Heading for the sun

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Year four

Our third year:

Once again we said our farewells to jobs and friends. This year we intend to complete the circumnavigation that we started in 1998, and then head on towards the sun. We left Hartlepool marina on the 26 June 2000, a very late start to the season, due to bad weather. It took a few days to settle down to life at sea again, and regain our sea legs. We reached Gosport on the 3 July and finally finish our circumnavigation, of the UK, not a world record but we felt it was a small achievement worthy of a big celebration.

We had a pretty good day for the Channel crossing, and arrived in Cherbourg on the 13th July just in time for Bastille Day on the 14th, the place was alive with street parties and fireworks, the French certainly know how to party. Next a quick visit to the Channel Isles Guernsey and Jersey. Especially nice because we had glorious weather. Back to France for some wonderful cruising where we visited some lovely islands. It was on a long overnight passage from Royan to San Sebastian that we experienced a tremendous lightening storm; it was strange because there was not a lot of wind, no rain and no thunder and it lasted for most of the night. San Sebestian is surrounded by green mountains, it is a beautiful Basque town nestled at the foot of the Pyrenees. It was once a small fishing village where they hunted whales and fished for cod. Now it is described as the summer capitol of Spain.

Onwards along the northern coast of Spain, they call it the green coast and rightly so. It is a quiet coast with very few marinas as we know them,just small fishing harbours. We had to invent some imaginative methods of mooring. Most boats choose to cross the Bay of Biscay rather than sail inside it.

Once we hit La Coruna we were back in crowded waters again. Rounding Cape Finisterre and sailing along the west coast of Spain we arrived in Portugal on the 14th September. Moving on down the coast we were meeting more people heading in our direction. We spent a few days in Cascais, where we travelled inland to Lisbon.

Rounding Cape St Vincent on a rather blustery day we found a lovely marina in Lagos.
After being stuck there for a week due to the weather, we decided it would be a nice place to spend the winter. There were already some livaboards settled in and we were getting to know them quite well. So on the 10th October we connected the power lead and got the television out and settled down for our first warm winter abroad.

Miles travelled 2000.

We really liked this little Portuguese town. Jeff got a part time job, working on the boats, which brought in the beer money, and kept him out of my hair during the day. We also did some dive work on friends yachts. We joined the local yacht club, and took part in a regatta, It was great fun and ended with a lively party. The marina hosted a best dressed boat competition for Christmas, and we won the first prize with our snowman.

Our first winter abroad was a busy one we had 4 lots of visitors. Colin (my son) Janine (Jeff's daughter), Maggie and Robin (cruising friends) and Joan and Christine (from the dive club)We did have a warm winter on but unfortunately it was a wet one. The rain started just after New Year and didn't stop until the end of March.

We started our fourth year leaving Lagos on April 25th 2001