Biscay Crossing

robertager1962

robertager1962

Well-Known Member
Joined
4 Jul 2013
Messages
180
Location
Cruising
www.sailing-south.com
We are planning a trip to Lagos in Portugal next summer but are unable to leave until August. We have plenty of time to pick weather windows and I was planning to coastal hop from UK down to Northern France, Northern Spain and then along to Portugal. The advice I have gleaned so far is many and various but I would welcome some thoughts on anyone who has done this trip. I know the optimum time to leave is June but we would struggle with this.
 
robertager1962 said:
We are planning a trip to Lagos in Portugal next summer but are unable to leave until August. We have plenty of time to pick weather windows and I was planning to coastal hop from UK down to Northern France, Northern Spain and then along to Portugal. The advice I have gleaned so far is many and various but I would welcome some thoughts on anyone who has done this trip. I know the optimum time to leave is June but we would struggle with this.
Click to expand...
What does your insurance say about crossing times? Mine says September latest.
 
In Ireland, the perceived wisdom for such a trip would be to stay well out of Biscay by positioning the boat at Kinsale or Baltimore for final departure, and going direct, thereby getting west of the continental shelf as soon as possible.
Coast hopping in Biscay at that time of year is not a good idea.
 
We crossed from Falmouth to Corruna in late July a few years back. Waited in Falmouth until the forecast was reasonable for six days or so and then headed off. Went west to about 8 degrees before heading south. Quiet crossing, took us about five and a half days. We then coast hopped south through Portugal to Gibraltar.
IIRC, our insurance insisted on at least three crew and a cut off date of mid October.
 
Mmm I think your advice is agreeing with many others and I am starting to think that we either need to leave earlier or look at the canals. (our original plan.) There are lots of conflicting stories about the best route but we would like to visit France and Northern Spain on the way so wanted to avoid a long Ocean Passage.
 
robertager1962 said:
Mmm I think your advice is agreeing with many others and I am starting to think that we either need to leave earlier or look at the canals. (our original plan.) There are lots of conflicting stories about the best route but we would like to visit France and Northern Spain on the way so wanted to avoid a long Ocean Passage.
Click to expand...

What's the boat?
 
robertager1962 said:
Southerly 105
Click to expand...

In that case you are looking at no more than a 3 to 4 day crossing to N Spain a perfectly capable boat. Whilst the Atlantic Coast of France is very pleasant down to La Rochelle some would say Arcachon :rolleyes: It will take time to see it and then the trip across to N Spain is not good and in my view neither is the N Spanish coast that interesting. There was a lengthy thread on this very issue a few weeks ago.
 
robertager1962 said:
I can find nothing specific about times of crossing but I would imagine that it would be part of the Due Dilligence.
Click to expand...

Insurers seem to have something of a blind prejudice about Biscay, as revealed in the extra conditions imposed by most of them for the crossing. Yes, Biscay can be awful, but so can many other places. However much they may protest to the contrary, I refuse to believe that their position is actuarily-based. In fact the greater number of (reported) serious incidents seem to occur along the Portuguese coast, chiefly through vessels trying to make harbour over shallow entrances when they might more healthily have remained at sea. Please do not underestimate the Portuguese west coast, robertager: very few harbours are all-weather and the sea-room offered by the typical route is slight. It's also littered with lobster pots, a particular hazard at night.

The advice to stand well off the continental shelf across Biscay is well-found, but meant much more when forecasts (and engines) were unreliable (or non-existent) and sailing to windward barely an option. Raz du Seine to to the Rias Altas is two days or so, well within the scope of reliable forecasts; all but the first half day of the passage (when forecasts are freshest) is over deep water; and it's inside the major shipping lanes.
 
robertager1962 said:
I can find nothing specific about times of crossing but I would imagine that it would be part of the Due Dilligence.
Click to expand...

We like the French west coast so have done La Rochelle to a Coruna once (boring) but prefer La Rochelle to Gijon and along the north coast, down to/from Portugal. La Rochelle to Viveiro would be a good alternative, placing you a bit further west. Have done the return trip late August without any weather problems. Once into France, Meteo France divide Biscay into different met areas (as do the Spanish) with far more accurate forecasts than UK Met Biscay one. Portuguese west coast can be a problem with high swell, lots of Ports close and there are few refuges so, I wouldn't leave it too late into the autumn. Having said that, if not in a hurry there are plenty of places to stop and wait, only a day's sail apart.
 
Thanks for that. I will have a search and look through the posts a bit more. I was following the voyages of Kittiwake (26" Heavenly Twins Cat) and trouble is the more you look into it, the more opinions there are.
 
I've 'crossed' Biscay thrice in the last 12 months, twice Brittany to Coruña in November and April, once around the coast in July. I'm doing the coastal route, though La Rochelle to Bilbao, again at the end of this month.
It really isn't an issue as long as you don't push things if there's filthy Atlantic stuff inbound. Three days of sub-F6 weather is almost guaranteed. Allow a week for skulking around S Brittany if required or enjoy a month of daysailing Atlantic France and Spain .
Edit.I sailed alongside Kittiwake through the Raz de Sein. IIRC they did the coastal route.
 
Last edited:
Far too much is made of 'Biscay' imho. It's a piece of water, no worse than any other for weather and only really a threat to boats which can't go to windward & don't have engines (as they're yet to be invented) & for whom navigation is sextant only with a dodgy chronometer at best & are sailing long before modern weather forecasting.

Nowadays just do it! Lat time we went from Falmouth - La Coruña, leaving on Halloween. It took a tad under 3 days to do the 450 miles; it was cold and dark but no rougher than anywhere else at that time of year. I favour passing outside Ushant, standing as far off as just keeps one inside the TSS, which is about 6 miles so easily enough to avoid tidal issues. Make sure nothing above a F6 is forecast for 4 days and that not all of it's upwind.

That's not to say that there aren't loads fo lovely places to explore on the W coast of France and the N coast of Spain, but that's not 'crossing' so much as 'cruising the coast of'.
 
We coast hopped down to Camaret. Waited for a good forecast. Timed the exit through Raz de Seine for slack water and had a pleasant passage down to La Coruna. It was my first major crossing using my new sextant but we stayed inside the line of ships in the lanes and it was very reassuring. This was mid August.

I felt making a landfall using the Tower of Hercules was very special. Sailors have used that landmark for 2,000 years. Caesar Drake Nelson the Hitchcocks and then us.
 
It would be a pity to miss the French canals with your Southerly, it's a wonderful experience and an ideal boat.
Through Paris and you have a choice of routes, I would recommend the Canal du Loing and Canal du Centre to the Soane and Rhone. You would need to demast in Rouen.
The outside route from Devon or Cornwall around Ushant and across to A' Coruna is aprox 3 1/2 days, ok if you like looking at waves but from there on the Spanish Rias and parts of Portugal are well worth the effort, round Cape St. Vincent and you are in the Algarve and the southern coast of Portugal and just a day or so to Gibraltar.
Good luck with your plans and enjoy which ever way you sail.
 
Jimmy Cornell recommends starting from as far west as you can. After a failed attempt at making it to the Scillies (printed in YM June '18), we set off from Falmouth. This bypasses the whole tidal gate shenanigans off the French corner, which we never even saw. Also gives you a better angle on the prevailing SW winds. Jimmy's got it right, I think. I wrote about it here: https://sdfjkl.org/blog/2017-07-27-biscay/
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Other threads that may be of interest

I
Alternator upgrade on Volvo TMD41A
Replies
7
Views
206
boatmike
boatmike
geem
First 6 months with no gas onboard
2 3
Replies
41
Views
1K
Baggywrinkle
Baggywrinkle

Share this page

Top