27th to 29th March “Sailing across the notorious Bay of Biscay”
Marcel picked a perfect weather window for our sail across the notorious Bay of Biscay. Light winds all the way, admittedly sometimes a little too light, thus giving both engines a good run-in, with the added bonus of heating the hot water cylinder for lovely hot showers.
Little birds loved visiting us, driving Marcel nuts
Crossing the Bay of Biscay was only the third time I had done an offshore passage. In all the excitement of finally leaving Le Sables-d ‘Odlonne, I had forgotten that I get seasick & what it was like to feel constantly sick, then to top it off I had a cold. Even Marcel found it very tiring we spent most of the time alternating between sleeping, eating, and being on watch. At times we both felt very miserable, also it was very cold. Fortunately, we have an enclosure around the cockpit which was great at keeping us a little warmer and a deterrent for the little birds that loved to stop for a rest on Kiri. The funny little birds loved to sneak in whenever the door was open and have a look around. This gave Marcel a bit of excitement flapping around, desperately trying to get them out of the saloon and cockpit.
Kiri’s chart plotter AIS, radar, and VHF radio are very important pieces of equipment.
On the chart plotter, we can see other boats & possible hazards out on the water. Alerting us to all the potential collision possibilities, our system also has voice alerts yelling out "collision alert" whenever we are close to another boat with AIS. (We have named the voice “Agnes”) on the chart plotter, we could see a boat called “Moondoggie” traveling quite close to Kiri, even though we sailed closely most of the way Moondoggie carried on never to be seen again. The VHF radio is our means of communication within a certain range we can talk to other boats, or in an emergency, we use channel 16.
Dolphins swimming alongside Kiri definitely helped to lift our spirits
For most of Tuesday, we had a pod of dolphins and a very large basking shark swimming alongside Kiri keeping us company. A basking shark is the second largest living shark and fish, after the whale shark. The basking shark casually crossed Kiri’s bow and then circled around us before heading out to sea. Seeing a basking shark up close was pretty scary; however, on the positive side, it wasn't an Orca that had come to check Kiri out. We were very much aware of a pod of Orcas that hang out around the Portuguese & Spanish coastlines, these Orcas are well known for attacking sailboats. Anyone sailing down these coastlines does their best to stay well clear of the Orcas, as an altercation with a pod of Orcas can damage a boat to a point that it has to be towed to safety.
There are many hazards on the water that a sailor must navigate around. Adding to the hazards are thousands of fishing nets that are scattered along the coastlines. It is not uncommon for boats to get their propellers caught in a net or line. Arriving in Spain in daylight made it a lot easier to motor down the coast safely dodging the fields of fishing nets to our planned anchorage in Ares Bay.
For all my fears about sailing the notorious Bay of Biscay, it proved to be a relatively easy crossing. (Little did we know how long we would be stuck in Ares before we could actually check into Spain)