Waterval - ARC Potugal so far

When we started out on june 1st there was a suspicion of strong southerly winds towards the last day. How true this proved to be! The fleet lies scattered over the north of Spain and the people of the organisation have to work there buts off to put it all together again. We had counted on a NW wind earlier on Biscay, but it never came....This is how it went with us.Day 1. June 1stAfter the start line, where we blasted out Queen's "We are the champions" we took as the only ones the east exit on the Plymouth Sound and had a nice view of the others against the dark, hilly background. With a weak wind to beat against our boat is at its worst and we had to motorsail a lot. Day 2. June 2ndThe west going tide didn't take us far enough to evade Ouessant and we ended up tacking against a fierce. read more...

Waterval - First part: getting to Plymouth

When Sisca, my wife, and I where a/ convinced that we like sailing the Med better than the North Sea and b/ I decided to retire from work relatively early ( at 62) from my work as an ophthalmic surgeon, we bought a brand new boat with an interior for the Med and a stern-platform to easily come to the cay backside first. She is a Catalina 445, shallow (wing) keel version, that was instantly available at a moment that the dollar was low. After over 20 years of sailing relatively under-canvassed boats she was a handfull, being much bigger an óver-canvassed. I learned to reef down earlier and decided to order a high-aspect focsail in stead of the huge genoa. Now she is reasonably docile to handle, apart from being blown aside when waiting for one of the many sluices in The Netherlands. Thank. read more...