Espana 27

 

By dusk, solid water is flying and Stargazer has her shoulder down. Beating north in twenty two knots apparent. Hard on the wind .

Spain has not let her go easily.

It had been all change, with the morning forecasts : On Tuesday, easterlies in the south, with northerlies, extending from the Gironde down to Arcachon. Eleven to fifteen knots. On Wednesday, light northelies in the south, stronger in the north. Headwinds all the way.

Stargazer sails immediately. Leaving astern this coast of soaring mysterious peaks . . . . .

. . . . . .ancient citadels. . . . .

. . . . . and warm welcomes.

Although the wind directions have changed (from those of Monday's forecast), Stargazer's passage plan will still work. It should be a broad reach, under cruising chute, up to Arcachon, as the wind builds. Then a fast, port tack, fetch into the Gironde. The wind speed boosted, by our motion, to a solid twenty two knots.

A gentle northerly wafts Stargazer, out of Hondarribia and into the Bay of Biscay, on the starboard tack.

The continental shelf drops away beneath us. Stargazer now sailing the bottomless (to our depth sounder) ocean.

The breeze builds through the day. But remains obstinately northerly. A head wind. On starboard, Stargazer's bow is pointed toward the northern tip of Labrador, rather than toward the Gironde. When we tack, onto port, Stargazer is on course, for Bayonne. 

Stargazer is eating up the miles. But making limited northerly progress. Ricocheting, like a bagatelle ball, between the ocean depths and the low sand dunes of the coast.

At sunset, Stargazer turns to tack offshore. Spray cascading, like diamonds, from her bow. Romping over the swell.

The wind finally grants Stargazer a 'gaining tack' (Where the wind is not from dead ahead, one tack will permit better progress than the other), as dusk falls. With a veer into the north east.

Stargazer sails into the star encrusted night. The skies cloudless and, from midnight, moonless. The swirls of the galaxies, the infinite shades of dark purple, the red of Mars, the clean white of Venus, countless constellations clear and sharp. . . . .  A spectacle richer and deeper than I have ever before witnessed.

Dawn, on Wednesday, brings a cold reality: Stargazer is opposite Arcachon. Fifty miles offshore. With one hundred and ten miles sailed ; and seventy five made good (in our desired direction of travel). The half way mark.

 With current wind conditions, that will put us into the Gironde on Thursday morning. Forty eight hours after leaving Spain. 

I contemplate our choices, whilst a school of tuna leaps around Stargazer (too quickly to photograph in flight, alas). Taking their morning exercise. We have seen virtually no shipping and few other sailing boats. All were visible on AIS. Taking some sleep, in one hour cat naps, to enable me to keep going, for forty eight hours, is therefore one option. The other would be to motor, following a direct route. That would bring Stargazer into the Gironde around dusk, on Wednesday. 

I opt for the cat nap strategy. 

But wake to find Stargazer becalmed. 

There is nothing for it, but to motor.

The Cordouan  light, an evening mist swirling theatrically around its base, is lit by a shaft of light, from the setting sun. Stargazer has made her landfall, in the Gironde. A breeze, once more, fills her sails. The last of the flood sweeps her up river. Stargazer takes full advantage of the tidal rise, to scent shortcuts, through the twists and turns of the serpentine South Channel.

Footnote:

The 'stargazing' photograph is of  'Die Brehumten Orden Der Nacht' (The Renowned Orders of the Night). A mesmeric collage, by Anselm Keifer, which is on display in the Guggenheim Bilbao. See post 12