We docked in Hamble Point marina (where our Hanse dealer is located) to prepare for our next passage and get a few small things done to the boat like solar panels, dinghy install, etc. Hamble is quite a cute English village, and it provided a great chance to introduce Sabina to the classic English pub! To help, my cousin Jen, her husband Andy and their two young boys came down to visit. It was a nice couple of days, and to make it even better we experienced that rare beast – some British sunny weather.
With all now in order on the boat, it was time to get moving. Sabina had to head back to the US for her 10 and 5 year university reunions, so I got a couple of crew to help me sail the boat down in to the Med. Both poms – Luke had just finished university and was on his way down to Croatia to skipper a yacht week boat (lucky bastard!), while Jim was a tree surgeon just mad about sailing.
We had a fairly uneventful overnight sail / motor down to Guernsey, where officially I took ownership / delivery of the boat. With the weather a bit off, we decided to wait things out a day and enjoy the town. The next day we set off for Brest, a small city on the French coast 2 days sail away. It has been an important naval base going back to Napoleons days, with a beautiful natural harbour and lots of old fortifications as you enter.
Next up was the Bay of Biscay. It has a reputation for being a bit rough going way back, with many a square rigger falling foul of the messy swell and gusty winds in the old days. We got lucky with a nice 10-20 knots the whole way and made it to La Carona, Spain in 2 days. La Carona has a beautiful old town, and with the sun shining it gave me a sneak peak of what a summer in the Med was going to be like. The shorts came out for the first time, and after a belly full of beers and tapas, life was good 🙂
With good weather we decided to push on and sail down the Spanish and Portuguese coast. With pretty good winds we made the Straights of Gilblator in 3 days, passing through just after sunrise. What a sight – Africa on one side, Europe on the other, and literally a narrow sea channel a few miles inbetween carrying a heap of sea traffic. We managed to sail through most of it, just turning on the motor once to scurry out of the way of a big tanker.
From here on things just got better. The weather got warmer and the water was now that amazing Mediterranean blue you see in photos. One afternoon when the wind was pretty low we took turns jumping in and being towed on rope. Looking down in to the deep blue was just amazing. We also tried our luck fishing pretty much the whole way. Despite a few hookups, nothing made it to the dinner pan and I was pretty convinced the Med was fished out. After 5 days of non stop Med sailing, we arrived in Ibiza and the boys’ trip came to an end,