Guggenheim Dog, originally uploaded by melandnick.
A week ago we completed our crossing of the Bay of Biscay and arrived in Bilbao, Spain. The crossing itself took three days/two nights, and was lovely, mostly we had clear blue skies, light winds and lots of sunshine.
Prior to this passage, we’d only done up to one night at sea, and I was still not comfortable with night watches and approached each one with a certain amount of anxiety. For those who don’t know, night watches are an unavoidable part of long distance sailing, their purpose is to ensure you stay on course, and more importantly, don’t crash into another vessel at sea, which would be catastrophic. Nick and I are following a 4 hour on, 4 hour off watch pattern, and the night is divided up into chunks as follows: 8pm to 12, 12 to 4am, 4am to 8am. During the day we catch an hour here or there to catch up on any extra sleep.
The dark watches are the ones I worry about most, between 8pm-12 and 12-4am, up until the Bay of Biscay, these have been the coldest and loneliest times to be outside in the cockpit, with nothing much to do other than look around for other boats, check the sails are trimmed properly and consult the GPS from time to time. Overall, I considered night watches, cold and boring, and a little scary due to the noises made by the sea and the boat which appear quite alien at night when you can’t easily identify their cause.
During the crossing of the bay, night watches transformed into a magical and wondrous time to enjoy my new environment. I took the 8pm to Midnight watches both nights, and as the sun set on the horizon the stars slowly came out one by one. The moon wasn’t out either night, and with such clear skies, I could see what seemed like whole Milky Way stretching out across heavens, the stars were so bright, that the sky was almost white with them, and I could clearly see the horizon, and sea around me. For the first time I saw 5 shooting stars in one evening, (Nick had told me you see them all the time, but I’d yet to experience it). As the hours drifted by, I became more and more at one with the boat, and the sea around me softly breaking every so often and the motion of Borne lifting us gently up and down as we headed South towards Spain.
As my watch finished, Nick took over, and within an hour he woke me and told me to come out to the cockpit straight away. At first I was reluctant, having just fallen asleep, but eventually I hauled myself outside to find that there was a pod of dolphins playing around us. At night, I didn’t see much of the dolphins themselves, instead I saw the streak of phosphorescent sparkles they leave in their wake as they flash around the boat like small comets, it was amazing.
So, now we’re in sunny Spain, and so far we’re loving it! We anchored in the main harbour in Bilbao for two nights. There was a fiesta in the suburb surrounding the harbour, and both nights we were treated to an amazing fireworks display right over our heads! We took a small cultural expedition to the Guggenheim Museum which was fascinating, although it would be untrue to say we fully understood and appreciated all the exhibitions…There was one in particular that caught our imaginations; a huge room dedicated to large brown structures that you walk around in spirals, it’s hard to describe, but was probably the highlight, that and the impressive architecture of the museum itself.
We left Bilbao and moved on to a place called Santona, which we didn’t fall in love with partly because it was very expensive and we didn’t even get hot showers.
We left Santona with the intention of travelling all the way to Viviero (about 200 miles west). A couple of hours in to our trip, Nick caught a 3 kilo Bonito. We decided at that point to pull into Santander, and anchored up near a beach on the way into the main harbour overlooked by a Palace and some very plush looking villas. The main reason for pulling in was to try and do some justice to the fish, cooking at anchor rather than at sea. However, having eaten some of this fish, I can tell you that if you’re ever offered Bonito it’s probably best to politely decline. I can’t imagine a way to cook it and make the thing taste good. So although it looks like a stunning fish (similar to tuna), I have said to Nick if we catch more, we should put them straight back into the sea! Upon tasting it, Nick also remembered he’d had it once before and didn’t like it then either, I only wish he had said so sooner!
We left Santander the next morning, having filled up with diesel and we were set to spend the next couple of nights at sea. As we motored down the river from Santander, we passed through a huge gathering of yachts milling around the start line of a major regatta, once we were half a mile beyond them, we heard the starting gun, and were chased down by 100 or so racing yachts taking up the width of the river.
The day was beautiful, hot and sunny, and the forecast was for it to be light winds for the next few days, so we thought we’d probably motor the whole way. In the evening it clouded over, and I took my first watch at Midnight. By 2am, the winds had picked up from 3 knots to 12, and by 2.30am gone from 12 knots to 21. This in itself isn’t particularly strong winds, however they were coming from directly ahead, and within an hour, the sea had built up into very steep waves of about 2.5 meters high which made for very uncomfortable sailing. I had to wake Nick up to put a reef in the main, and we spent the rest of the night being smacked around by the waves and bouncing all over the place until morning when the storm passed leaving a significant swell. By then, both of us were totally knackered, having not slept at all the night before, and we wanted to check the forecast, so we decided to head into Gijon for a night or two for rest and pizza!
We arrived in Gijon yesterday afternoon, and we’re safe and sound in a marina which is right in the heart of the city. Gijon itself is a very lively place, with live bands playing outside and all sorts of other things going on in the city centre. Last night there were lots of people out and about strolling around the city and enjoying tapas in the many bars dotted all over the place. We like it here. We indulged in a few beers and tapas and then munched a delicious pizza before heading back to the boat and crashing out.
We’ve decided to stay here for a few days as Nick needs to reseal the diesel tank and we’re going to wait for the wind direction to change, so looks like we’ll be off again towards Viviero on Tuesday.
Mel x
Hi Mel and Nick
Hope all is going well, sorry to hear you hit a bit of bad weather, but hey, that is ’sailing’
I bet weather is good, and you are getting a good tan. Just take care, and don’t take any risks, we are thinking of you x
Hi Nick,
You bought a stay adjuster from me earlier this year (or late last year) and I thought I would check up to see how you are going.
Your blog is great, and its good to see that you are there and ‘doing it’ I guess I am about two years behind you and you have refreshed my enthusiam to get going, so thanks.
Take care and clip on at night.
Kind regards
Sean
Hey Sean
Never got to fit the adjuster, it got added to the pile of bits marked “one day it will come in handy”.
Thanks for checking out our site. Glad you are working on escaping as well.
One thing I realise is that too many people wait for everything to be perfect before they leave and as a consequence never go.
Leave as soon as you can and things have a way of sorting themselves out along the way…….I built us a new table today!!
Keep in touch.
Nick
Bonito – with most tuna you need to gut and bleed then fairly soon after catching – otherwise the bllod goes bad and gives it that dry unsuculent taste. You can also marinade them in chunks in a mix of lemon juice, oil and rum – then barbeque.
But no bonito is’nt too good anyway…….
Best
ian
Unfortunately, unlike a true tuna like skipjack (which looks almost identical), no matter what you do to Bonito it still tastes like ASS!!
Nick