First I say that, although everything may sound very definite, it has to be flexible. Travelling by small boat is unpredictable. You never know when something's going to go wrong and you just have to stay and fix it. It might be that you have to wait a month for a part. Or the weather can turn sour and stay that way for weeks. Alternatively we could arrive somewhere planning to stay for a week, and then get a perfect forecast with the wind blowing out of just the right direction, and leave the next day.
Still, we need a plan to get where we want to be when the Winter comes in. For us this is the Algarve, more specifically Lagos Marina. The Algarve is strategically situated on the entrance to the Mediterranean, and just off the main sailing route from Northern Europe to the Caribbean via the Canary Islands. We're told that Lagos is a great spot for novice liveaboards, with its thriving live-aboard community, town centre location, and launching pad to either the Med or the Americas. Because Lagos is so suitable it tends to fill up quickly, so we're already booked in there from November 1st.
Another factor defining our schedule is the weather. I've been warned that the North Coast of Spain is prone to fog from late August. As we head South we expect it to improve, but, travelling down the coast of western Europe we will be ever exposed to the full might of the Atlantic, and that gets angrier and mightier the later in the year it gets.
Then there is the route we plan to take. We are taking the coastal route around the Bay of Biscay, partly because we want to cruise a little in France on the way, and also because we have little appetite for a long passage directly to Spain at this stage.
Our final consideration is domestic, because of other commitments we cannot leave before the end of May. All of this combines to create the framework of our first year of our life as marine itinerants.
All going well we leave Dun Laoghaire at the end of May. Hopefully we'll get a few days in the Scilly Islands and Cornwall before moving on to Concarneau in Brittany. From there gently make our way down the French coast to La Rochelle, visiting the cities, towns, villages and remote anchorages along the way. In some we will only stop overnight, in others we may stay for a week, longer if the weather turns nasty & we have to wait it out. We will probably stay in France until after Bastille day, 14th July, just to join the celebrations. Then we'll wait for a good forecast to cut across Biscay to Bilbao.
We will loll our way westward along the North of Spain over the next few weeks. Remembering the fog, we will press to get around the northwest corner of Spain and on past Cape Finisterre by late August. I have heard a lot about the Rias of Northwest Spain, we'll spend some weeks exploring them. Along the West coast of Portugal we will at least stop in Porto and Cais Cais.
We want to be around Cape St Vincent on the Southwest corner of Portugal by the 1st October, and into the relative shelter of the Algarve. We'll cruise the Algarve for the month, before snuggling down in Lagos until February.
Then it's lift out for some routine maintenance and by March '09 we'll be poking our nose into the Mediterranean, but that's next year's plan.
Copyright © Pat Egan 2008, all rights reserved.
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