Date: Sunday 22 August 2021
Position: 43° 22.064’ N 8° 23.058’ W
SOG: 12 kn
Location: A Coruna, Spain
Distance Sailed during the week: 404 NM
Distance Sailed total: 1823 NM
Weather: ☀, 25°
Most popular on the menu: Fish sticks and potatoes 🍽
Animals spotted: Dolphins 🐬🐬🐬
Comment of the week: “Liv with kids, Liv with kids, Liv with kids, this is Sundance”
Yes! We made it! We crossed the Bay of Biscay from Roscoff in France to A Coruna in Spain.
Monday morning and we decided to head out over the Bay of Biscay. Some last preparation and then leave the harbor around 12 am, to time the tide – that was the plan. But filling up our diesel tank was not that easy when the fuel station at the marina broke 5 minutes before we were going to fill up. We ended up getting a ride in the Harbour masters car to a gas station so we could fill up 4 jerrycans. But we left the harbor over 4 hours later than scheduled. Due to that, we got the tide against us, a lot more waves than expected and could not take the shortcut between the islands. We already had an issue with our fresh water tank that we planned to fix in A Coruña. But we also ended up having a broken black water tank. So no running water and working toilet for the next days while crossing the Biscay….
With the rough start battling both tide and huge waves, getting escorted by dolphins was amazing and kept us occupied for several hours. Just looking at them and having several groups follow us past sundown. After the first night, everything became much calmer and we found routines and life on board went more smoothly. The wind was perfekt, and we sailed almost the whole way. We miss our finnish friends on SY Sundance, so it was wonderful to hear their voices on the VHF the first evening when we were still within VHF range!
Thursday morning, after 404 NM, we arrived in sunny Spain, a little bit tired, but excited that we had crossed the infamous Bay of Biscay without running water or working toilets. But A Coruña is a great place to stay until everything is fixed. On the day we arrived, Jonas celebrated his birthday by fixing the black water tank so only one more tank to fix.
On Friday, school started on Liv. All kids chose to start with english. It’s been easy and a pure pleasure to be a teacher the first days of school – wonder if it will be like this the whole year?! During the breaks, one of the most popular activities is to paddle on our SUP.
Now we will enjoy A Coruna, the sunny weather and all the things to see around. And of course, as always, some fixing on the boat and preparing for the ARC virtual security inspection next week.
Written by Susanna Edholm, edited by Hanna Ericksson
Liv Sailing 