Hurricane
Well-known member
This is a long report on the delivery trip of our Princess 67 from Torquay to her new home at Sant Carles in the Mediterranean. I’ve added lots of photos / videos and there are some (possibly interesting) “boaty” paragraphs at various places to keep you awake. Let’s hope it isn’t too boring.
It was two years ago at the 2006 Southampton Boat Show, Mary and I signed up for a berth at the new (yet to be built) marina at Sant Carles in Spain. We have never before bought anything “off plan” so it was exciting to be one of the first to “bag” a 20 metre berth. As most of you know, we sold our old T51 and bought JennyWren, a new Princess 67, earlier this year. Having spent most of the summer fitting her out, I was quite apprehensive about this next phase of the plan – “Delivering JennyWren to Sant Carles” – ON HER OWN BOTTOM.
This apprehension was further increased by the UK’s bad summer weather and I seriously wondered if I was doing the right thing. And to top it all the West Country was hit by F9 winds two days before we were due to leave on Sat 6th September.
Anyway, the crew all arrived on the Friday and it was decided to delay our departure, not only to let the seas subside a little after the storms but also to give everyone time to familiarise themselves with all the boat’s systems. JennyWren has an impressive array of electronic systems as well as all the standard Princess fittings. Essentially, she is fitted with a full dual station Raymarine G Series navigation system complete with digital radar and AIS tracking. Additionally a Windows PC, TV and docking cameras also feed into her four navigation displays. The extra day waiting for the weather to clear was used to get everyone familiar with these systems as well as making themselves comfortable in their cabins.
The crew consisted of myself as skipper, Derek (djefabs from this forum) and Mike and Viki (good friends of ours from my sailing past). Mary was to join us later in Gibraltar.
So there it was – crack of dawn (05:45 BST) on Sunday 7th September – we slipped our moorings at Torquay and headed south on the journey of a lifetime.
In fact the conditions were quite reasonable until we poked our nose out from Start Point. Although the conditions were quite rough, the boat showed no signs of struggling – unlike her skipper who felt quite unwell!!! If we had been in our previous Sealine T51, I would almost certainly have turned back. However, we knew from forecasts that the conditions were to subside and by the time we reached the Chanal du Four and the infamous Raz de Sein the sea was quite flat – “pussy cat” was the comment passed between us.
This is Benodet
Here is the track to our first port of call – French village of Benodet.
All these chartlets are actual tracks – as recorded by JennyWren’s on board PC.
So the stats for the passage to Benodet are as follows:-
Arrived 13:30 BST – passage 203 miles taking nearly 8 hours
Took on 2681 litres
Good meal at the Transat restaurant – recommended.
Refuel’d that night and a well earned night’s sleep
The following day was to be the big crossing of the infamous Bay of Biscay.
We decided that there were three options:-
1. A slow displacement cruise to La Coruna – about 320 miles
2. A normal cruising speed dash to Gijon - about 270 miles
3. A shorter hop to La Rochelle and then to Santander – much longer.
JennyWren has a range of about 280/300 miles at normal cruising speed (22/23 knot planning) but should be able to manage 650 miles at 9 knots displacement speed. However she is designed for the faster speeds and in big seas the displacement speed might be a bit uncomfortable.
The weather forecast was showing that things would continue to improve in South Biscay and the Portuguese coast but if we were to hang around too long we might get caught in another low pressure system that was approaching the English Channel and North Biscay. The decision was therefore made to do option 2 – a dash for Gijon.
This was to be our longest passage – at least 12 hours so we set a waypoint in the middle for morale purposes. The first half was pretty uneventful – lunch was served – thanks to some pre-prepared frozen home cooked meals that Mary had made for us. Throughout the entire journey, these meals became our saviour – she had made a selection of single portions of Shepherds Pie, Chilli and Rice and Pasta Bolognaise. She had also packed us off with a home made coffee cake and two treacle tarts. I managed to slip in a carton of Cornish Clotted Cream as well so the meals at sea were quite an event. The procedure was simply, to select our menu from the freezer, turn on the generator and wait for the microwave to do its thing.
In the middle of Biscay, however, the sea conditions changed for the worse and for a couple of hours we were back to similar seas to those experienced in the Channel but by mid afternoon, the conditions were good enough to transfer back to the upper helm. We were by now in water some 4800 metres deep – our echo sounder had given up during the morning – I guess that a ping over that kind of depth has no chance of getting back to us – or at least until after we’d moved on. It seems that the max depth that our Raymarine DSM could handle was about 150 metres.
The evening drew on and after an encounter with some distant whales; the sun set and the moon came out to reveal a very special experience. The silver road. This is a very rare experience for us leisure sailors – it happens only when the sky is clear, the moon is full and the course is directly in the direction of the moon. Guess what – it did it for us and for about two hours we were able to “drive down the silver road” at a full 22 knots all the way into Gijon. An experience that I shall never forget.
So the crossing of the infamous Bay of Biscay was done. It was dark and all the marina staff had gone home so we berthed on the fuel pontoon and went to bed.
The track to Gijon
Stats for the passage across Biscay to Gijon are as follows:-
Arrived 20:44 BST – passage 270 miles taking just short of 12 hours
Refuel’d next morning
Following morning, we took on 3577 litres
Set off at 08:00 BST – destination Atlantic Coast and Bayona
Another long day was required to get us further south. We wanted to get completely clear of Biscay as soon as possible to avoid any contact with the next weather system which I think was the tail end of Hurricane Gustaf. Apart from an uncharted extension to the port at Gijon and some scary debris left by fishermen, the trip to Cape Finisterre was pretty uneventful. That is apart from the numerous dolphins that seemed to pass us at regular intervals.
This is Finistere with windmills in rows like soldiers
And here is the track to Bayona
Stats for the passage from Gijon to Bayona are as follows:-
Arrived 19:00 BST – passage 243 miles taking 11 hours
Took on 3136 litres
Set off following morning at 06:38 – destination Cascais
From Bayona to Cascais we had lovely flat seas – flat as a flat thing. I must explain here that this seems to be a measurement standard set by those who berth at Sparkes Marina. They measure the sea state by saying that when the sea is really calm it is actually “flatter than a flat thing” – it’s more like something to do with the mental attitude of people in Chichester I should think. Well using this standard we definitely had seas that were “flatter than a flat thing”.
Derek and I tried to capture the wonderful experience of running down one of the most exposed coastlines with hardly a ripple and virtually no wind – and brilliant sunshine – what more could we have asked for. I took the time to take a few pics around the boat whilst Derek managed to get the video thing working on his little pocket camera.
This clip captures the experience very well.
And another from inside the boat
I'm afraid all I could manage was a wake shot
And some shots of Cabo da Roca
And then - yes - more fuel at Cascais
And the track to Cascais was
Stats for the passage from Bayona to Cascais are as follows:-
Arrived 16:08 BST – passage 222 miles taking 10.5 hours
Arrived late afternoon – refuelled that night ready for a gentle run to Vilamoura.
Took on 2841 litres
Set off at 08:44 – destination Vilamoura
The weather had been getting better and better all the time. It was noticeable that the air temperature had been rising steadily. All the weather systems in Biscay were now well behind us – only Cape Vincent and we could then turn east again to the relative safety of the Mediterranean. Things couldn’t be going better – and yes – Cape Vincent – yet another “pussy cat”.
During this particular passage Derek and I calculated the fuel burn in a number of different ways – it seemed that, by cutting it fine, we could make Gib without fuelling and I wanted to arrive in there as empty as possible to take full advantage of the tax free fuel. The decision, however, was to play safe and splash 600 litres into the tanks in Vilamoura. Shame really – Vilamoura had the fastest pumps of all our stops.
Here's the track
Stats for the passage from Cascais to Vilamoura are as follows:-
Arrived 15:14 BST – passage 147 miles taking 6.5 hours
Took on 600 litres
Set off next morning at 06:13 BST – destination Gibraltar
Due to limit of photos within a single post - Continued on post #51 - here
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...ry-UK-to-Spain-Loads-of-Pics-and-Videos/page6
It was two years ago at the 2006 Southampton Boat Show, Mary and I signed up for a berth at the new (yet to be built) marina at Sant Carles in Spain. We have never before bought anything “off plan” so it was exciting to be one of the first to “bag” a 20 metre berth. As most of you know, we sold our old T51 and bought JennyWren, a new Princess 67, earlier this year. Having spent most of the summer fitting her out, I was quite apprehensive about this next phase of the plan – “Delivering JennyWren to Sant Carles” – ON HER OWN BOTTOM.
This apprehension was further increased by the UK’s bad summer weather and I seriously wondered if I was doing the right thing. And to top it all the West Country was hit by F9 winds two days before we were due to leave on Sat 6th September.
Anyway, the crew all arrived on the Friday and it was decided to delay our departure, not only to let the seas subside a little after the storms but also to give everyone time to familiarise themselves with all the boat’s systems. JennyWren has an impressive array of electronic systems as well as all the standard Princess fittings. Essentially, she is fitted with a full dual station Raymarine G Series navigation system complete with digital radar and AIS tracking. Additionally a Windows PC, TV and docking cameras also feed into her four navigation displays. The extra day waiting for the weather to clear was used to get everyone familiar with these systems as well as making themselves comfortable in their cabins.
The crew consisted of myself as skipper, Derek (djefabs from this forum) and Mike and Viki (good friends of ours from my sailing past). Mary was to join us later in Gibraltar.
So there it was – crack of dawn (05:45 BST) on Sunday 7th September – we slipped our moorings at Torquay and headed south on the journey of a lifetime.
In fact the conditions were quite reasonable until we poked our nose out from Start Point. Although the conditions were quite rough, the boat showed no signs of struggling – unlike her skipper who felt quite unwell!!! If we had been in our previous Sealine T51, I would almost certainly have turned back. However, we knew from forecasts that the conditions were to subside and by the time we reached the Chanal du Four and the infamous Raz de Sein the sea was quite flat – “pussy cat” was the comment passed between us.
This is Benodet
Here is the track to our first port of call – French village of Benodet.
All these chartlets are actual tracks – as recorded by JennyWren’s on board PC.
So the stats for the passage to Benodet are as follows:-
Arrived 13:30 BST – passage 203 miles taking nearly 8 hours
Took on 2681 litres
Good meal at the Transat restaurant – recommended.
Refuel’d that night and a well earned night’s sleep
The following day was to be the big crossing of the infamous Bay of Biscay.
We decided that there were three options:-
1. A slow displacement cruise to La Coruna – about 320 miles
2. A normal cruising speed dash to Gijon - about 270 miles
3. A shorter hop to La Rochelle and then to Santander – much longer.
JennyWren has a range of about 280/300 miles at normal cruising speed (22/23 knot planning) but should be able to manage 650 miles at 9 knots displacement speed. However she is designed for the faster speeds and in big seas the displacement speed might be a bit uncomfortable.
The weather forecast was showing that things would continue to improve in South Biscay and the Portuguese coast but if we were to hang around too long we might get caught in another low pressure system that was approaching the English Channel and North Biscay. The decision was therefore made to do option 2 – a dash for Gijon.
This was to be our longest passage – at least 12 hours so we set a waypoint in the middle for morale purposes. The first half was pretty uneventful – lunch was served – thanks to some pre-prepared frozen home cooked meals that Mary had made for us. Throughout the entire journey, these meals became our saviour – she had made a selection of single portions of Shepherds Pie, Chilli and Rice and Pasta Bolognaise. She had also packed us off with a home made coffee cake and two treacle tarts. I managed to slip in a carton of Cornish Clotted Cream as well so the meals at sea were quite an event. The procedure was simply, to select our menu from the freezer, turn on the generator and wait for the microwave to do its thing.
In the middle of Biscay, however, the sea conditions changed for the worse and for a couple of hours we were back to similar seas to those experienced in the Channel but by mid afternoon, the conditions were good enough to transfer back to the upper helm. We were by now in water some 4800 metres deep – our echo sounder had given up during the morning – I guess that a ping over that kind of depth has no chance of getting back to us – or at least until after we’d moved on. It seems that the max depth that our Raymarine DSM could handle was about 150 metres.
The evening drew on and after an encounter with some distant whales; the sun set and the moon came out to reveal a very special experience. The silver road. This is a very rare experience for us leisure sailors – it happens only when the sky is clear, the moon is full and the course is directly in the direction of the moon. Guess what – it did it for us and for about two hours we were able to “drive down the silver road” at a full 22 knots all the way into Gijon. An experience that I shall never forget.
So the crossing of the infamous Bay of Biscay was done. It was dark and all the marina staff had gone home so we berthed on the fuel pontoon and went to bed.
The track to Gijon
Stats for the passage across Biscay to Gijon are as follows:-
Arrived 20:44 BST – passage 270 miles taking just short of 12 hours
Refuel’d next morning
Following morning, we took on 3577 litres
Set off at 08:00 BST – destination Atlantic Coast and Bayona
Another long day was required to get us further south. We wanted to get completely clear of Biscay as soon as possible to avoid any contact with the next weather system which I think was the tail end of Hurricane Gustaf. Apart from an uncharted extension to the port at Gijon and some scary debris left by fishermen, the trip to Cape Finisterre was pretty uneventful. That is apart from the numerous dolphins that seemed to pass us at regular intervals.
This is Finistere with windmills in rows like soldiers
And here is the track to Bayona
Stats for the passage from Gijon to Bayona are as follows:-
Arrived 19:00 BST – passage 243 miles taking 11 hours
Took on 3136 litres
Set off following morning at 06:38 – destination Cascais
From Bayona to Cascais we had lovely flat seas – flat as a flat thing. I must explain here that this seems to be a measurement standard set by those who berth at Sparkes Marina. They measure the sea state by saying that when the sea is really calm it is actually “flatter than a flat thing” – it’s more like something to do with the mental attitude of people in Chichester I should think. Well using this standard we definitely had seas that were “flatter than a flat thing”.
Derek and I tried to capture the wonderful experience of running down one of the most exposed coastlines with hardly a ripple and virtually no wind – and brilliant sunshine – what more could we have asked for. I took the time to take a few pics around the boat whilst Derek managed to get the video thing working on his little pocket camera.
This clip captures the experience very well.
And another from inside the boat
I'm afraid all I could manage was a wake shot
And some shots of Cabo da Roca
And then - yes - more fuel at Cascais
And the track to Cascais was
Stats for the passage from Bayona to Cascais are as follows:-
Arrived 16:08 BST – passage 222 miles taking 10.5 hours
Arrived late afternoon – refuelled that night ready for a gentle run to Vilamoura.
Took on 2841 litres
Set off at 08:44 – destination Vilamoura
The weather had been getting better and better all the time. It was noticeable that the air temperature had been rising steadily. All the weather systems in Biscay were now well behind us – only Cape Vincent and we could then turn east again to the relative safety of the Mediterranean. Things couldn’t be going better – and yes – Cape Vincent – yet another “pussy cat”.
During this particular passage Derek and I calculated the fuel burn in a number of different ways – it seemed that, by cutting it fine, we could make Gib without fuelling and I wanted to arrive in there as empty as possible to take full advantage of the tax free fuel. The decision, however, was to play safe and splash 600 litres into the tanks in Vilamoura. Shame really – Vilamoura had the fastest pumps of all our stops.
Here's the track
Stats for the passage from Cascais to Vilamoura are as follows:-
Arrived 15:14 BST – passage 147 miles taking 6.5 hours
Took on 600 litres
Set off next morning at 06:13 BST – destination Gibraltar
Due to limit of photos within a single post - Continued on post #51 - here
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...ry-UK-to-Spain-Loads-of-Pics-and-Videos/page6
Last edited:
