Spring Fever was taken out of the water on December 16 and put ashore at the Kingston yard in East Cowes, where we are planning to leave her until May. Idle thoughts now turn to planning next year, and to Spain.
We have given up our pontoon mooring on the River Medina for 2020 because we plan to stay away from the Solent for the whole season and it will be cheaper to take a visitor mooring for a few weeks before we leave than to pay a whole year for our own. The conversation is increasingly focussing on the wonderful hills and Rias of North-West Spain, though we do not need to take any decisions for a few months.
Tony has crossed Biscay many times in big ships but neither of us have done it in a 6 tonner, so it requires a bit of research on routes and weather planning, plus the purchase of the pilot book for Atlantic Spain and Portugal.
The whole passage works out at about 600 miles, but it does divide neatly in two if you take the option that goes close in via Finisterre in western Brittany and then direct to a Coruna in Spain. This shortens the Biscay crossing to 300 miles, or two to three days, which is within the period of reasonably accurate weather forecasts, so we can be more confident of not having to cross the steep (and as a result sometimes very rough) edge of the continental shelf in bad weather.
Another option is to head for somewhere like Falmouth or Plymouth and then direct to Spain, crossing the shelf early in the passage, but taking longer, which means information on weather when approaching Spain will be unreliable. That is one serious drawback. Two other things that persuade us towards the Finisterre route are some nice French towns such as Camaret and Audierne where we can wait for a good forecast for the crossing; and the fact that with a short-handed crew – both co-skippers in their seventies – it is probably not such a good idea to do a three or four day passage. (Having written that down, I now remember the Yachting Monthly on my shelf with the account of 77 year-old Jeanne Socrates solo non-stop round the world voyage!)
There is a third route to North West Spain, which is down the west coast of France to the border and along the Spanish north coast, which is nearly as long as Atlantic France. One tentative thought is to come back that way the year after.
It would be good to stay in the EU over the winter of 2020/21 because if we can prove we are there at the end of the transition period in 12 months time the boat will retain its EU VAT paid status and would not be subject to the restrictions of the temporary importation rules for boats from non-EU countries (see earlier posts on Brexit).
The plan is idle winter speculation at the moment, and on past form we may end up doing something completely different from what we discuss at Christmas. But it’s fun to think about it.
There are however some things we really ought to do to make sure we have the option: we ought to fit a holding tank for waste, and we should certainly make some improvements in our anchoring equipment before it causes an injury.
The problem is that the boat was set up for racing, so the Furlex drum is almost touching the deck, which means that the anchor has to be lifted very awkwardly round the side of the boat to lift it back into the well, a recipe for pulled muscles if waves are building.
The drum needs to be raised, which involves shortening the forestay and recutting the foot of the working genoa. That way we can pull the anchor stock through the bow roller and lift it out in a safer way with less risk to our backs, and we also can lash it down to the bow roller if we are in a hurry or reanchoring soon.
tide by tide 