Cabo Fisterra - 4th June

Cape Finisterre, known locally as Cabo Fisterra, is an amazing place; one of the great convergence points where continents and oceans meet. More than just a passing point ships carefully line up planning their approaches to and departures from the major ports of Europe. We sail inside the shipping lanes and at night you get a good indication of the quantity of the shipping traffic. While not congested, the line of ships can be described as busy with an assortment of vessels; massive modern utilitarian container ships displaying the regulation lighting pass in line with elegant old liners displaying all their lights delineating the multiple decks of accommodation and pleasure. Where will their next port be? What are they doing right now? It is a slower world that allows you contemplate your neighbours for a brief period of time.

My watch began at 2 a.m. and emerging from the companionway I was greeted by a cloudless and moonless night sky, revealing all the stars and planets above. Venus alone provided enough light to move around the deck safely. The faint haze of the Milky Way, normally shielded from view by modern light pollution was clearly visible acting as a dramatic backdrop to the closer and recognisable constellations. It was easy to be lost in the magnitude of this sight.

Gradually the Spanish coast, or Galician coast depending on where you are from, became more evident and the lume of the lighthouses off El Ferriol, and La Coruna eroded the darkness of the night sky. A little later, the lights of Isla Sisarga Grande, El Roncun do Placer de Pay Gardo, Placer de Cabeo de Lage and Cabo Vilano revealed more detail of the Galician coast and continued to light the shore until dawn. As the sun rose we could clearly see the mountains, and Cape Finisterre itself. By 10 a.m. we were abeam of the light at Cape Finisterre with its lonely light poised high on a mount; passing it we bore way 30 degrees steering a course of 185.

Galician fishermen were trawling a short distance inside our course on this bright morning. While our fishing line did not yield a catch, a majestic solitary swordfish breached the water between us and the fishing boats; caught in a flash of silver and white light it rolled onto its side re entering its watery world and bringing the sea to life for me. Our southerly course meant there were changes in the bird life also; the gannets were now replaced by shearwaters gliding about along the troughs of the waves, searching and hunting for their quarry at water level.

Dolphins were quick to fill empty moments, and visited the boat frequently throughout the day. At this point I could expand on a treatise of the difficulties in photographing dolphins from a moving vessel. The number of dolphins present does not make the task any easier as they leap out of your viewfinder as quickly as they arrived. Spilt second hesitations for the perfect shot have resulted in the deletion of many framed shots of blue sea and miscellaneous non-descript fin. I believe you should be made feel the disappointment for yourself. It is an exercise in patience.

Our on-board navigational software (while very useful my preference remains for good detailed charts) predicts we will not make Gibraltar on current fuel usage. The fuel not only drives the engine, and in turn the boat, it also powers the generator providing power to all the systems on board such as computers, radios, lighting, refridgeration and battery chargers. With fuel becoming an issue we begin to discuss the various options of ports we can run into. Fortunately, there is a wealth of deep water ports on this coastline and we can afford to chose a port we can arrive at in daylight. The attractive bay of Bayonne, is 55 nautical miles distant along our path, but we would arrive in darkness. It is not the easiest place to arrive at night because the dark mass of an island shields the town and port lights from view. I arrived at this port on a dark November night in 1995 closely followed by the arrival of hurricane Florence!

Cascais is 230 nautical miles away and appears to be a likely option, with a modern deep marina and accessible fuel dock. Hence we set out sights on a Portuguese stop.

Bay of Biscay

Having sailed through Biscay a number of times, it came as a surprise to be experiencing light winds. Most of my previous passages were in November and the weather situation was quite different. This time there was a high pressure system dominating North Western Europe giving very fine weather to Ireland and England. Further south in the Bay of Biscay we were experiencing moderate winds averaging 11 knots. In the morning and late afternoon the wind would increase a little and allow sailing under main and genoa or an asymmetric spinnaker. It was becoming clear that it could be quite a light trip and dependent on the engine to keep us going.

The benefit of the high pressure was that we would have nice reaching conditions for most of the way, but if the high pressure system became unstable or its influence declined we could become prey to other less pleasant winds in the latter part of the passage. You have got to take the rough with the smooth. Everybody likes to sail on a passage; the relative silence, the heel and motion of the boat is almost comforting. This time I was quite happy to get through Biscay without drama.

The photograph above was taken at about 10:30 a.m. on the 3rd June, and clearly demonstrates the benefit of sailing in a southerly direction. We had left the rain and thick cloud cover behind and were venturing into warmer waters. Deep sea adventurers such as gannets were still searching and chasing shoals of fish, as were small groups of dolphins, who would take time out and jostle each other for position under the bow of the boat.


Dinner today was a mixture of fried or stewed aubergine, courgette, red peppers, tomatoes, onions and garlic. Once cooked, I liberally drizzled (a technical word I believe) the fried vegetables in the pan with more olive oil, and the juice of a lemon leaving the pan to cool for a few hours. Dinner being served at 8, the prep was consequently quick as the mixed fried vegetables were served with fresh pasta and parmesan cheese.

A dessert made its way onto the menu on this occasion. Two of the pain au raisin purchased in the Victor Hugo patisserie in St Peter Port, had gone unnoticed. Having chopped them up, I added them to an egg custard mix of 1 pint of milk, 4 eggs beaten, vanilla extract, and two tablespoons of sugar. For extra flavour I made a dark caramel and poured it into the base of the baking dish. Once the caramel had solidified, the pain au raisin custard mix was poured in on top of the caramel. A deep baking tray was used as a bain marie and after an impatient hour in the tricky, and tempermental, gas oven the wonderful golden and crust topped custard emerged.

Even in a standard kitchen I would hesitate and be quite cautious of handling containers of boiling water, and in particular a bain marie; the edges of which are often hotter than the liquid it contains. Thankfully, and luckily, this was not an adventure too far and I did not burn myself, but with the boat heeling and movement of the boat a constant factor, danger and disaster are never far away. Burns are not something one does not want to experience at sea because healing and treatment are a very complicated and lenghty process.

The baked custard was a success and the rationed portions did not last long in the bowls preparing us for the watches through the night ahead and the expectation of reaching the Spanish coast the next morning.

Ouessant and into Biscay

Above is a photograph of the boat docked on the inside berth in St. Peter Port Guernsey to give you an idea of the craft that would be carrying myself and the other three crew south.

While refueling the dock master mentioned in passing conversation that he was about to return home to spread some weedkiller on his lawn. I asked him if he thought it would rain and he gave me a knowing look. By 4 a.m. the next morning it was dark and overcast and dawn was an hour away. The rain had already begun on the previous watch and through the damp and murk we could make out the the lighthouse of Ile de Batz blinking away on the north West Brittany coast. Eventually, the growing light from the approaching dawn revealed, through the greyness, more of the low French coastline stretching out along our port side.

By mid morning we had reached the Ouessant and the Point de Creach leaving it a respectable distance to port. This coast is somewhat notorious and the proliferation of lighthouses do it justice. As we stretched away from the coast into the Bay of Biscay the other lights in the Mer d'Iroise became visible on the Ile de Molene and Ile Beniguet. The tides, very strong in this area, swept us noticeably from west to east and the water boiled and turned on itself racing towards the Passage de Fromveur. The day showed some promise at that point and indeed it did brighten up as we left the coastline behind.

Because we were operating a watch system of four hours off and four hours on, it was decided to have lunches at 2 p.m. and evening meals at 8 p.m. It was thought that this would not interfere greatly with rest times and more importantly food would be served inside the routine of the watches and not sporadically at various times through the day. On one passage I did, the designate cook insisted on cooking the main meal on his watch and not at at set time. Because it was a rolling watch system we were eating our main meal at midnight after 8 or 9 days. It was mad but given the individual involved it was often hilarious.

Lunch was to be a toasted ham, cheese and tomato sandwich. With no toaster I opted to toast the bread on the frying pan and this worked well (once I got the temperature of the pan right). All the ingredients were from the farmers market including the mixture of baked ham and smoked ham joints which were stunning. With good raw materials what could possibly go wrong?

Cooking for dinner was slightly more difficult because you are operating at a gas oven, which although gimbled, you were still being flung around a bit and playing the juggler with boiling water and fire at 30 degrees of heel is not often easy. Suffice to say, with fresh food, preparation is the name of the game and advance cooking is the way forward. After finishing my watch in the morning I would often cook one or two segments of the evening meal and do another if required while preparing lunch.

There is always a debate on whether to use prepared or dried foodstuffs as opposed to fresh. If you are racing obviously weight is a factor and cooking for large numbers on a boat like this must be made as simple as possible. However, cooking for four for up to three weeks, I believe a variety of good fresh food is essential.

Dinner on this day was chicken curry which went down really well, and stayed down! most of this was cooked the previous day so it was just a matter of reheating the curry and boiling the brown basmati rice to go with it. The only pain in this procedure is the draining of the rice from a large pot into a small sink.

By 10 p.m. we can no longer see the French shore and our next waypoint is off Cape Finistere, over a day and a half away.

St. Peter Port - Provisioning

The big task of getting the food on board took place on Saturday 31st May. I decided to check out the local farmers market at Saumarez house and was not disappointed. While the market (like the island) was a little small a good assortment of locally grown vegetables was for sale at a number of stalls. Other stalls sold cheese from Guernsey cows, handmade chocolates and locally caught crabs and shellfish. The spider crabs and shore crabs (known as shankers on island) were a great sight stalls.


Most of the fresh produce was purchased here including peppers, tomatoes, courgettes, asparagus, potatoes, carrots, peas and beans. Freshly baked bread was obtained from Spenner's bakery not too far from Saumarez House. The cheese, was made made from Guernsey cow's milk had a very rich colour, like the butter, and tasted great. The blue cheese was quite soft in texture and mild with only a small amount of veining in the round.


Other supplies were picked up at the supermarket where the trolley could just about support approximately 100 litres of water and other goodies. The one significant benefit to provisioning in Guernsey is the wide choice of high quality dairy products; dairy produce from nearby France combined with the high quality local produce are much in evidence. Primarily the most impressive choice was to be found in the butter section on the refrigerated shelves. Up to 10 varieties of butter from Guernsey, Sark and France could be purchased.


An interesting feature to island life is the hedge market which is based on a an honesty system. Essentially, anything for sale is left at the garden wall or hedge and you can take the flowers, vegetables or book, whatever the case maybe, and leave the money in a bucket or post box.

The fridges, freezer and cupboards all full to the brim, and water stowed by the late afternoon we set off for dinner at L'Escalier retiring back to the boat before midnight. There was early start the next morning because we had to leave the inner marina at high tide just before 5 a.m., and take up a dock in the main harbour. The day was sunny and warm, and following a safety briefing, and refueling in the afternoon we set off in calm conditions down the west side of the island and along the Grand Banque. We passed many leisure craft anchored or drifting on the tide fishing in the evening sun. Gradually the island fell below the horizon behind us and the only reminder was the occasional pot every half mile or so until just before sunset. The was no moon evident and the night was pitch black. With a little breeze, and some sailing, we made our way to Oeussant and predicted landfall there around sunrise.

Voyage to the South of France

Over the last few weeks I have been away sailing, and hope, in the coming days, to relate a number of experiences, sights, tastes, and thoughts on places visited. The story begins tomorrow at our port of departure, St Peter Port on the island of Guernsey; a gem among the Channel islands.

Provisioning the boat for the trip began prior to our departure on the 1st of June at the local farmer's market set among the wonderful and pretty gardens of Saumarez House. Hence the photograph!!

I intend to write a number of installments over the coming weeks and hope people will log on and read the pieces as I relive the my travels visiting a number of ports en route to the South of France.