We're blue ...

Literally we are bleu everywhere. Passing the Gulf of Biscay was like sitting in a washing machine. Let me explain this first passage day by day.

The maiden trip begins:

Leaving the 15^th of July was a great timing: we had a wonderful fireworks ballet just for us ;-)

Our family, Quentin, Hélène, Marine, Sebastien, Aymeric and Constance (who drove 8 hours just to see us that weekend) came to wave us off. 

             

I still had the feeling we were not ready to go, all of the safety material was not set up (still needs to be installed today by the way) and we had a very tight schedule to get to Gibraltar, regardless of the weather… Not really a great way to start this trip.

Saying goodbye was actually quite easy. I guess I was so stressed to get to Gibraltar, and to finally leave, that my emotions were shut off. The weird stomach feeling only hit me a few hours later “we did it!”.

On this first trip, my father (Walter) and sister in law (Daphné), joined us to make the first passage a bit easier. Geoffrey offered his few golden locks to Neptune, however it did not bring us any fortunate weather…

  

Day 1 (15/07): Departure at 11 am – La Rochelle – no wind at all… The sails were up around 1 pm for a slow 9 to 14 knots and we had a great easy first watch.

                Lunch: fresh spaghetti – cheese platter as dessert (no wine!).

Day 2 (16/07): We feel like sitting in a washing machine… at some time during the night before, the wind picked up to a steady 25-30 knots with waves hitting us from all around. LouiseAnna was dancing, but we could not follow the rhythm! The girls want to know why it is taking so long to get an ice cream. Who would tell them it would be 6 or 7 more days like this …

                Lunch: tomato soup

Day 3 (17/07): Please, please can we stop at Vigo? The captain is firm, we will continue to Lisbon. No time to spare… Luckily some dolphins comfort us on the passage. Some dolphins? I would guess 50 to 100! What a beautiful show! They just love this heavy weather, surfing in the waves! I was waiting for one to pop up on the deck as the waves were always higher than our roof !

The girls were playing nicely with their Barbies, while we tried to rest every minute we had. Sleeping by the way was impossible. The noice and movements downstairs were just so irregular! I did manage to get myself and the girls to the shower and to brush our teeth (necessary after two days!)

                Lunch: dry gnocci’s

 

Day 4 (18/07): We really really cannot remember there was a day four…

Day 5 (19/07): The wind finally drops. We even had to motor almost the whole day. We rinse the boat, clean the interior, hit the showers again and chill.  What a salty life it is at sea! Seriously there’s salt EVERYWHERE! By the end of the day we feel reborn, not rested, but ready to eat some more miles ;-) We checked out our nice pink spi, but in 3 knots of wind, we couldn’t even fly a handkerchief.

Lunch: gnoccis au gorgonzala and tomatoes. Broccoli purée for the girls. I made two loafs of bread and the guys even had a beer.

 

Day 6 (20/07): The wind picks up even more that night. Above 30 knots the whole night and following day. We are stuck between monstrous waves and count the hours to get to Lisbon. The result is that we are bleu everywhere. Impossible to walk straight, we burn our hands at the ropes, we have back aches and we realize we were not well prepared for the trip. We start to list all the things to do and improve…

However, it is during this night that I started to fill in the log book and try to fix the gaps of the past 4 days. I wonder "Is it possible that I start to adapt to this sh…. weather?!”. Louise tells me that this does not amuse her at all… Anna asks Geoffrey why we decided to do a world trip… Our friend Quentin comforts us that the 2 years will be over quite quickly!

                Lunch: ???

 Nature reserve das Berlengas off Portugal, the first land in a looooong time!

Day 7 and 8 (21-22/07): After insisting that we had two children on board and were exhausted, we received a spot at the Cascais marina. We arrived at 4 am and Daphné, me and Geoffrey had some Duvels (thank you Seb). A great way to celebrate the safe arrival (more than halfway). And also a great way to compensate the earth sickness we were experiencing! For those who don’t sail often: after being swirled around at sea, you can feel sick at land. This means that everything around you moves, a bit like having had 2 litres of rhum without dinner J

This day was used to clean the cm’s of salt off the boat (and ourselves) and we had a great lunch at a trendy and delicious tapas bar (Famous) and excellent octopus dinner overviewing the marina.  While we finally adapted to life at land again, Anna wondered if we would go sailing or what?!

 

 

Day 9 and 10 (23-24/07): Our gennaker did not arrive in Cascais, so we leave and decide to come back later by car. We are headed for Portimao and a good 25 hours later we arrive at 1 pm. 

From far, the Algarve looks really nice, but it took me about 20 pictures to get one without 15 boats in it. It's sooo busy! I’m a bit disappointed as I thought Portimao would be a typical ancient fishing town. Instead we found a highly developed holiday resort with few cute locations. We decide to spent a day at the beach for the girls, we enjoyed the cocktails on an overpriced sunbed J 

For dinner we took a taxi to get far away out of the city and enjoyed a very typical Portuguese octopus. Our sleep was a little disturbed as both engines refused to start. The port engine already had some problems before as the battery would not recharge. The next morning Geoffrey pulled on some connections, had a big angry look at the whole boat and wonder by wonder they started again! We phoned the same day to the Volvo dealer in order to get some maintenance at Gibraltar.

The girls ask us how many dodo’s it would be this time. We said “Just one”, they replied “oh, that’s really not far” and went back to their game.

The following series off pictures show us that we are ready to let the children sail and just chill in the front ... 

Wait ... what? A dolphin? ...

Okay who's steering the boat now?!

The attention is quickly diverted, as should at that age ;-) Anna and Louise enjoy themselves any time, anywhere ...

Pic nic for auntie Daphné:

Daily excercise:

Calling her best friend Alice ...

One of the many sunsets to come ...

Day 11 (25/07):  We arrive in the Gulf of Cadiz at the entrance of the Strait of Gibraltar a good 25 hours later. We still need 5 more hours to get to Gibraltar. Luckily we have the current with us. We feel like sitting in a game of “touché, coulé” as the AIS alarm goes off every three minutes. There are SO MANY boats here!

Tangier mountain range:

We are ready to check out new member for the Hockey club Merode (Grimbergen) at any level of Gibraltars' locals ;-)

We arrive at Gibraltar around 6 pm, just within the deadline. We quickly fill in the paperwork, send our proof to our financial company and start to relax. Now our trip can really begin.

We’re very proud to have this trip already on our Palmares. Quite an achievement for us J