Light Breezes and Lulls

Spending two nights in San Sebastian we were happy to enjoy many plates of tapas from the old town and swimming and hiking around the La Concha bay. We also took this time to say a sad farewell to some of our crew with three members leaving us including Cedric, Nils, and Mario, who had traveled with us all the way from Lübeck.

Following the wind forecast we left San Sebastian in the early morning to catch a bit of anticipated wind, but unfortunately, there was only enough to carry us a few hundred meters outside of the bay before a lull set in which lasted until just after lunch.  While waiting for the wind we enjoyed swimming from the boat and finally taking in the warm and sunny weather. With the lull came some haze which made for some interesting tacking along the coast in which we saw the mountains quickly disappear and reappear on our tacks out and in.

Managing to make about 20nm before the wind died down again for the night, we made our way into the nearby port of Lekeitio. In this small village without a guest harbour we had fun mooring along the high walls of the quayside having to find space first in front of a crane, which required us to move early in the morning when someone came to use it, and then in front of some steps used by locals to launch kayaks and paddle boards.

After a much needed restock of food in Lekeitio, we were pleased to find the wind quickly increasing so that we even had to reef the mainsail and put up the number three foresail to make our way quickly down the coast tacking to Castro Urdiales. With fish from the morning market ready to be cooked we took a mooring buoy in the harbour just before sunset.

Finding that the wind forecasts along the north Spanish coast were not so accurate at the moment, we woke up with the sunset to check the wind again.  Seeing that there was a good light breeze we set sail from the mooring buoy and rode the wind out of the harbour. Still experiencing little wind we felt lucky to make an average of about 4kts throughout the day. With the wind changing slightly to north we were able to make our way down the coast on a close haul without much tacking.

Throughout the day we had the pleasure of once again being greeted by common dolphins appearing to approach us with many different pods. With the dolphins matching us at our slower pace we had the joy of examining them in even more detail.

As the wind died in the night we found a nice anchorage in the bay of the village of Suances after covering about 45nm.

The following day presented little wind until the afternoon and with out water supply getting low we used the afternoon high tide to enter the shallow village harbour and fill our tanks. With slightly more wind but still from the west, we tacked down the coast making a distance of 30nm in the evening hours and anchoring behind an island by the Playa Franca in the dark.

In the early morning we took the dinghy to a beach that was only accessible by boat and explored the beautiful rocky cliffs and caves. Setting off directly upon our return to the boat, we made our way straight out from the coast to get some more wind. We were all pleased to have some more variety in the weather and welcomed a rain shower and apparent wind up to 24kts. As we began to tack back out from the coast the wind lulled and turned a bit more to northwest so that we ended up on course for the lovely fishing village of Lastres where we enjoyed a wonderful fish dinner and the old town which wound its way up the hillside.

Leaving Lastres in the morning we prepared ourselves for wind that was predicted to be up to 5 or 6 Beaufort coming from the tail end of a small low pressure area. Cooking our lunch early and putting on some rain gear against the spray we found ourselves a little too well prepared as the wind didn’t increase significantly until the late afternoon as we approached Gijón.

Changing foresails from the number two to number four we sailed through a small shower and tacked out to round the point, Cabo Peñas. We quickly saw the waves increasing in size and this was amplified by our heading directly into them so that their 2m had the impression of being much higher.

These few hours of harder sailing were great fun for the crew but also made us quickly ready for a rest and we headed into the convenient port of Avilés sailing up the river to the well protected harbour.

Once again finding little wind in the morning and only a light breeze from northwest in the afternoon we made another short hop of 30nm to the beautiful village of Luarcas arriving just after sunset.