Gale force winds, violent storms, strong currents, crashing waves, shallow patches, hidden rocks and a wild rugged landscape are all features of the section of coastline we motored along on Monday - known as Costa da Morte (Coast of Death).   Our 3 hour passage was relatively calm and unremarkable. The following day, Tuesday, was an altogether different experience with winds steadily blowing over 50 knots all day long, gusting higher at times, and rain falling heavily.  Having seen this coming on the weather forecast a few days ago we’d planned to be securely tied up in Muxia Marina, a safe, sheltered harbour, to sit out the storm. Even when the gale force southerly winds have subsided there will be a couple of days of large Atlantic swell so we’ll probably be ‘storm bound’ here until at least Friday. It was a ‘ No-brainer ’ to stay a while - funnily that’s the name of the large catamaran now moored up in front of us that arrived in the dark last night looking for a safe haven...

This morning we’ll set off from A Coruña having spent 2 days here in one of its marinas. It took a good few hours for my brain, and legs,  to adjust to being on solid land after five days out at sea, pitching, rolling, swaying and surging with the waves motion. On arrival on Friday we put up the yellow quarantine flag and, after checking in at the marina office, we walked to find the Immigration and Customs Offices in the centre of the city. It’s important to get the formalities done correctly as ‘we’ are subject to the strict 90/180 Schengen visa rules and the ‘boat’ gets a generous, and easily extendable, 18 month Temporary Admission.  Staff in both offices were polite and efficient - we still don’t seem to be fully on the Entry/Exit System (EES) yet as we’ve never had our fingerprints taken, only the facial recognition part. Conscious the offices shut early in the afternoon, and it was Friday, we’d dashed straight in looking quite windswept and in dire need of a shower. The...

If I’m perfectly honest I really wasn’t looking forward to this passage. Three days and nights non-stop out at sea, at a time of year when the weather could make things pretty uncomfortable. Do we worry more as we age or get more risk averse in our older years? I seem to remember the 21 year old me was pretty adventurous!   Anyway I survived our Biscay crossing and here’s a few highlights and observations from the 75 hour passage.  Weather / Sailing Our marine insurance renewed in August but our previous company wouldn’t cover us to cross Biscay after 15th September. Thankfully our broker managed to source another underwriter with a slightly later deadline of 1st October to be across the notorious bay. Not a great confidence filling start is it?  On Tuesday morning we left St Mary’s Harbour in the same misty conditions as when we arrived. The weather forecast was being relayed on the VHF radio as we motored off the mooring and I remember hearing the word ‘variable’ mentio...

As a nation, the British are obsessed with the weather, sailors even more so. It dictates route planning, navigation, your destination, your safety and ultimately whether you'll have a good or a bad day. Despite the misty conditions we found ourselves in on Monday, the beauty of that morning was seeing a Fog Bow, a rare weather phenomenon, which is a white rainbow lacking the vibrant colours of a normal rainbow. To see a Fog Bow you need to have the sun behind you and a bank of fog in front of you. It generally has a much wider arc and the one we saw stayed in the sky for over 2 hours.  I've posted photos to the BBC's Weather Watchers site for a few years now and previously had 2 photos used on their weather forecasts. Within minutes of me posting my Fog Bow photo on Monday it had been chosen as an 'Editors Pic' and appeared behind a slightly bemused Matt Taylor who, I suspect, hadn't prepared for discussing that photograph or weather phenomenon.  I am schedulin...

As dawn broke on Sunday morning we left our berth at Cardiff Bay Yacht Club and entered Lock 2 of the barrage, squeezing in with 2 fishing boats and a survey vessel. Previous trips 'beyond the barrage' hadn't been for longer than a couple of hours which helped me to build up my confidence and remind me what I needed to do to be a competent crew member. Setting off today felt different - it felt very real all of a sudden.  The strong winds of the past couple of days had eased off but the sea was very lumpy and confused, added to that we immediately had 6 hours ahead of us motor sailing against the tide. There wasn't much to see in the way of passing vessels or other distractions - I just focused on watching the distant horizon to try and keep the feeling of queasiness at bay.  After about 10 hours Lundy came into view, as did a pod of very playful dolphins followed by the most amazing sunset. That's more like the sailing paradise I signed up for!  After the sun final...

If you’re wondering whether we’ve left Cardiff yet then the answer is no. Weather permitting we are aiming to set sail early on Sunday morning. So watch this space!! The forecast for today and tomorrow wasn’t favourable, although the morning started very calm so I winched Dave up the mast to fix a cable that had become loose and to silicone the whole of the mast track. By lunchtime the predicted wind was increasing accompanied by rain. Wet and windy weather isn’t an issue in itself but the direction it is currently blowing from would have meant we’d be heading into an uncomfortable sea and slamming into waves .  Sunday looks much brighter with lighter winds. Our plan is to set off at dawn and we expect it will take us about 30 hours non-stop to get to the Scilly Isles where we should be able to pick up a mooring buoy in St Mary’s harbour.