Atlantic Adventure News

Follow the attached link to see a few pictures from the trip:

Mike and Kevin Clark joined DLS on the 28^th June in Pornic. The engine problems had been fixed and the new exhaust and water filter arrangements looked good.

We decided to travel back up the Loire to pick up Iain Nairn as it would be a good test of the engine before setting off across the Bay of Biscay. On 29^th we motored up to Trentemoult, once again pushing through mud to tie up to the pontoon. IN joined us at 9.0pm and we celebrated the start of the Bay of Biscay with a bottle of Champagne at the newly installed cockpit table. We left next morning at 7.0 am to catch the tide and motored down the Loire. We then had a spirited sail in a F5 across to Le Palais on Belle Isle.

On 2^nd July we set off at 11.0 am across the Bay of Biscay. This was an emotional event given the time PW had been in Brittany (almost 11 months). We set off in a F5 with fairly heavy seas, making 200deg for most of the day ( We wanted about 230deg to get round Finistere). We has quite a number of squalls and most of the crew had some difficulty finding their sea legs. DLS having had a bit more sea time managed to rustle up some Ravioli for dinner. The winds and seas subdued a little during the night. DLS introduced the new boy (Kevin) to night sailing – he did very well!! Mike and Iain took the other shift.

On the morning of 3^rd we were treated to F4 winds and bright sunshine. The wind dropped around lunchtime and we had to motor until 6.0pm, but at least we managed to get further West. DLS introduced the crew to his new found skill in making omelettes for lunch. In the evening we had an excellent sail in a F3. We then had a spectacular show of the stars all night, including a very clear view of the Milky Way. We however lost the wind and had to put on the engine at 1.0am.

On the morning of 4^th we had brilliant sunshine but no wind. We put up the new Bimini (sunshade) for the first time, it was a bit complicated to put up, but was very effective. We had lunch and beers at the cockpit table in brilliant sunshine, but still no wind. After lunch we got the fishing rod out, but no success. IN sighted Spain at 1505. At 5.30 we got some wind and put the spinnaker up and we had a great sail until 8.30pm We then sailed through the night with just the Genoa and Mizzen, it was slow progress, but the wind were very variable and it was the safest arrangement for overnight. Once again we had a good night viewing the stars, but not quite as good as the previous night.

On 5^th we sailed down the Spanish and Portuguese cost, there was quite a bit of haze so we didn’t see very much of the coast, but progress was steady. On the morning of 6^th we discovered a problem with the alternator on the engine, the pulley had come off and had disappeared. Mike came up with the brilliant plan of using the emergency fan belt to bypass the alternator so we managed to continue using the engine, although we had no means of charging the batteries.

We arrived at Leixos (Porto) at 5.0pm on 6th and had the obligatory bottle of champagne to celebrate.

After a night on the town in Porto IN departed back to the UK. The next day and a half we managed to get an engineer to fix the alternator and service the engine and we readied the boat for the next stage.

We left Porto at 5.0pm on the 8^th and sailed with just the Genoa in brisk winds until the wind dropped about 10.0pm and we put the engine on. KC was under the weather so DLS and MC took the shifts through the night. It was a cloudy night, but we were rewarded the next morning with a brilliant Dolphin show which continued for about ¾ an hour. We sailed through the day in rolling seas and arrived at the beautiful nature reserve island of Isla Berlenga at 5.0pm. We anchored at the send attempt in 15m of water – I wish we had splashed out on a power windlass - so does MC!!!

We had a great meal at the only restaurant on the island – we were the only guests having dinner, locals came in to drink and watch telly, probably about the only one on the island.

We had had some difficulty with the steering jamming on the way to Berlenga and the next morning we found that the wire had come off one of the rollers. We fixed this before setting off for Lisbon. We left at 12am with no wind so motored until 4.0pm. We then put up the cruising chute, using the spinnaker pole to try to keep it from collapsing, this was not very successful and needs some more practise. After about an hour the block at the top of the mast came apart and the sail fell into the water. After quite a struggle we managed to get the sail back on board and tied it down on deck to dry out. We had just packed away the cruising chute, about 7.0pm. when the wind started to pick up. Within 10 minutes we had 30-35 knots of wind and bright blue skies. This kept up for the next 3 hours and we arrived into Lisbon grateful that we hadn’t been caught with the cruising chute up - we need to get a sock for it to make it easier to take down in strong winds.

We berthed alongside a US boat called Murphy’s Law and were immediately invited aboard for drinks. There were 2 Irish guys on board from Kinsale who knew Pinball Wizard. One of the guys, Donal, had gone out in a RIB to provide help when DLC and crew when they had engine problems in 2001 – what’s the chances of that!! A great night was had by all.

Author: DLS