Today a group of us (Mike, Kate, Adam and us) took the boat out of the harbour and anchored near a small deserted beach and caves. Once the anchor was secure, Adam, Mike and Amanda dived overboard and swam to the shore whilst the rest of us piled into the dingy and motored in with supplies and toys (Frisbee, beach ball etc).

We spent a fantastic afternoon on the beach sunbathing, swimming and listening to the tennis on the short wave radio. We were only disturbed by small tourist boats passing by pointing at what we thought was us but actually after a while waving back seemed to be the rocks behind us.

The day after the sailing had finished was spent pottering around, meeting with people and relaxing. Adrian spent most of it running around collecting and sharing photos that people had taken of other boats whilst sailing. Everyone was pleased to have decent pictures under way, which generally are hard to get.

The prize giving in the evening was held in a bar/restaurant on the beach, which was pleasant, if not a bit chilly. The food was good and drink plentiful. With some sadness listened and remembered some of the stories and tales of people’s adventures in the final prize giving. Everyone received a commemorative plaque in recognition of their achievement.

Inevitably, the night stretched into a mammoth drinking session with a 6am return by the girls.

The last leg of our trip was to take us south along the coast for about 50 miles then the big turn east for the first time during our journey to head into the Med. It was going to be a long 75 mile day so we were up early at 6am for a 7am departure.

Jax and Amanda brightened things up considerably though by wearing their specially prepared “Rally” and “Portugal” yellow mini skirts and yellow T shirts (despite the cold morning and under protest from Jax). I think everyone appreciated their gesture of fun on a dark morning – many photos were taken.

The start was from in the harbour basin and was called in the traditional form of a 10 minute then 5 minute countdown. Then the last leg had started and we were all heading out together for the last time. It was a beautiful morning with crisp light but only light winds, so after ½ hour struggling to make way we decided (with a couple of others) to motor for a few hours until the wind increased to allow us to sail.

By midday there was some wind movement so we set sails and proceeded at a reasonable pace down the coast. The sun was out, it was warm and we were having a great sail.

At the Caba de Sao Vinente we turned east and officially passed the southern most point of the European mainland. One of the other boats had been on the radio telling us of the tradition of dipping one’s ensign in the sea as such a cape is rounded as thanks for a safe passage, which we performed dutifully. We did however call up the fleet and pretend to have dropped our ensign in the sea as a wind up, which some people fell for.

The last stretch was with pleasantly fresh winds from our forward port quarter, so we had a great sail – so much so that we ended up 10 minutes ahead of our target ETA. Since this was the only prize we had a chance of winning on this leg, Adrian did his best to slow the boat down slightly, but we still averaged a speedy 7 knots. As it happened the finish line was craftily placed to force a couple of tacks to manoeuvre across it, so we ended up 6 minutes behind schedule. Not bad for a 14 hour sail, but not good enough to win the ETA prize - which someone achieved by 30 seconds.

Our arrival in Lagos marked the end of this stage of our journey and an end of the Rally. Jax and Amanda donned their yellow outfits again and passed around the boats dishing out malteesers. After mooring up, an impromptu pontoon party started with drinks and nibbles brought by all the boats. Later, after tidying up everyone retired to one of the marina bars to continue the celebrations into the night.

Not surprisingly, Jax and Amanda became the party animals and led the way for a hard core group to continue drinking until 5am. Luckily, Adrian managed to slope off to bed at 3am. The next day, we arose to a hearty full English breakfast in one of the marina cafes – some decidedly worse for wear.

Up early today for the 2^nd leg of our trip, starting to head south down the Portuguese coast.

After checking out at 0830 we amassed on the start line at 0945 and after a countdown were off at 1000. There was a bit of wind so everybody had to sail. We had a good start and timed the line fantastically and sped off first out of the bay.

The wind was Northerly, so once we turned south we hoisted our big red Twistle downwind sail and hoped it would give us enough speed to keep the lead and make good progress down the coast.

We remained ahead of the pack for quite a way but were then overtaken by a couple of the larger yachts who took a more seaward route. The Twistle performed marvellously in the f4-5 winds and carried us at an average speed of 6-7 knots. A number of other boats were flying spinnakers, but one by one they came to grief after wind shifts and lost time and positions sorting them out.

There was a reasonable swell on, and our fastest speed was 10.4 knots down a wave!

We were still feeling pretty confident in our chances after a few hours as we were still leading the pack and ahead of all of the larger, heavier and generally more speedy boats. Unfortunately towards the latter stages the two seaward yachts snuck back and beat us to the finish by 15 minutes. We were third boat to finish, but hope that our position may be improved in the final results by account of our handicap, since the first two boats were both faster on paper.

Berthing the boats in the windy marina was very manic and took a few hours. Afterwards we ate pasta for dinner, had a shower and are just about to flop into bed.

Sandra (Adrian’s sister) arrived tonight and popped by to say hello. We’re all pretty tired after a long day, so we’ll catch up tomorrow.

A number of people have come up to us and congratulated us on a good sail – and were especially interested in our Twistle sail. Looking forward to prize giving tomorrow.

We’re been here at Bayona for the past 4 days. It’s a quaint little town with a couple of nice beaches, a castle and a good marina.  Whilst here we’ve sampled the tapas and paella in local restaurants, been running around the castle grounds and even lazed on the beach.

On Sunday night we all gathered on the Yacht club green for the official results and prize giving. We didn’t win any sailing awards, but were nearest in guessing the number of miles the organisers drove to get here – which netted us a box of biscuits. We were pretty gutted however that our ETA guess for the Plymouth – Bayona leg (which we achieved within 15 minutes) was beaten not by one, but by two others!!

Prizewinners at the award ceremony

Today we’re setting off down the coast to our next stop – Povoa. It’s a 50 mile leg, so should be pretty close all the way. It’ll be nice to be sailing again, after a few days recharging in port.

After a night’s motoring we were finally only a few hours from Bayona. We were treated to a fantastic dolphin show with a huge pod of 20-30 of them swimming alongside and around us for about 15 minutes. They loved racing the boat and jumping out of the bow wave performing acrobatics and tricks.

Just in case they liked it, we turned up the boat’s stereo and played some fast music. This seemed to keep them interested. We even had a number of them jumping out of the water and then deliberately seeming to splash the sea with their tail when landing with the effect of splashing us on deck. As we laughed and shouted they seemed to react and do it even more - amazing. 

Never to be complacent, the last 5 hours were spent in thick fog off the coast. Fortunately the radar proved its worth and allowed us to see and avoid otherwise invisible shipping. The closest contact was a large fishing boat which passed just 75m ahead of us.

At 1015 Spanish time we crossed the finish line into Bayona. We were 15 minutes ahead of our predicted schedule (more by luck than judgement) and our log reading shows 550 miles travelled. The reception on the pontoon was fantastic, and was a fantastic end of a great trip. Being met, welcomed and congratulated by fellow participants and the organisers made it even more special.

We all felt a sense of achievement in our crossing and were looking forward to a drink, a decent shower and a good night’s sleep - but of course we first had to have some champagne...

Our only disaster during the trip was an incident 50 miles north of Cape Finisterre at 4 in the morning during watch changeover.

Adrian was on the helm in choppy seas and Jax went below to make a cup of soup to warm us up slightly. All seemed to be going well for a few minutes, when there was an almighty crash, lots of swearing, closely followed my frantic cleaning actions. Jax had poured the soups from the flask, had just about been ready to bring them up when a wave and sudden boat movement caused her to slip and decorate the saloon, floor and upholstery liberally with French onion soup.

The commotion was so loud that Amanda woke up and rushed out thinking the mast had come down or something similar.

Needless to say after ½ hour of frantic cleaning up and de-staining, everything returned to normal, but we are still picking up bits of onion from the bilges even now!

As we crossed Biscay winds have been amazingly steady, allowing us to make very good progress with comfortable and safe sailing.

We are now 200 miles off the coast and have pure ocean all around us. Its an amazing place, completely exposed and at the behest of the elements. 

Last night we flew along in 20-25 knots of wind on our beam with full sails and a steady course. Our fastest recorded time was 9.9 knots when surfing down a wave. By early morning the seas had built and we gradually had to reef the sails to keep the boat controllable. We were now in a full on gale force winds (25-35knots) with very heavy seas. Our course meant that quite often we had to turn into large waves to avoid being hit and bashed around. The waves were quite large (about 4 – 5 meters) and towered above the helm before they passed underneath to continue their long rolling journey.

The biggest risk in these seas is being hit side on as the top of a large wave starts to break, so we had to be very careful to anticipate the large ones and turn up into the face of them as they swept by. This way we would rise up their face and accelerate down the other side (surf). Conditions meant that we had to reduce sail to a minimum and use the engine to give us enough power and steerage to negotiate the big ones. 

To its credit the autohelm did a fantastic job and was far better and more accurate at keeping a course and correcting for the large boat aspect changes in the waves than any of us helming.

After about 5 or 6 exhausting hours we finally reached the top of the Cape Finnisterre and made the decision to route to the east of the large ship Traffic Separation Scheme that carries all commercial traffic around the headland. The inside route would be shorter but is often rougher and more difficult. Weather reports and contact with other boats ahead suggested that because of the easterly wind direction the headland may well be protected from the winds and thus be calmer.

Fortunately the seas did calm down as we approached the TSS and by the next morning they were glassy smooth again with little wind. This amazing change is the reason Biscay can be such a difficult crossing. With little wind we motored through the night for the first time in sight of land, taking reassurance from the lighthouses marking our route and confirming our location along the way.

Overnight we crossed the continental shelf where the depth went from 150m to over 4000m. On the surface the only change has been a slight deepening of the waves to a long rolling swell. Its not choppy, but the 6ft swell causes the boat to ride up and down in a surfing motion as the wave passes under us.

Biscay at night

We’ve

We're been able to sail all night and have averaged around 7 knots – which is very respectable. It looks like we may have made some time up after or light winds yesterday. It was nice to come up on deck to see 15-20 knots of wind from the same quarter as it was yesterday evening. This easterly wind makes for quite comfortable broad reach sailing.

Still a long way to go, as we head further out into the ocean towards the centre of Biscay..