Homeward Bound
Throughout March, Bessie Ellen & her voyage crew, journeyed 1300 NM from Tenerife to Fowey and Nikki offers a brief insight into the voyage.
Departing from the main city of Santa Cruz with a good quartering breeze, our brave little ketch handled the huge swells with relative ease, eating up the miles leaving the snow covered peak of Mount Teide far astern. We knew we were in for a fast passage with SW winds pushing us on towards the Portuguese coast. Also in our minds was the fact that our sunny days with sparkling blue oceans would soon be far behind with only colder and grey covered skies as we journeyed onwards.
Arrival in Cascais one evening gave us some concern when we were denied a berth in any of the ports surrounding Lisbon, all due to the expected gale over the next days. In desperation, Nikki contacted an agent who soon secured a place in the very comfortable Cascais Marina. Always a delight, Cascais is one of our favourite ports, with her quiet narrow streets and sandy beaches on the seafront, it’s not hard to be stuck here to wait out a gale. Our second leg would take us from the Mouth of the Tagus following the coast up to Finisterre, and then across the dreaded Biscay. This leg we had a bit of a motor sail as light winds to start with the forecast of a coming gale from the North made us hurry on a bit.
A brief stop was made in La Coruna where it poured with rain for a day, and then onwards across the Continental Shelf. We started off with an uncomfortable sea close inshore that soon dissipated into flat calm for a few days. Some stunning encounters with dolphins elated the voyage crew for hours as they raced under the bow in spuming foam. And yes, the skies were grey and it was so cold, night watches passed slowly but at least for the most we were dry. An overnight stay in Camaret was most welcome before our final night passage across the channel – it could not have been more perfect with such clear skies and a good breeze, voyage crew, happy in their work looking back over the last weeks together as Bessie Ellen stormed into Fowey under all canvas, happy to be home.
We are now looking forward to our Scottish voyages, which start in a couple of weeks – we make our way to Oban on the 28th of April, with our first Hebrides tour beginning on the 12th May (there are still two berths remaining on this trip if you fancy a last minute adventure). We do only have a few voyages with spaces remaining, so head over to our voyage schedule to find out which ones.
