Cordelia’s Travels 2021

Chapter One: WE’RE OFF

So here we are in Almerimar on the Costa del Sol, Cordelia’s home for the winter. We chose it for the following reasons: it’s warm, windy with windsurfing nearby, it’s got chandlers and haul-out facilities, supermarkets not far away, and no fishing or commercial fleet that could wake us up in the middle of the night with their loud bubbling engines. Admittedly, it’s not a pretty place, but it does suit our needs. Here is a synopsis of how we got here:

We’ll spare you the details of the preparation of ourselves, our belongings and of Cordelia, our Beneteau Océanis Clipper 393. Suffice to say we started our adventure on 5 June 2021 when we left our home port Lowestoft at 4.40am, bound for Ramsgate.

Two days later we sailed on to Dover from where we departed in the densest fog we’d ever encountered. We couldn’t even see the wall when we exited the harbour, so this was a good time to familiarise ourselves with the radar. We had three days of sight-seeing there (the castle, cliffs, Blériot memorial, bronze age boat, etc.) and were keen to move on to Eastbourne and further on an overnight passage via the south of the Isle of Wight to Studland Bay.

This still being June, the days were long and on this occasion we were even treated to a glorious sunset.

Portland was next on our list of destinations. It lived up to its reputation of being a windy place – it was howling! At least this time we could restock our dwindling provisions at Lidl’s close-by rather than trudging up the hill or hiking all the way to Weymouth like we had to on our shake-down cruise two years earlier.

We had a rather rough ride with rain, wind and waves on our overnight journey to Plymouth where we anchored in Jennycliff Bay. What a lovely place that was, despite the adverse weather! Conditions finally improved after the second night and we had a pleasant sail out of the Sound to our next anchorage off Polgwidden Cove in the Helford River. After two quiet nights there we were running low on victuals, so we picked up a mooring buoy outside Falmouth in over 20 knots of wind to remedy the situation. We stayed three nights and carried food and drink back from Sainsbury’s and Lidl’s, ditched our garbage, made ample use of the shower facilities and did our best to keep out of the rain.

When we had the opportunity we motored up the River Fal to the Truro River where we found a long midstream pontoon with rubbish bins. Here, we decided, would be the ideal place to wait for a weather window to cross the Bay of Biscay. It reminded us of our holidays on a cruiser on the Norfolk Broads, but we could well have been in the Amazon with all the greenery and strange noises of wildlife around us. In the end we stayed fifteen nights and despite the rain – and wow, does it rain in Cornwall! – enjoyed it immensely.

We had fantastic walks around Malpas, tried fishing with oysters and mussels (the fish were not impressed – not a single bite!), took our tender all the way to Truro where we could moor up right outside Tesco’s which made it easy to provision, followed England’s progress on the football (there was good internet connection on the pontoon), met fellow sailors and exchanged plans, checked on and prepared Cordelia for the crossing and took time out to relax.

Chapter Two: THE CROSSING

We must have read nearly all that has ever been written on the Bay of Biscay. We’d studied the charts, planned routes and of course kept an eye on weather and sea conditions. Finally, it looked like there was an opening. We consulted PredictWind, a weather routing software, looked at other forecasts and they all seemed to align. So we rigged our high-wind jib, tested our third reef, precooked a meal and made up a loaf of sandwiches, stocked up on easy-to-cook comfort food, water, fuel and gas, paid our fees and slipped our mooring in the Truro River at 9.00am on 13 July 2021. We motored down the river and an hour later waved good-bye to Pendennis Castle at Falmouth. We set sails starting with our usual combination of mainsail and genoa, but once the wind had increased sufficiently, we put a reef in the mainsail and swapped the genoa for the jib. This turned out to be a wonderful choice and we were whizzing along splendidly.

A pod of dolphins turned up in the afternoon and joined us for a while, we took it as a good omen. We started our three hours on/off watches at 9.00pm with Ingrid taking the first one. Except for the occasional tanker showing up on AIS (Automatic Identification System) it was quiet with gazillions of stars above us. Peter, however, was pestered by a fishing boat and had a cloudy watch. Soon enough though, daylight reappeared. We hove to for breakfast as it was quite windy and wavy, then carried on our merry way pretty much the same as the previous hours and made good speed. We’d covered about 120 NM (Nautical Miles) of sailing in one day, not bad for our Cordelia!

By 5.00am the wind abated, so we changed back to our usual sail configuration and the sailing was now more gentle. We had another quiet night, damp but not too cold with not another boat in sight. We experienced bioluminescence in the water behind us, giving the impression that Cordelia was firing out the stars that were missing in the sky that night. During Ingrid’s second watch we changed course and the sailing was much smoother with the wind on the transom and following seas. The waves had also decreased in height and it was therefore easy to spot the dolphins. The first pod consisted of some fairly large beasts, two of them came right up to our stern and we saw their big blowholes. We believed them to be bottlenose dolphins. The second group were common dolphin and were frolicking on the bow. Then all of a sudden the reel on the rod started whirring and for the first time on our journey we had fish on the line rather than weed or plastic bags. It made off with our lure and escaped, but we thought it was a promising sign that we might be enjoying a fish supper soon.

Except for one cargo ship during the night there was no-one else around. We reefed during Ingrid’s second watch as the easterly wind had increased to a force 5 on the Beaufort scale. The sun came out, we played some music and the sailing was great. We expected it to get even windier at around midnight and had planned accordingly. However, in the late afternoon the wind had other ideas and suddenly blew up to a force 7. We quickly hove to and decided to take all the sails down to sort ourselves out. No sooner had Peter tied down the high-wind jib on the foredeck when we were hailed on VHF (Very High Frequency) radio. It was the French Navy! They’d seen our manoeuvre and checked we were okay. When we told them we were and were sailing to Spain they bid us “Bon Voyage” and left us. With no sails up we were bounced from one side to the other, so Peter clambered out of the cockpit and installed the third reef. This aided the balance of the boat, but not enough to be down below for any meaningful work. It got damp again in the night, the wind was howling and waves crashed over the sprayhood. It was quite impossible to sleep in the forward cabin or on the saloon settee, so Peter experimented sleeping on the floor in front of the cooker which turned out to be a good option as we both managed to get a decent off-watch rest.

It was still blowing hard in the morning with gusts up to 40 knots and the swell was around two meters and above. Luckily it was a sunny day, so things didn’t look too bad. After fifteen hours of holding on to our seats, getting waves into the cockpit and generally being bounced around without being able to have a decent breakfast or a hot drink, we revised our plan for landfall and opted to head for Cedeira. Three hours later we were anchored. After a cup of tea and a hot meal we jumped off the boat for a refreshingly short swim, had a shower, put sails away, dried our wet stuff and cleaned up below deck. We were finally out of the wind, the sun was shining, it was warm and very peaceful and the scent of pine and eucalyptus trees filled our cabin.

We reluctantly left this idyll at 11.00am the next day and motorsailed for most of the way to A Coruña. We moored up then Ingrid checked us in at the capitanía which proved to be a straight forward process with two pages to fill in and our passports photocopied. We took down the Q (Quarantine) flag as we had now officially arrived in Spain.

Chapter Three: GALICIA AND ITS RIAS

We stayed three nights in A Coruña and used the time to clean Cordelia, wash our clothes, restock our larder, visit the Tower of Hercules and the adjoining sculpture park and walk around the old town. The weather pattern was foggy with a light drizzle in the morning and clearing out by midday. We didn’t have much wind to our next anchorage at Corme, so Peter had another go at fishing. We did have a bite but before we could reel in the fish close enough to haul it on deck it came off. We thought it was a mackerel and reckoned it would have been too small to make a meal anyhow. Better luck next time, we hoped. The anchorage itself was exposed to swell, so we were glad to leave it behind early the next morning.

A pod of dolphins accompanied us on the way to our anchorage near Muxia. We dropped the hook in a quiet bay opposite Camariñas and had a wonderful view across the ria. We had the bay to ourselves and took the tender ashore to walk through the pine forest along the pilgrimage path that goes from Finisterre to Santiago de Compostella. The wind changed direction after the third night, so we moved across the bay and passed the next night anchored off Camariñas where we spent a peaceful time on the boat.

The next day we were off after breakfast and set sail as soon as we’d turned the corner at Muxia. It was easy going with the wind up the stern and we (goose)winged it around the Cape Finisterre, looking at the cars and people at the lighthouse. By the time we saw the harbour wall and our destination Sardineiro in the distance the wind was blowing its socks off and we made it to our anchorage with two reefs in the mainsail. The wind died in the night but came back the next afternoon, so we rigged the windsurfing gear in the cockpit and Ingrid got a few good planing runs in.

We sailed wing on wing to the entrance of the Ria de Muros, then the wind veered and we couldn’t get a decent angle to reach the marina at Muros in daylight, so we had to motor the last bit. We liked Muros. We had some nice walks through the woods of pine and eucalyptus and even climbed Monte Louro (221m) and Pico da Garita (339m), both of which afforded wonderful views of the area.

Our next destination was an anchorage off Boiro in the Ria Arousa. We reached it with a combination of sailing, motorsailing and motoring and were greeted by dolphins at the entrance of the ria. We did go ashore and explored the place, but mainly enjoyed being on board and watching the world go by. We had applied online to visit a couple of nature reserves, the first one being the Isla Cortega. We took the tender ashore, then walked around the whole island through pine and acacia trees in only half an hour, so instead of staying there overnight we carried on and anchored off the Isla Arousa to shorten the next passage to Isla Ons.

We arrived at the anchorage on the island of Ons in plenty of time to go for a walk up the hill to the Faro (lighthouse) where we were awarded for the effort with some fantastic views over the whole area. In fact, we liked our walk so much that we did a proper hike all over the island early on the next morning before the day trippers arrived.

Then, after a rather refreshing swim off the boat we upped anchor and had a very enjoyable downwind sail to Combarro Marina. We spent a day restocking and sight-seeing. The old town with its fishing history and corresponding buildings was as charming as described in the guide books.

We managed to get a day permit for the Islas Cies and anchored off a white sandy beach. We rowed ashore and took a hike to the Faro de Cies lighthouse.

This was found on the very top of the island and there were great views all around. Three hours plus a swim later we set off to our next anchorage in front of the nudist beach on the Enseñada de Barra. There we were well protected from the northerly wind, too well to get going properly on the windsurfing gear we had rigged, but nice for sunbathing and a swim. We stayed two nights.

There wasn’t much wind on our short journey to Baiona but we weren’t in any hurry and sailed on the genoa alone at around 3 knots. Once again we encountered dolphins, always a welcome sight. We found a nice place to anchor and during the next few days explored the old town, the citadel and its ramparts, the seafront and shops.

Baiona was the first place to find out about Christopher Columbus’ discovery and they had a replica of his ship Pinta in the marina.

On Saturday the anchorage got busy with motorboats, jetskis, kayaks and SUPs cruising up and down around us at various speeds, so we filled up with fuel and got ready to leave on Sunday morning.

We’d had an awesome time in Galícia. The scenery, white sandy beaches, scent of pine, eucalyptus and jasmine had been amazing. We’d also had fog and rain, but the sun always came back within a day or two. The temperature had been pleasant rather than sweltering, and the wind, though at times weak, did make for some enjoyable sailing. Now it was time for the next part of our journey: Portugal, here we come!

Chapter Four: PORTUGAL

We’d weighed anchor at Baiona at 8.30am and by 10.00am sailed under the genoa alone. The wind kept on increasing, but it came from aft and so did the swell. We were once again whizzing along under reduced sail, dodged the inevitable lobster pots, got called up on VHF by a 130 meter cargo ship informing us they’d be crossing our bow about a mile off, and surfed the swell with a top speed of 10.3 knots.

The entrance to the harbour of Povoa de Varzim was tricky under these conditions, but Peter had done Brighton in worse and got us safely into our berth in the marina. After a cup of tea Ingrid checked us into Portugal without any issues.

The next few days were spent reprovisioning and exploring our surroundings on foot and bike. We found the metro station and took a train to Porto where we admired the old town and the River Douro and marched up to the “Monumento” for an excellent view over the town.

We did have an ulterior motive for this trip and found ourselves in Gaia on a tour at Ramos-Pinto, one of the port houses. We were shown their museum, the cellar/cave where the barrels were stored and at the end were served with a generous sample of white and tawny port – nice!

On the next day we went to the Policía Maritíma to pay the light fees and left with the necessary paperwork minus €70.00. Thus legally equipped we decided on a night passage to Figueiro da Foz.

We had a lovely gentle sail, the stars were out and the night was mild. The moon set as a red disc at around 4.00am, it got very dark, but dolphins joined us in the morning just before we reached the harbour entrance. We were allocated a berth on a short and wobbly finger pontoon, moored up and ventured out for a walk along the esplanade to a very pretty beach. The next day we went for a cycle ride and had a look at the flea market. We also stocked up with food and drink in readiness for our next anchorage.

We left Figueiro da Foz the next day in fog. We changed between sailing and motorsailing and the sun came out long before we rounded Cape Carvoeiro. We eventually anchored outside Peniche harbour and spent one very swelly night there.

We weighed anchor just after 8.00am and were soon joined by dolphins. There was no wind and the sea was like an oil slick. Just after 3.00pm the wind picked up and we prepared for a nice downwind sail on the genoa. By 4.00pm it was blasting 30 knots. We reefed and had an exhilarating run to our anchorage at Cascais.

Cascais is a pretty town with lots of English speaking tourists and crazy pavings that do your head in (the pavings, not the tourists!).

We had some good walks to the lighthouse, a lovely park with a WiFi spot, the “Boca da Inferno” and the railway station with a direct connection to Lisbon. We used the latter to explore Portugal’s capital and started off at Belém and the Monument to the Discoveries.

We walked all the way along the River Tejo into town, carried on up the hill to George’s Castle and back down to the river, checked out the trams, looked at some impressive buildings and took the train back. We left Cascais the next day.

We made it safely to Sines with several pods of dolphins and even pilot whales along the way. We anchored off the marina for the first night, but secured a berth the next day.

It wasn’t long before we ventured out to the old town with its castle, narrow streets and a statue of Vasco da Gama.

We also took the bikes for a ride on a nice path along the coast. We made a few detours and came across a magnificent beach with golden sand and turquoise water that went on for miles.

Our journey onwards led us via an overnight stay from the pretty but very swelly anchorage plus dense fog in the morning of Enseada de Belixe to Lagos. We stayed outside the harbour entrance on anchor and visited the caves in our tender, swam off the back of Cordelia and enjoyed some great runs when we went windsurfing. We checked into the marina to go shopping and restock, but went back to our anchorage after one night where it was much prettier and quieter.

We had a short trip to Portimão just before the wind changed direction. We anchored for two nights inside the breakwater where we had better protection. We sat out the rain and 26 knots of wind, but did manage to motor our tender up the river for a brief excursion.

We left with the tide against us in order to get to the river entrance near Faro at slack water. Once the tide changed we made good time and opted to sail to slow down a bit. We got the timing spot on and found a nice place to anchor off the Ilha da Culatra. The island is car free and rather sleepy and features a lovely beach and one lonely tree.

It was idyllic and great for barefoot strolls. This was our last stop in Portugal which had been good to us despite the morning fogs. Well, who wouldn’t like endless beaches, warm temperatures, good food and cheap wine?

Chapter Five: BACK IN SPAIN

Portugal had a last present for us: we caught a fish. After weeks of trailing the lure behind us and fish coming off at the last moment we landed a lovely tuna just when we sat down for our lunch on our onward journey from Culatra to Ayamonte.

We checked back into Spain and went in search of ingredients and side dishes for our tuna steaks. We also loaded up with other provisions as we planned to head up the River Guadiana, the border between Portugal and Spain.

Guide books and charts give different heights of the International Bridge one has to go under to enter the river. We waited for the tide to turn and approached the bridge with trepidation and our hearts in our mouths. Would we fit through the gap without damaging Cordelia? We made it with what we thought was 1.5 meter clearance, set the genoa and had a leisurely sail up the river with the tide behind us.

Life seemed to slow down, the countryside changed to more barren and hilly. We anchored for one night then picked up a mooring buoy for the next two nights near Laranjeiras. We found the Roman ruins, then followed a GR 15 (Grand Route) sign up the hill to another village further downriver and walked back on a very quiet main road. We had one day of downpour and gusty wind, but it only added to the peacefulness around us.

We travelled to Alcoutim when the weather cleared out to have a look-see. We were now over 20 miles from the sea: Alcoutim in Portugal on one side of the river and Sanlucar in Spain on the other, with a one hour time difference between them!

We then reluctantly motored downriver suffering the same anxiety on the way out as we had on the way in. This time the gap under the bridge was much less and had we not left the Guadiana that day we would have had to wait another fortnight for the right tide to get out. Many a sailor who went up the river long ago is still there, having succumbed to the Guadiana Glue. The glue had started to stick on Cordelia but we got away just before it set.

We spent the night on anchor outside Ayamonte, then motorsailed to our next anchorage off Mazagon before we moved on to Chipiona. Once again, dolphins joined us along the way and the sea looked clearer and more turquoise. Chipiona has a nice promenade and we passed the Castello de Chipiona, then the lighthouse and a couple of excavated tombs outside a church on our walk. We also had a 4 ½ hours’ pleasant bike ride with views of towns, countryside, parks, beaches and the River Guadalquivir.

We got as far as Sanlúcar and found the castle and the buildings of the Bodegas Barbadillo, a sherry producer. Thus intrigued, we agreed on a detour stop at Puerto Sherry.

Peter had requested a tour at Gutierrez Colosía, a sherry house in Santa Maria. We started in their “cellar” with lots of barrels of different sherry types in various stages of ageing and ended up with a taster session of six samples. We liked the Fino and Cream so much we bought a bottle of each there and then and came back the next day to fill up two 1 ½ litre bottles with the good stuff straight from the barrel.

Thus fortified we motored across the short distance to Cádiz. The city map showed four different routes around the town dependent on one’s interests and we chose a mix of historical and castle tour for our sight-seeing. Various castillos, a walk along the promenade and in the Parque Genoves and a visit of the Roman Theatre later we finished our first day. In the following days we climbed up the Tavíra Tower and saw Cádiz through the Camera Obscura, found the Museum of Cádiz with its two Phoenician sarcophagi and had some great cycle rides, one of which led under the suspension bridge and past the GP Sailing circus that was in town.

After eight nights we said good-bye to Gades, the female statue outside the harbour and also the Roman name for Cádiz.

There was not a lot of wind and the little fog there was in the morning had long cleared by the time we passed the Cape of Trafalgar. Peter donned his captain’s hat and gave a salute to the old admiral, we took some photos and then pulled into Barbate.

We had a nice hike through the National Park and along the cliffs the next day and then prepared for our last sail in the Atlantic.

We’d done our research around the currents and winds and had a wonderful sail for a good couple of hours down the coast. After lunch the wind dropped and we started the engine but left the mainsail up for balance. The sea was calm, the swell was behind us, the sun found its way through the diminishing clouds, we had a fantastic view of Morocco with Tangier and the Atlas Mountains and made it around the headlands and bajos (shallows) to Tarifa without any noticeable overfalls.

Then we approached the Bay of Gibraltar and all of a sudden the wind increased to over 20 knots and the AIS went berserk. We dodged tankers, ferries, fishing boats and yachts, got our mainsail down amid the anchored tankers, then Peter got us safely to the reception pontoon. Once we’d reached our berth and cleared up we opened the bottle of champagne which Peter was given as a retirement present and we’d brought along and toasted our successful entry to the Med, relieved that another milestone of our journey had been achieved.

Chapter Six: THE LAST STINT

We had our mooring on the Spanish side of Gibraltar in La Linea but were happy to cross the border and the runway to stock up on English mustard, Robinson’s squash and Yorkshire tea. We spent one full eight-hour day of sight-seeing “The Rock”. We’d purchased a nature pass that allowed us access to several batteries, the Windsor Suspension Bridge, the Skywalk, the Siege and World War II tunnels and St Michael’s Cave which was nothing short of spectacular. The views along the route were across the bay and all of Gibraltar, as well as the coast of Morocco and its surroundings. It was a most delightful, albeit very exhausting day, and yes, we did see the macaques. We also did a lot of walking and a bit of cycling in Gibraltar whilst we waited for favourable weather conditions for our onward trip.

As soon as the north-easterly wind abated we motored out of the bay, past Europa Point and the Neanderthal caves, all the way to Estepona. Peter downloaded a tour of the old town which led past various statues through paved alleys to plazas with trees and bushes, colourful flowers and wall mounted water fountains. We also visited the three-in-one museum (bullfighting, palaeontology and ethnology) where the exhibits ranged from matador outfits to Baccara records, fossils and a tractor. We had a great cycle ride into the countryside on quiet roads that cut through all kinds of plantation. We spent some time on the beaches and went for a swim and thoroughly enjoyed our time in this beautiful place which has retained its small town character amid the Costa del Sol high-rise holiday resorts.

After a week in Estepona the wind had calmed down enough to make a move. We had a small weather window before the easterlies returned, so decided to sail the last 120 NM or so in one go. We fought through some fairly big swell when we exited the harbour at around 11.00am, but once outside it evened out a little. We had another bite on the lure, but the fish let go once more before we could land it. The other wildlife we spotted were dolphins, gannets and a turtle. We were privileged to another wonderful sunset and every time we thought it couldn’t get better, it did.

Then the moon rose as a huge red ball over the horizon. We had a near cloudless night, the stars and planets (Venus, Jupiter, Saturn) were out and the moon was full and acted as our spotlight. The sea settled down, the swell followed us and we even managed to sail the last few hours all the way to Almerimar where we arrived at the fuel pontoon after 22 hours.

We had sailed nearly 2,000 NM and – when not sailing – spent 129 nights either at anchor or in marinas in 41 different locations. Cordelia behaved impeccably and is due a rest before we get her ready again for a new adventure. But that’s another story for another time!