Laredo to Gijon

Captain Chaos has taken on the blog for the next couple of episodes, so apologies to those of you who prefer Mrs M’s East Kilbride patois.

We have decided to get a wee shift on for two reasons. Firstly, we have been advised it would be prudent to get down the Atlantic Coast of Spain and Portugal before the equinox around the 23^rd of September which can, and is usually is, accompanied by bigger seas and winds. Secondly Snawbaw my sister- in – law is arriving at Lagos, Algarve, Portugal on the 22^nd September to grace us with her company, an equinoctial experience in its own right! Only kidding D – looking forward to it – bring tea bags xx.

As you can see it’s a fair distance. We believe our night sailing and thus longer passage making will be restricted once we are on the Portuguese coast due to the proliferation of unmarked fishing nets and pots. We could go further offshore to miss them, we’ll see once we get there.

We left Laredo on Friday 15^th Aug at 1130 and the forecast from San Sebastian to Santander was West force 3-4 and the swell from memory about a metre, all of which was OK. We managed to complete the passage between sailing and motor sailing when the wind died. Dinner was chilli out “the dog bowls” to stop us spilling it in the swell. We split the watches to get some sleep passing Santander, Ribidasella and other possible stopovers in the night and arrived in Gijon on Saturday morning at 0830, 106 miles further on. Had breakfast and went for a kip.

Gijon pronounced HeeHohn marina is right in the centre of the city. It was virtually completely destroyed during the Spanish civil war and has been rebuilt, so a mixture of a modern city with parks and a smattering of the old town remaining.

The beach was bunged on the Sunday as you can see below.

We stayed in Gijon Saturday & Sunday and had Pete and Ali around on Saturday night. Louise originally got talking to them in Hodarribia and we have been partly sailing in company along the North Coast of Spain.