Off at last!

We left La Rochelle on Saturday, July 25 at around 4:30 pm after filling diesel at the Capitainerie. Weather was fair with light winds on the nose and the apparently normal Atlantic swells on the continental shelf. We motored sailed mostly but experimenting with the cruising chute or gennaker left us with little over 2 knots of boat speed. We stopped for an hour or so, with Ed and Richard diving off the boat for a swim. They declared the 10 degree Celcius water temperature to be "invigorating". Too bad there was no truth serum on board. Once away from the shelf, we thought things would get better but no such luck. Wind continued to be shifty around the nose and the swells which got worse were annoying as they made simple activity on board harder to accomplish, like not spraying yellow stuff around the toilet bowls. We were sailing in 4000 metres of water at some spots.
Francois trailed a line from our brand new fishing rod mounted on the stern. Nothing happened for most of Sunday, then suddenly a bite! And it was a big one, at least 20 kg! This is no fish story but the pristine truth corroborated by four usually reliable witnesses. Francois fought the creature for almost half an hour. It was the most beautiful tuna imaginable and thoughts of shashimi ran through our minds. Richard was assigned to hook it with the gaff we'd bought. As he hooked it right in the belly, the extendable gaff came apart in two pieces and our beautful tuna sank from sight taking the hook half of the gaff with it. Lesson learned -- do not buy cheap fishing equipment. There are already sceptics around the world, shaking heads in disbelief at this alleged fish. All of the Skylark's crew will swear to the veracity of this account, once we get back to land and a suitable religious site.
Enough on the fish -- the winds began to build late Sunday, with gusts reaching almost 30 knots at night. The seas got higher and waves towered over the boat at 3 to 5 metres making it not only uncomfortable but hard to see other ships in the area. Our AIS transponder was able to identify ships by name, their heading and speed. Unfortunately, some large fishing craft (Spanish of course, alleges Francois) carried no AIS and unconventional lights that made it impossible to tell if they were coming or going. The squid fishing boats were easier to tell with all the lights they carried to attract the squid. All in all, the weather and sea conditions we experienced merely established for a fact that the Bay of Biscay's reputation is well deserved.
Later on Monday, we spotted the Spanish coast as our route took us towards La Coruna or A' Coruna as the Spanish call it. It's quite rugged coastline with high cliffs. Towards evening, the Torre De Hercules (Tower of Hercules -- the oldest functioning lighthouse in the world) came into view, marking the entrance to the harbour at La Coruna. A call on VHF channel 9 establised contact with the marina who confirmed availability of a berth. We arrived at 7:30 pm Monday, July 27 and tied up at a large berth. The marina is a spanking new facility that is more than half empty and they were apparently glad to have our business with an offer of three nights stay for the price of two. On seeing the boat's documents, the young lady who checked us in immediately told us she had been to KL, Tioman and Langkawi. What a small world this is. Our Malaysian ensign has also generated quite a number of enquiries at the marina. We have had the pleasure of telling them about Malaysia and that our crew is Malaysian, Texan, English and French.
We had dinner at the old town in a quaint street off the Praza De Maria Pita. La Coruna is a small city, not too crowded with tourists. Tuesday morning was spent washing encrusted salt from the Skylark that resulted from two days bashing through the seas. Pictures will be posted in the next blog.