The coastal route to the med, any months its not really viable or enjoyable?

[roaringgirl]

Insurance usually requires an experienced skipper +2 crew and completion before October for crossing Biscay.

We spent July-November getting from A Coruña to the Canaries. Would have spent more time in
Spanish Rias/Vigo & Madeira.

There are very few anchorages in Portugal, and harbours can get closed in big swells. We spent a long time at anchor in Cascais waiting for a northerly.

 

[stranded]

Pretty sure mine - Pants - requires none of those things.

 

[veshengro]

" and completion before October for crossing Biscay. "

The Insurance Companies are rightly listening to the accrued knowledge of bygone times..." Only fools and Fishermen go West of the Lizard after 1st October"...

 

[Tranona]

2 foot draft bilgekeeler
It was very quiet ( May)
It was that route

One northcoming commercial and a few brits returning from the med.
Nowadays one hears about more weed , less water and requirement for permits ..
but it is a useful cut through

I have some wonderful photos of my old Eventide in the locks at Hede in 1966 with the original owner and his family. He did the circuit twice through the canals and back home to Salcombe round the outside. he was a very adventurous fellow doing two trips to Southern Ireland as well with the boat. A couple of years ago I had some exchanges with his son who remembers the canal trip vaguely but did not appreciate what a n adventure it was, particularly relying on a Stuart Turner 8hp for propulsion!

We used to spend a lot of time in Britanny wandering around and staying at small hotels including Hede (where the owner was a real French eccentric) and made a point of visiting the flight of locks. Also stopped many times at Plouer sur Rance where there is a locked marina and Dinan where masts can be dropped before you go under the first low bridge of the canal.

Happy days.

 

[Mudisox]

The Brittany canals are so much relaxed and not like the main canals via Paris.
We go most years, lowering the mast in Dinan and raising in Redon or St Nazaire. One can actually go up the Loire and reach as far as Le mans with sufficient speed and less draft. Beware the lock in St Nazaire however there as they are not slow in letting the water levels adjust. .................. Don't ask why.

 

[franksingleton]

Hi Frank

Bear in mind that the Spanish low often deepens during the day and fills a little at night.

I've tried Googling the Spanish low but can't find anything. Can you provide any more info?

Thanks

Brendan.

During the summer there is low pressure over Spain in much the same way that pressure is low over the northern Indian sub-continent. Simply, it is a heating effect. This is the cause of the strong prevailing northerlies down the Iberian peninsula. These are sometimes called the Portuguese Trade winds. During the day, the strong heating deepens the low, at night cooling increases the pressure.
In the early morning, winds tend to be at their lightest and, down the coast, especially Portugal, can be a little offshore. As the low deepens the wind strengthens and backs to be a little onshore. So, going south you are likely to start on the port gybe. The temptation is to head up a little but the wind continues to strengthen and a gybe becomes necessary. If you had been flying the spinnaker, as we tried on a few occasions, it came down around noon and we would usually have to gybe.
Coming northwards, you can use the same effect to head out to sea in the morning so that when the backing occurred, we could tack back. When we last came up that coast, 2010, the forecasts were getting good enough to see when the effect was more marked than normal.

The hot season Indian monsoon is much the same effect on a larger scale. I spent 2 years in Aden many years ago and saw similar effects in the SW monsoon.

Sorry for the length of the reply but, almost always, a simple weather question has a complex answer.