Sailing ORION: spanje

spanje

The Atlantic crossing was no 'milk run'. But the men lived on fresh Dorade and had a real boys adventure. A stop in the Cape Verdes because of bad weather was interesting.

We started in St. Lucia, had carnival in Dominica, hiked in Martinique and Guadeloupe. We turned south again, joined the traditional boats regatta in Bequia and the cultural marroon festival in Carricaou. Swam with sea turtles in Tobago Cays, saw whales and dolphins, many pelicans and sunsets, hiked in the beautiful rainforest of Dominica and St. Vincent and anchored at the set of 'Pirates of the Carribean' in Wallilabou Bay. Greneda was our last island to visit. And met a lot of nice people in al these island and among all those cruisers. Next stop: Venezuela.

Big tides and winds in North Brittany, but the coast is wild and beautiful. South Brittany is holiday and the islands wonderful. Sail further south to visit old towns like La Rochelle. And good food everywhere!

The coast of Marocco is rough and beautiful. Safi is a nice stop in case of bad weather on the way to the Canaries. A different culture just 3 days of sailing from Lagos. Ilsa Graciosa was a perfect landfall in the Canaries and Santa Cruz, Tenerife a good harbour to stay some time. Leendert had his 7th birthday!

The portuguese coast gave us a lot of motorproblems. The north is beautiful and Cascais is a good harbour to visit Lissabon. Many dolphins if you sail at night. Beware of big swells, harbours gets closed.

Met een driemaandse reis naar Scandinavie wilden we in 2002 testen of een lange reis iets voor ons was. Van half mei tot half augustus gingen wij via Bornholm en de Zweedse scherenkust naar de finse Alandarchipel, waar we na 3 weken aankwamen. De terugreis was door Stockholm en de Malaren via een stukje scheren naar het Gotakannaal dwars door Zweden (60 sluizen!). Na dit zgn. "divorce-channel" via Goteborg en het eiland Laeso in het Kattegat weer huiswaarts.

North Spain has beautiful ria's and towns. La Coruna is not so interesting. The westcoast has beatiful ria's again but is less wild. Don't forget to eat raciones. The paella in Santander is the best. Hedwig had her 4th birthday!