Sailing north from Gib to UK from August

[BacktoBoats]

I am looking at the option of sailing my Bowman 42 back to the UK from Gibraltar to sell her. We will be leaving Gib this August, arrival in the UK is flexible and we will be stopping to enjoy places along the way, but we will arrive before the end of the season. I am aware this will tend to be against the prevailing winds, and throw in the Orca dodging it won't be a totally fun filled passage. I stayed within the 20m contour where practical when I came down a couple of years ago.

Does anyone have experience of this passage, with or without the Orcas, and any tips? I

 

[Roberto]

If you want to go along the coast (and not sail the longer offshore 'hook'), during the typical 'nortada' conditions keep in mind the option to motor during the night, there will be some chop left but wind often drops totally. There are a lot of unlit pot marker buoys, though they are often difficult to see even during daylight. The longer leg is Lagos/CapeSt Vincent to Sines IIRC 90-100nm, but then from Sines northwards distances are usually some tens of miles from one port to the next, easy to do. Around the Capes, St Vincent, da Roca, Fisterra etc easily add 2-3 Beaufort notches to prevailing conditions north/south of them.
I turned twice around cabo da Roca during the afternoon coming from the north, wind went from 15-20kt to 40 in a matter of minutes, the genoa rolled to handkerchief size and the boat doing 7kt, weather nice and sunny, but if going north... ouch

 

[mainsail1]

I had planned to do the same trip this summer also but I decided the wind would be mostly against and then there are the Orcas. My intention now is to go through the canals of France. I am told it will take me a month.

 

[Halcyon Yachts]

I am looking at the option of sailing my Bowman 42 back to the UK from Gibraltar to sell her. We will be leaving Gib this August, arrival in the UK is flexible and we will be stopping to enjoy places along the way, but we will arrive before the end of the season. I am aware this will tend to be against the prevailing winds, and throw in the Orca dodging it won't be a totally fun filled passage. I stayed within the 20m contour where practical when I came down a couple of years ago.

Does anyone have experience of this passage, with or without the Orcas, and any tips? I

It's a trip we do very regularly... Most yacht delivery skippers will hug the coast and pick the window carefully to avoid strong northerlies.

Given that you have a Bowman 42, and that the Azores are amazing, I'd be tempted to go that way. This is also a route we have taken when the northerlies aren't letting up.

Here's a Rustler 42 we delivered from Madeira to the UK and went via the Azores (rather than to mainland Portugal and up the coast). It was a great trip!

Pete

 

[Goldie]

We did the trip N. in 2024, but starting from Lagos. We left much earlier in the season (mid May) to try to avoid the stronger northerlies - the ‘Nortada’, aka ‘Portuguese Trades’ - which tend to build as summer temperatures rise over Iberia. Even so, we had headwinds nearly all the way and our strategy was to sit out the stronger stuff in nice places! There are good anchorages in Sines, Cascais and Sao Jacinto and we found the marina at Nazare particularly good, well priced and very very welcoming. Marina Douro is also very good and like many of the marinas on that coast, offers discounts for CA members and some offer discounts for OCC members. We limited our passages to daylight (Orcas!) and stayed pretty close inshore (same). There are some very good online groups advising of Orca activity.

Also, the Orcas tend to be further south earlier in the season, moving north when the tuna migrate - or at least, that’s the theory! In practice, some Orca interactions were as far north as Galicia in August.

We crossed into Spanish waters in early June and then spent a couple of months in the Galician rias - fabulous. From there it was just a couple of short day sails to the N. coast of Spain and then set off across Biscay.