Position: 35°57’06.4″N 5°50’56.4″W Orcas are wild animals. No amount of anthropomorphising changes that. For the past five years Iberia’s orcas have been ‘interacting’ with boats up and down the Spanish-Portuguese coast. Interacting means physical contact. Anything from a bump to …
Position: 36°45’04.4″N 6°25’18.5″W Rather than overwhelm you, dear reader, with another vital instalment of our excruciating linear narrative of sailing down the coast of Portugal, let’s skip ahead a couple of months and talk about the lead up to sailing …
Position: 37°02’27.7″N 8°53’37.7″W Sometime remakes are better than the original. Sometimes things should be left just as they were. Our early misadventure with Nell’s towline on the Great Bahama Bank seven-and-a-half years ago (seems like yesterday, doesn’t it? – ed.) …
Position: 41°09’16.7″N 7°46’57.1″W Another four days of Atlantic churn meant we could tick off a barrel-sized item on our bucket list: wine tasting in the heart of the Douro Valley. But first we had a hoped-for date with monster waves …
Position: 41°11’39.5″N 7°48’09.0″W By morning, the winds of Viando do Castelo had dropped to nearly nothing. Slipping our mooring and heading out on the downstream tide, we nonetheless raised the main in hopes of a breath of wind. The dominant …
Position: 41°41’36.3″N 8°49’20.4″W As soon as Aleta reached the mouth of the Vigo River, and after we agreed that Baiona was too short of a sail, the wind died. Shame on the forecast! Perhaps we were too close to shore …
Position: 43°13’12.1″N 9°00’02.4″W Crossing the Bay of Biscay from La Rochelle commits you to being at sea for at least 350 nautical miles. Distance is only part of the equation. What those miles are really telling you is how many …
Position: 46°08’49.2″N 1°10’05.7″W Gliding upstream past the two imposing limestone towers guarding the entrance to La Rochelle’s harbour transports you back hundreds of years. Imagine your triumphal return from a fraught campaign against the infidels of Cypress. Roses shower down …
Position: Crusin’ and Cursin’ Here it is. Our response to last week’s video from Practical Sailor about what it’s like cruising and living on Aleta full time. If you haven’t watched the video yet, see it before you read on: …
