing on Saturday. Perhaps these stronger winds were going to last a bit longer than expected?

Poor Katie. She came up hoping to find that the sea had miraculously calmed down as predicted, but instead it had picked up and there was white water everywhere. She sat wrapped in a blanket looking rather pale until she finally threw up.

Katie feeling the motion

Dave emerged from his bunk early because he was worried about the jib still being out. He clipped himself on at the bows and started hanking on the staysail when a big wave sent spray right over his head. That’s one way to wake up! We soon got the staysail up and rolled the jib in – much safer.

We all got a boost when the hazy coastline of Spain appeared in the distance, but we still had 35 miles to go. Because of our fast speeds, at least we would arrive in the late afternoon as opposed to around midnight as expected. I could see Katie’s eyes keep flicking to the clock, trying to speed the time up!

We had a close encounter with a ship as we came closer in. I could see it on our AIS screen coming from our starboard, and it was going to pass very close, within 0.1 of a mile. I radioed the ship and the captain said he was going to pass in front of us. He got closer and closer until he was only 3 miles away and still he was on a collision course. I radioed again and offered to alter course to starboard, but he assured me he would alter course and pass ahead. At this point, it would have been just as easy - not to mention safer - for him to alter course to pass behind us.

However, he did alter course to starboard, but as our speed kept accelerating in the wind, the predicted distance between us kept getting smaller. It was nail-biting watching him get closer and closer and still not cross our bows. Eventually, I altered course ten degrees to starboard just in case, and we passed safely behind him.

Close encounter with a ship off Coruna

From this point on, the wind got stronger and stronger. Soon it was a steady force 6, with spray over the deck, and the downwind decks often awash with water. We had to take the mizzen down because the boat kept turning into the wind and going broadside to the waves. Reuben wanted to see the waves so Dave tethered the two of them together and they went out on deck. Reuben was enjoying the fresh air and dodging the spray until one decided to break right over him!

Reuben wave-watching

Then we were all back in the wheelhouse, watching as the wind and waves continued to pick up. I clocked gusts of 35 knots on our hand-held windometer before it got too wet to go out. Soon, it must have reached F7-8. The whole sea was white, with green, breaking waves. The wind was absolutely howling, blowing spray across the deck and off the tops of the waves. Water constantly poured over the decks, and even found its way up underneath the (closed) wheelhouse door.

getting rougher

strong winds off Coruna

The boat still kept turning to windward so Dave ended up firing the engine to keep us on course, but even he was struggling to control the rudder. Eventually, after a long, stressful couple of hours, we got some shelter from the headland, and the sea became more manageable as we got closer into shore. As we turned the corner into Ares bay, the waves suddenly died and the sea became miraculously calm.

Bizarrely, there was almost no wind at all in the bay, it felt like we had dreamt it all! By the time we reached the anchorage, we had washed the salt from every surface, and were feeling human again. The little town of Ares was buzzing with life. At 6pm it was still hot and we could hear children laughing and splashing in the sea! We launched the dinghy as quickly as possible and went ashore to dry land, and a celebratory beer. It was fantastic to see Katie wolf down a plate of food when we went ashore!

Katie relieved to arrive 

Anchored in Ares

So all in all it wasn’t the worst trip ever, just incredibly tiring. The weather was OK for the first two days, but we just didn’t seem to stop rolling. Maybe the extra weight of our new topmast has a role in this?
The last morning was rough by anybody’s standards. Maybe we are just getting too old for this sailing malarkey?!

The kids did brilliantly. Reuben acted as though everything was normal, and was happy drawing his comic strip on the last morning, although he did fall asleep when it got really rough. He provided welcome entertainment for us all – enjoying building cushion towers then falling off them in the waves!

Reuben on his cushion tower

Katie felt dreadful for pretty much the whole trip. It is really hard knowing your child is suffering and being unable to help. I think the lowest point for me was on the third morning when Katie announced, “I think I’ll die before we get to Spain!” I am happy to announce that she didn’t and has since made a full recovery!

Here’s a little video clip to give you a taste of our Biscay! 

KATIE'S BLOG - THE CROSSING OF THE ‘BAY OF BISCAY’

We have officially crossed the “Bay of Biscay” and I suggest that you don’t do it!! The forecast is probably nearly always wrong, the sea is rough and the wind is surprisingly strong, our trip had all those.

We set off from Audierne and there was hardly any swell, me and Reuben stood at the bows of the boat and within about fifteen minutes a pod of four dolphins were jumping underneath us – a good start to our trip.

 Before lunchtime mist came in around us, and during the afternoon it thickened (we only had around one mile visibility but we now have AIS so we knew if any ships or fishing boats were around us.)

 At 4:10 we spotted dolphins off the port side and followed them up the boat, they stayed with us for forty minutes or so before wavering off into the distance. Reuben was down below watching ‘Hook’ so he missed them but me and mum were on the bowsprit enjoying the company.

That night I was up from 10:15 till 12:30 on a night watch and woke up to start the day at seven thirty. 

At twenty past eight the sun still hadn’t come up (we had made bets on it) and to show my disappointment I vomited over the stern, Reuben sat up on his knees to watch me out of the window but mum came to my aid with a bottle of warm water. Luckily the mist had cleared but the swell and wind picked up and although the sun was out, it was a surprisingly cold day on the ocean.

Again I had done a couple of night watches so I was quite tired and when my brother who was full of energy started eating Cheerios I threw my guts up again but this time it was bright green acidy liquid after being forced to drink gallons of water! I have had pink sick – after drinking fruit tea, orange sick, yellow sick and now even neon green sick so next time I’m planning for it to be blue (beforehand I’m going to eat blueberry bon-bons!)

Overnight the wind picked up again and although the forecast had said a force 3-4 it proved wrong and we spent the next day in a force 7-8. Not nice at all I can tell you. 

  

                                               THE VIEW FROM MY PORTHOLE

The last two days of the crossing we saw no wildlife except two sea gulls, three gannets, a storm petrel and five Portuguese men of war. I spent the whole last day staring at the clock – I’ve never known time from 7:52AM until 6:34PM go so typically slowly!!!!!!!! We got to Ares (where we are now,) and launched the dinghy, Dad rowed us ashore to the slip way and we met two Spanish men who asked us about the boat and where we had come from. We had a delicious meal out in a restaurant and came home to bed- we were all shattered!

But now we are finally here and enjoying the sun shine. 

WE MADE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!