Following seas (sailing with the waves coming from behind) means getting beaten badly   Six a.m., it’s still dark and I’m at the helm steering Capri out of Nazare harbor. We’re going slowly because the both the harbor and the sea outside is veiled in heavy fog. So heavy that I’m having to…

We were in Cascais for a week while we waited for some packages to arrive. Finally they came and we could make Capri ready for sea and head for Madeira. We studied the weather reports and forecast closely since we would be asea for at least 3 days and probably 4. At last the forecast…

So– what’s it like to be a cruising sailor?   Let’s get one thing straight from the start, The Bay of Biscay is not for pansies!   Dear family, friends, neighbors and everyone else,   Starting a circumnavigation is not only a nature and cultural experience, but also, for me, a voyage of discovery into…

Where were we?  Oh yes, we had spent the night in Peniche (actually 2 nights, but who’s counting?).  Why 2 nights?  If you remember we got caught in an fishing net and had to cut ourselves free and well maybe we just felt a little bit sorry for ourselves and needed a break – so…

I figured I’d get your attention with that headline.  More about that later. First, all the boring stuff. We left Leixoes early (6 a.m.) in the fog, naturally – this is Vinni and Carsten sailing after all, happy to leave and once well clear and a couple of miles out to sea, I started the…

We stayed in Vigo a few days while we waited for some spare parts to be delivered. Once it became obvious that the delivery would take several days we decided we’d sail out to Isla de Ceis, a couple of islands about 12 nautical miles away at the mouth of the bay. Isla de Ceis…

Crosshaven to Bayona Spain across the infamous Bay of Biscay It is Saturday and we’re lying in Crosshaven waiting for a weather window. Our weather program, Predictwind, changes the forecast every few hours, due to an enormous low pressure area approaching from the Atlantic. Here in Ireland, we’re going to get gales – in Scotland…

Dear friends   We left Troon for Ireland after having studied both the weather forecast and the tides. The weather forecast noted that we should have a mixture of wind – the first 1/3 of the 195 nautical mile trip we’d have the wind in our faces (typical vinni and carsten weather) but then the…

Isle of Arryn and the British Open I wrote last time that we had reached the end of our Scottish adventure – but nooooo, there’s more –  much more. Where was I? We were in Inverkip where we had our autopilot replaced ($5000 – shudder!).  While there, the harbourmaster asked me in passing if I…

Vinni had I had learned all about tides and tidal streams when we took our Yachtmaster exams but it is a bit different when you are faced with it in reality – do it wrong and you can end up losing your boat. There is a narrow inlet between 2 headlands near the entrance to…