2014...so far 'What a Year' !!

[Garry & June 'Friendship']

Apart from my daughter getting married, my son proposing to his girlfriend 2014 has been a momentous year. Thanks to the civil service restructuring cutbacks I managed to get offered early retirement at 52!! Fast forward to a month later in July and I am the proud owner of our boat 'Friendship' 2003 Broadblue Cat, which come next spring we will be setting of on our dream of long term liveaboards. She is presently berthed in lovely Mylor Yacht Harbour Falmouth. Mylor whilst a lovely place is way way out of my budget for keeping a boat not that we planned to stay in the UK anyway. This winter we will be installing a few upgrades to make us more self sufficient as I do not plan on sitting in marinas if I can help it. One dilemma I do have however is the trip down to the med....do we go for it in one hit to cross Biscay or take the slow route with hops down the French coast. I don't think I will decide until the time and see what the weather dictates. I have enjoyed looking in on these forums for the last few years and gleaned lots and lots of useful information so maybe I can start putting my own two pennyworth in now and again. After a brilliant (so far) 2014 heres looking forward to 2015 !!

 

[TQA]

Welcome to the liveaboard community.

When I went sarf I sat in Camaret and waited for a good forecast. My Biscay crossing was a very pleasant sail and making landfall in La Coruna by identifying the Tower of Hercules as mariners have been doing for nearly 2000 years was special,

 

[LadyInBed]

I did my first trip to Spain last year. I didn't want to coast hop round France as from the Garone to Spanish border there isn't any easy stop offs and you will more than probably be beating along the N Spanish coast.
Starting from Poole, I didn't want to go down the English coast to Falmouth, but if you are there you could go W to the shelf then turn S to miss the shipping lanes. I chose to hop round to Cameret then cross Biscay to La Coruna. Well inside the shipping lanes, infact I didn't see any ships at less than 50 mls on AIS out in the shipping lanes and a few fishing boats but they were around the coast.

 

[jordanbasset]

We went from Plymouth across to Camaret. Coast hopped down as far as the Ile de Yeu before jumping over to Santander. Am glad we did, the Brittany coast was some of the best cruising grounds we visited, especially as it was early in the season and quiet. But whatever you decide enjoy yourself, remember though you are fortunate to have the whole summer so I would advise not rushing it.

 

[vyv_cox]

In two particular places, Biscay and France to Corsica, we were advised that it was best to take the straight line route as there was not a great deal of interest/lots of hassle/expensive ports taking the circuit route. In both cases we did the opposite and enjoyed superb cruising. As has been said, there is no hurry and you are there to enjoy it. We took a whole season to sail the Atlantic coast from Cherbourg to Royan and loved it. We actually transited the Canal du Midi but if you continued south it is not a huge leap to the Rias, with only the range off the French coast to upset the plan, not difficult to cope with.

Gulf of Genoa was also excellent, some of the nicest places we have been, many of them free.

 

[Garry & June 'Friendship']

many thanks for your replies...I have been looking at the site...www.gentlesailing.com which provides some good pointers for taking the slow route down. I just hope I can manage to get some favourable weather around May time to be able to set off on either of the routes we take. At least I now have over 6 months to get the boat in to shape to set off.

 

[BobnLesley]

Hi Gary & June and welcome to our world,

You're retired, so sailing changes - it took us a year or more to grasp that reality! - you don't have to be anywhere on any given date, so always look to take the slow route, otherwise you'll speak to fellow yotties further along your route and realise that you've missed visiting somewhere that you now wish you'd visited. Rather than viewing the French Atlantic Coast and Iberian Peninsula as places you need to get past on a passage to the Med; start your cruising on day-one and see everywhere you can on the way.

When we headed for Spain and the Med, we simply crossed the channel and coat-hopped all the way around Normandy and Brittany, before making the short hop (160Mish?) from La Rochelle to Bilbao - I wanted to visit the Guggenheim - before coast hopping again along N Spain; indeed we met people who coast-hopped the whole way around Gascony too, but that's easier if you've got shallow draft (you'll be OK) and some very light weather.

Just take your time and see everywhere, the Med's not going to go anywhere before you arrive, be it next season or a year or so later.