Highlights – the overview
It’s time to leave Hondarribia, the beginning of Spain and of the Basque region. There are several provinces along this coast, Basque being furthest east and Galicia furthest west on the Atlantic coast.
We enjoy the beautiful green coastline with its hills and valleys.
Sailing is a bit of a challenge: in the lee of the shore there’s only a very light breeze but when we pass valleys (often with a river) the wind accelerates to 20 knots or so. We are constantly alert for wind gusts and we’re looking at the sea. When we see white caps ahead of us we know a wind gust is coming.
We enter the tiny little port of San Sebastian via a very narrow entrance and moor in one the few available berths. In summer, there would be almost no chance to get in here!
In the afternoon we climb up upon the hill and admire our girl down below.
After that, we take a walk in the city. It has a lot of beautiful buildings and cathedrals and a lovely big beach. And a lot of tourists, but less than during the summer months! The streets and cross streets are such that you can see the cathedral at one end and the basilica at the other… just beautiful!
And of course, we buy some delicious Jamon Iberico in a little specialty shop! Wim realizes that this will be a recurring theme during our time in Spain. 🙂
In the afternoon, we’re going to climb up the hill to see the big Jesus statue. While we climb up, we have a view of the port. We see a French boat coming in. It’s pretty windy and we see them losing control while they try to get into a berth. That didn’t work, so they try for another. Oh no! They hit Dione IV! We literally run back to the marina to see what the damage is. We are very upset. Luckily, they only hit the spinnaker pole on the railing with their bow and it only has a few scratches.
After the French boat has moored next to us and secured their lines and fenders, the skipper comes to apologize and offers to pay for any damage. Very nice! He introduces himself, his name is Jesus, a common Spanish name, but pronounced differently. They appear not to be French, but Spanish. We have a laugh, since we were going to visit the Jesus statue and now we meet Jesus in person :). We tell him that we have only a few little scratches and no further problem. He insists on making up for his mistake, and that we have a drink with him and his family/friends on board their boat. While we drink, the women put dish after dish with tapas on the table! No matter that we have just finished lunch 30 minutes earlier, we taste all these delicious local tapas and have a lovely conversation. In addition, they give us lots of advice about where to sail along this coastline. It turns out to be a cozy and lovely afternoon! We decide that one Jesus is enough for the day and don’t bother making the climb to the top of the hill. 🙂
We leave the next morning and our next stop is the small port of Motrico (Mutriku). The weather is lovely, and after we moor the boat, Wim has a siesta in the sun before we take a walk around the small village up the hill.
The next day we continue on to Bilbao. This is just an overnight stop before we continue on to Santander and wait out some rainy and windy weather there.
We enter the river to Santander, which has some beautiful palaces and buildings. We try to get a mooring at the Yacht Club, but as the cruising guide reported, they don’t have space for visitors and we are directed further up the river to the big marina by the airport… peaceful, but isolated.
We spend our time doing various projects (see The Captain’s Log for details) and taking the scooters out for rides. Sher has affectionately named them Thelma and Louise, because they are happy to go on road trips and adventures. Such fun!
We also take a bus into the city center to have a look around…
Walking along one of the shopping streets we see a shop specializing in Jamon Iberico.
Guess who’s in there, seconds later? She’s buying some delicious Jamon for our tapas tables! Sher simply can’t walk past a shop like this without a look inside (and more often than not, a purchase!)
We have a delicious lunch on a outdoor terrace at a bakery and then we visit a market place. It is a very colorful hall and we buy lots of fresh and delicious things!
We buy great courgettes/zucchinis and our courgette pie that evening tastes more delicious than ever!
1830h. Golden hour!
The temperature is 25°C and we have dinner at the cockpit table… our favorite restaurant!
Tomorrow, the weather looks great to continue our journey West to San Vicente de Barquera. Read about that in our next post!
The Captain’s Log (T+105,106…122) – the complete story
October 11 – on our way westbound
After sunrise, we depart from Hondarribia.
Once we’re at sea, we get a light breeze from the south and we set our yankee and mizzen sails.
It’s a lovely warm day. The south wind blows warm air from the mainland.
We enjoy the beautiful green coastline.
Sailing is a bit of a challenge: in the lee of the shore there’s only a very light breeze but when we pass valleys (often with a river) the wind accelerates to 20 knots or so. We are constantly alert for wind gusts and we’re looking at the sea. When we see white caps ahead of us we know a wind gust is coming.
After about 2 hours we enter the bay of San Sebastian. There’s a small island named Santa Clara. Named after Wim’s grandmother and his sister 🙂
We enter the tiny little port via a very narrow entrance and moor in one the few available berths. In summer, there would be almost no chance to get in here!
It really is a lovely spot!
In the afternoon we climb up upon the hill and admire our girl down below in the port.
After that, we take a walk in the city. It has a lot of beautiful buildings and cathedrals and a lovely big beach. And a lot of tourists! The streets and cross streets are such that you can see the cathedral at one end and the basilica at the other… just beautiful!
And of course, we buy some delicious Jamon Iberico in a little specialty shop!
October 12 – painting in teal and an unexpected encounter
In the morning, we do some painting. We had 2 rusty spots on the hull which we treated with primer in Hondarribia and now is a nice dry and sunny day to paint ‘m teal. Since we have to mix some teal paint, Sher takes the opportunity to repaint her Yeti mugs.
In the afternoon, we’re going to climb up the hill to see the big Jesus statue. While we climb up, we have a view of the port. We see a French boat coming in. It’s pretty windy and we see them losing control while they try to get into a berth. That didn’t work, so they try for another. Oh no! They hit Dione IV! We literally run back to the marina to see what the damage is. We are very upset. Luckily, they only hit the spinnaker pole on the railing with their bow and it only has a few scratches.
After the French boat has moored next to us and secured their lines and fenders, the skipper comes to apologize and offers to pay for any damage. Very nice! He introduces himself, his name is Jesus, a common Spanish name but pronounced differently. They appear not to be French, but Spanish. We have a laugh, since we were going to visit the Jesus statue and now we meet Jesus in person :). We tell him that we have only a few little scratches and no further problem. He insists to make up for his mistake and have a drink with him and his family/friends on board. We accept his apologies and his invitation and sit down in their cockpit with the 4 women and 2 men. They serve a glass of wine mixed with sparkling water on ice, a typical drink in Spain. We have a cheerful toast on the ‘kiss’ they gave to Dione IV and while we drink the women put dish after dish with tapas on the table! No matter that we have just finished lunch 30 minutes earlier, we taste all these delicious local tapas and have a lovely conversation and they give us lots of advice about where to sail along this coastline. It turns out to be a cozy and lovely afternoon! We decide that one Jesus is enough for the day and don’t bother making the climb to the top of the hill. 🙂
October 13 – on to Mutriku
Another beautiful warm day. We say goodbye to the Spanish neighbors and we are going to follow their advice to sail to Motrico (also spelled Mutriku).
Again, we sail along this beautiful coastline with the same variable wind as yesterday.
In the afternoon, we enter the small port of Motrico.
There are a few free berths, we moor and Wim has a siësta in the warm sunshine.
After that, we take a walk around the village that is built on the steep rocks around the small port.
Sunset.
October 14 – west to Prencia, and Bilbao
Before the sun rises over the mountains, we depart from Motrico. Destination Bilbao.
Once at open sea, we see the sun rising.
There’s almost no wind so our Marvelous Mighty Mitsu has to bring us to Bilbao.
Around noon, a vessel of the Spanish customs crosses our course at high speed. Then they turn and come after us. Ah, we think, this is going to be a check. Hopefully they will come alongside careful with their big boat… But no, they pass at short distance, keeping their full speed. We wave at them. Some small windows in their wheelhouse open and they take pictures with their phones, they wave and put their thumbs up! They were just looking at our beautiful girl! 🙂 Without reducing speed they move away in front of us, leaving us in their huge wake. We have a good laugh about this event 🙂 We expected something completely different!
We keep enjoying the beautiful coast!
Along the way, we decide not to go to the big port of Bilbao. The marina’s are 5 sea miles inshore and we want to continue to Santander tomorrow. A little port named Plencia seems a better stop for the night. By 1530h we turn into the river on which the little port is situated.
It is a beautiful entrance with impressive rock walls.
But the little port appears to have no place for us. We try some options and speak to a local guy. He advises us to go to Bilbao, Getxo marina. At low tide in Plencia, we will be drying out partially and the bottom is rocky and steep. We decide not to take that risk and move on to Bilbao. An hour sail.
At 1700h, we enter the port of Bilbao. Very industrial surroundings. Ugly. The marina of Getxo is ugly, too. Tomorrow we have one more day of nice weather and we decide to take that day to get to Santander. After tomorrow, we’ll have a number of days with rain and unfavorable winds and we don’t want to spend ‘m in this ugly place.
October 15 – west to Santander
At 0900h we depart from Getxo. There’s a forecast for 5 knots of wind from the south-east and once we’ve passed the breakwaters of Bilbao we have 10 knots. All right, we set full sails and have a nice speed at broad reach.
When we turn around a high cape, the wind increases and increases. When we have 25 knots and still increasing we decide to reef the main sail in to furl the yankee sail back. We see 27 knots on the gauge.
Full speed! Dione IV does 8.2 knots in this wind!
After 10 minutes, the wind is suddenly gone! We even get 8 knots from the opposite direction! The sea gets crazy because the waves from the strong wind are still there.
We take down the main, furl the yankee and start the engine.
Weird! This must have been caused by the wind accelerating around that mountain.
After that, the wind stabilizes to 5-10 knots from the south-east. As forecasted. We keep the mizzen up but keep the engine running. We have to keep 5 knots of speed because by the end of the afternoon the weather is going to change and we want to be in Santander by then.
Here, we pass the cape De Ajo (the garlic cape) and we turn to Santander.
After the cape, we get some wind again and we set sail to Santander!
We pass a small island, Isla de Mouro.
We enter the river.
Santander has some beautiful buildings.
A very big cargo vessel leaves the port of Santander. Sher waves at it. To our surprise, two men step out of the wheel house and wave back enthusiastically! 🙂
We enter the marina of the Yacht Club in the city center and take a berth. Sher phones to the capitane but they say: no place! All private. Go to marina de Santander.
We sail up river for a few miles and take a berth in Marina del Cantábrico. Not a really nice place, next to the airport runway, but it’s quiet and well protected for the strong winds to come.
October 16 – rainy and windy day in Santander
A day with some rain showers and also some sunny intervals.
Just after we get out of bed, a guy from the marina knocks on the boat. He gives us a document with a lot of data to be filled in and after that we have to report at the office.
We stay on board, doing some work on our computers.
In the afternoon, 2 officers from the Police National appear on our pontoon. They want to see our passports and ask some questions where we came from, where we are going, etc. All good. Even though Sher’s 3 months visa has expired. No problem, because she has her Portugese residence permit now. But the card is still in Portugal. We will have to go and pick it up there. But the policemen don’t even notice…
It appears Santander is an official port of entry for Schengen. Because it has an airport and big ferry terminal. We think the marina has reported the arrival of a foreign yacht and that’s what’s triggers these authorities.
October 17 – an outing to town… or maybe not!
A cool (17 degrees Celsius) day with a lot of rain and strong wind from the West.
In the morning, we are visited by two men from the Spanish customs. We have to show all the boat’s documents and our passports. In the cockpit, they fill in a long list of data. Santander is an official port of entry for Schengen, as there are ferries from here to the UK. They are very gentle and kind. While an old officer fills in all data on a form, a young man who speaks a little English, collects our documents and transfers the data to the older guy. We offer coffee but they refuse politely. When all the form is ready, the young man says, humbly, “I have to take a look inside, that’s protocol. If you don’t mind?” We reply, “of course not, please come in”. He steps down into our deck salon, looking a bit embarrassed, takes one turn of his head and steps up quickly into the cockpit again. When they leave, the old officer says in broken English, “thank you very much and please enjoy our beautiful country!”
We certainly will!
We stay cozy inside until in the afternoon it looks like the sky is clearing. We decide to take the bus to Santander center. But when we leave the marina toward the bus station (a walk around the end of the runway) we see very gray skies above the city 🙁 Hmm. Maybe not today. Moments later, it starts raining again…. We decide to go back to our lovely warm and dry Dione IV and see the city tomorrow…
October 18 – Bus outing to Santander City
In the morning, two officers from the Guardia Civil knock on the boat. They want to see our passports and the boat’s documents. After a close study and some pictures from the documents with their phones, they leave. This was the third time we were checked!
Today is a beautiful day so let’s go see the city of Santander! We take a bus from the marina to the city center, 20 minutes ride.
It’s a big, modern city with some nice old Spanish style buildings and colorful houses. Because it has been built on a hill it has some nice views over the bay.
Walking along one of the shopping streets we see a shop with Jamon Iberico.
Guess who’s in there, seconds later? She’s buying some delicious Jamon for our tapas tables! Sher simply can’t walk past one of these shops without a look inside (and more often than not, a purchase!)
We have a delicious lunch on a outdoor terrace at a bakery and then we visit a market place. It is a very colorful hall and we buy lots of fresh and delicious things!
We buy great courgettes/zucchinis and our courgette pie that evening tastes more delicious than ever!
October 19 – projects and scooter outings
A cloudy day. There are a couple of days of westerly winds forecasted so we’ll stay here. The marina de Cantabrico is quiet and peaceful, and at a winter rate of 20 euros per night (including electricity and water), not expensive.
We have plenty of little projects to do, and we also take our electric scooters into the suburbs of Santander. There are 2 huge shopping malls and a huge hardware store. This home improvement store is bigger than we’ve ever seen… they have literally everything, even a big selection of Victron equipment!
We take a ride along the industrial side of the bay. There’s a sunken fishing vessel which drowns at high tide and appears at low tide. Why would you remove it now? After 200 years or so it will be gone by itself 🙂
October 20 – another delightful scooter ride!
Lovely weather today! Sunny and 25 degrees C. In the morning, we take a scooter ride along the river. There’s a nature reserve uphill but it appears quite a long way. Before we reach the hill after 15km our batteries 50% empty so we have to return. We’ve prepared lunch for a picnic but we don’t find any nice picnic spots, so we have our lunch at our own nice picnic spot… our cockpit! 🙂
In the afternoon, there’s no wind so that’s a good opportunity to do a job on our list: re-organize our third reef in the main sail.
We have the first and second reef available in our fantastic Seldèn 1-line reefing system but since this system is limited to 2 reefs, the third reef is tied up to mast. It was never used. It wasn’t even installed. We only installed the reefing line when we re-installed the rigging in Harlingen in April. But when we reefed when we left Bilbao, we noticed that the reefing line of the third reef should be tightened. The line was hanging loose and could get tangled. So we decided that the reefing line should go back to the cockpit instead of being tied up at the mast, making it safer.
So, this afternoon we re-organize the lines and test the 3 reefs.
1830h. Golden hour!
The temperature is still 25°C and we have dinner at the cockpit table… our favorite restaurant!
October 21 – fueled up (diesel and groceries!)
We have noticed to the diesel price at the fuel pontoon is very friendly: 1,37 euro/L. Normally, at marina’s, the price is much higher (1,80 or even 2 euro).
So, in the morning we move from our berth to the fuel pontoon and a very friendly guy fills our starboard main tank up: 254 liters. That’s the amount we have used since we left Jersey.
In the afternoon we scooter back over to the Carrefour in the other big shopping mall and do some provisioning. On our way back, we stop at a fishing supply store and buy some new lines for our anchor chain hook and stay tensioner.
October 22 – new bird-stay line and spliced lines for new anchor snubber line
No wind today. So, a good opportunity to climb up the mizzen mast and replace our birds-stay tensioning system. We call the stay between our main mast and our mizzen mast the birds-stay because birds tend to sit on it (it is the only stay that is not vertical. It’s at 45 degrees or so). Anyway, when we put back the rig in Harlingen, this stay was fixed to the mizzen mast with a short piece of dyneema line. Later, the rigger came to check everything and he tightened the back stays of the main mast much more. So, the main mast leaned back some more and the bird-stay lost it’s tension. No problem, because both masts are supported stand-alone. The bird-stay is only an addition to suppress vibrations. It is a thin stainless steel cable (6mm) and it should even break when one of the masts goes overboard.
To re-tension it, we thought of a better system: use the shive of the topping lift of the mizzen mast (not used) for a 10mm polyester line and tension it with the winch on the mast, then fix it with a stopper.
Now we can easily adjust the tension without having to climb up the mast.
In the afternoon, we cut some Sunbrella so Sher can sew another pillow at the next rainy day opportunity.
Wim spliced the new ropes to the chain hook. These 20mm ropes (5 tons breaking strength) are very hard to splice, very tough. Actually this job needs special tools, which we unfortunately don’t (yet) have.
That’s why the result doesn’t look very pretty. But, it’s strong.
Let’s test the strength by pulling full force on a winch. That must be more than 5 tons. Good!
The last couple of days, the night temperature dropped considerably. This causes condensation on the inside of the hatches and windows. Especially when the outside temperature drops below 10°C, the condensation ‘rains’ down from the hatches. Over the last 17 years, Wim has used frames with added interior windows to insolate the warm inside air from the cold hatches. But they were big and hard to store on board. And they were pretty worn-out. So, when we were preparing Dione IV in Koudum, we decided to dispose of them and think of another solution. So that’s what we did together, the last couple of days.
In that big hardware store, we found a kind of very thick plastic foil. We bought a piece, tried it in front of a hatch, but it was too flexible so we bought another kind of plastic sheet, tried that, and it worked! No condensation.
We put a sheet of 0,7mm thick plastic sheet in between of the frame of the shutters. Very easy. Easy to remove when we want to open a hatch, easy to store when we don’t need ‘m.
Tomorrow, the weather looks great to continue our journey West. Read about that in our next post!
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