RTW, Leg 2: Bay of Biscay

Biscay has a fearsome reputation and accounts for many tales of death or survival at the hands of the grimmest of storms. The reason for its treacherous tendencies is the combination of Atlantic lows sweeping in from the west and the North Atlantic shelf. The shelf dissects Biscay with a near immediate change in depth from 4000m to just 200m resulting in large swells metamorphising into violent waves. It takes four days to cross Biscay and forecasts only have a degree of certainty over three days, inviting a roll of the dye as you contemplate your departure. The time of year improves your chances of avoiding a gale and all sage advice points to a summer crossing no later than the end of August. We missed that fair weather window forced into a later than comfortable September crossing and it was with some trepidation that we cast of from Cherbourg on Sunday. Today, four days on, we have crossed without mishap and are now adjacent to Cape Finisterre in the north west corner of Spain. Viva Espania!

Ronnie and Lucy have been fantastic, finding their respective grooves and occupying their time with respective interests. For Ronnie its his sextant. Lucy sketching and tan topping. Ronnie and his sextant is to a little boy discovering the delights of lego for the first time. The little boy might excitedly announce; “look mummy, I’ve built a house” , while not dissimilarly, Ronnie will proclaim with the joy of twelve year old, “John, I shot Jupiter last night”. Ronnie, as explained in our last blog, is undertaking his Yachtmaster Ocean and this trip serves as his qualifying passage. His boundless enthusiasm, sailing knowledge and good humor have been invaluable and we are grateful for his company.

We have landed on a happy routine of watches and duties. Watches start at 2100 and change every three hours through to 0900 the following morning. Therefore, on every cycle, one person has two watches 2100 – 2359 and 0600 – 0900. Watches are rotated so you only get the double watch every three days. Each watch has its merits, last night I had the 2359 – 0300 which, when I do go to bed, gives me uninterrupted sleep until I decide to get up. We don’t have any watch system during the day, crew taking the initiative to keep an eye out or catch up on sleep as required. Duties are one day on two days off and burden Dobbie the house elf with making lunch and dinner, washing up and cleaning the heads (that’s the loos!).

The all-important weather preoccupies ourselves and while conditions have been mercifully benign, there is a persistent anxiety of what awaits down the line. Pre technology, the only way to get the weather was to look at the sky and see what the clouds and wind were up to and that time tested forecasting is still true today. You can see squalls coming, you can spot high altitude cirrus clouds and predict with some certainty that a warm front will be on you soon and you can feel wind and wave shifts. Although Broadsword is many miles from land and well beyond the range of 4G or VHF, we can down load a GRIB file using our satellite phone. This is a small packet of data, no more that 50kb, that provides a weather forecast for the parameters I set including the area and the number of days. It’s a bit of a faf, can be temperamental, requiring numerous attempts but if patience prevails, the results are indispensable.

With the benign weather, the sailing has been uneventful. We managed to work out how to rig our Oxley sail and fly it for the first time. It’s a bit like a parasail but better, with a wing that gives it greater stability and stops it collapsing as conventional spinnakers tend to do. We have mastered sailing with the jib poled out, an important tool in the box for tropical down wind sailing and now only have the gennaker to test. There are no instruction manuals that come with these sails and certainly no “YouTube” videos to fall back on. Instead, good old fashioned methodical problem solving, thinking it through, working the consequences and inevitably cocking it up, collapsing into a dejected sweaty heap to consider the folly, and then trying again. Lucy of course wants nothing to do with this foolishness and will observe from a safe distance using her Kindle for cover.

Birds are not unusual visitors to boats far from land. Crossing an ocean on the wing is no doubt an exhausting business and if there’s an opportunity for a rest on a boat or any other flotsam or jetsam for that matter, then why not? A little warbler hitched a ride for some respite yesterday, no doubt on her way to Africa or somewhere hot to escape the miserable British weather. Stranger still, almost exactly in the middle of the Bay of Biscay, I discovered a delicate little bat on one of our mast halyards. Like any child would, I made a little bat box lined with kitchen roll and gently coaxed it in, certain that bat would be very grateful for my charity. Bat was not so impressed and did not waste much time in clambering out and fluttering of and out to sea to an inevitable watery death. Any bat experts out there, please let me know the make and model. I speculate the Iberian short ear?

Having survived the tribulations of Biscay, we now have the Orcas to contend with. All along the Portuguese coast up to 20 miles out from shore, pods of Orcas have become increasingly aggressive launching sustained attacks on any yachts less than around 50 feet, which includes Broadsword. They have a particular taste for rudders and will continue to bite at one until it breaks off, so imobilising the boat. They are too fast to out run and the advice if attached is to drops sails, switch of engine and cross your fingers and toes and do your hail Mary’s.

We’ve been going for four days and expect to arrive in Gibraltar in five days or Tuesday. We will have a few days in Gibraltar before flying home for Harvey and Sara’s wedding in in October. This is very exciting, particularly for Lucy who expects (demands) a grand child no later than July next year. Lucy cares little where the baby comes from, Lily or Sara will do, but if they don’t serve up the goods soon, I might find myself pressed back into service.

P.S

If inclined, you can follow our progress on the Marine Traffic App. Once downloaded, search for Broadsword. There are several out there, we are the British flagged on and our call sign is MIAT8.