If two sides of a triangle (down the French coast and then across the northern coast of Spain) are 200 nautical miles, then the direct distance would have been 282 nautical miles.... but, we wanted to see France and Spain, but turns out we’ve been in such a rush to get some miles under our keel we haven’t stepped foot on land except to get or passports stamped.... and, the Spanish coast has been wind on the nose, swell on the nose, and a persistent tidal stream on the nose. So the overall progress has been much slower than if we’d have been brave and crossed the Biscay in one go from La Rochelle direct to Gijon or A Corona.

But our square route has been entertaining and the Spanish coastline stunning, we’ve added it to our future bucket list to come back and spend more time here. The French coastline after Brittany was flat, long, nondescript. One of good friends says a good day sailing should not involve excitement, I now see were he’s coming from, a simple day with simple winds and a simple sea would be welcome. We’ve spent too many hours on engine beating against the tide and wind in choppy seas, and at times in waters that were turbulent for no good reason, throwing us from side to side, like a bucking bronco.

So here we are today sat anchored in a small bay in Vicedo a short distance from A Coruna after a short morning sail from another overnight anchor in Ribadeo which gave us some entertainment and excitement. First we passed under a 30 meter bridge, were 24 meters, and the clearance doesn’t look much at all, especially at high water close to springs, and then we found the designated anchorage in 2.7 meters of water... initially that sounds fine, we draw 1.3m under our depth sounder so that’s 1.4m under the keel, but given the tide was high we were due to drop 3.7m overnight so there was a very good chance we’d end up sitting on the keels overnight. We scooted across to the other side of the river and found a 4.4m spot with the tide now slightly lower already was due to drop 3.1m, and that gave us 1.3m under the keel, just enough, so with little choice as darkness fell we dropped the hook, went to bed facing one way as the river ebbed and woke facing the other direction as the river flooded. A close shave. With high apprehensions, we woke at the slightest disturbance and set off at 6am in the dark retracing our steps and cleared the bridge again in the dark.

Vicedo hopes to be less exciting, no tidal streams and a good 7 meters under the keel on high water, but the risk here is a rolly night as the Atlantic swell spills into the bay rocking us side to side. Luckily we’ve had a good few hours of sailing this morning hitting 7 knots at one point and we even though the last 5 miles seemed to go on forever we got here earlier than planned so we can relax this afternoon and catch up on socials and with family.

The next stretch from here round to A Coruna is Costa Morte (aptly named death coast: “The Costa da Morte received its name because there have been so many shipwrecks along its treacherous rocky shore.”), so we’re being cautious with wind, swell and safe-harbours en-route should the weather turn more sour than the weather forecast. Looking at the weather forecast tomorrow, we can see winds between 7 and 17 knots gusting up to 26 knots, these winds are very ok, especially downwind, and we can reef the boat up to 40 knots safely. The waves of 1.7m are also ok although we’d prefer the direction to be from astern rather than north-west as this means we’ll have swell on the side. The general rule of thumb for minimum period for a comfortable ride is wave/swell height (in feet) x 2.5, so 1.7m waves (6 foot) need a period of 15 seconds to be comfortable.

But with a period of 9 seconds on the side between each wave we ‘should’ hopefully ride up and down them comfortably rather than be shaken side to side. Looking at the forecast for Sunday, the wind continues to build and wave period decrease, Monday is looking better, lighter winds and longer period, but can we trust this forecast and do we camp out here two days waiting? I think we’ll head out and stick our nose into it, if it’s unbareable for the 25 nautical miles (5 hours ahead of us) we’ll turn and return here and wait until Monday. It’s nice here, and while we want to keep pushing on, we have flexibility in our schedule.