We’re slaves to the weather forecast. After a few thoroughly enjoyable weeks in Brittany with mostly sunny skies, pleasant sailing conditions, and all the baguette we could eat, a good weather window for crossing the Bay of Biscay appeared in the forecast. While we only had a chance to sail through the northern portion of Brittany and would have been quite happy to stay in France for longer, we decided to take advantage of benign conditions to sail south.
The actual sailing conditions turned out to be even better than forecast. The wind was a bit stronger than expected, so the sailing was good. But it wasn’t so strong to create much wave action, so the sailing was smooth. And there was a 7’/2m swell generated by a distant storm in the north Atlantic, but these waves started far enough away that by the time they arrived in Biscay, they were just long-period rollers that passed harmlessly under the keel.
We’ve owned Oso for more than a year now, so it’s hard to believe that this 300 nm trip is the longest continuous voyage so far – just a few more miles than our first passage from Norway to Scotland. We spent two nights at sea, and as the sun rose in the morning it illuminated the beautiful green hills of the north coast of Spain.
