This is the family sailing and cruising blog of Phil (Philippa), Tom (Martin to many), Stan, Ted and our boat called Bella.
Yacht Port Cartagena We arrived in Cartagena in mid October after a great 48 hour sail from Gibraltar. Our original plan had been to spend the winter somewhere near Barcelona however, one of the biggest lessons we've learned since setting sail is that plans involving water are best not set in stone. So here we …
Image: view of the Rock from the rock. We couldn't really sail past Gibraltar without stopping for a look at the monkeys. So on leaving Barbate we hugged the coast and rounded the corner into the Straights of Gibraltar. I was definitely the most over excited member of the crew on this passage. Having sailed …
Image: Plaza de Espana. It's September 1990 and I've just started high school. I'm in my first French lesson with the slightly scary Miss Macarron and in walks the tour de force that is Jane Leese. She sits down next to me and immediately starts talking - alot... and so began a life long friendship! …
Image: Gadis statue looking out to sea near the marina. The passage from the bottom of the river Guadiana took us just over 12 hours overnight and was pretty full on. At one point we had 3 tankers and a fishing boat bearing down on us - I was on the helm so called down …
Image: Bella anchored in the river Guadiana. We'd heard so much about the river Guadiana from other cruisers along the way that we felt it was a bit of a must see. It also seemed like a great way to mark the end of our month in Portuguese waters by spending a little time, quite …
Image: The crew of Spirit lifting our spirits. Image:Maths lesson on the way to Portimao. We were in dire need offshore pressing the reset button by the time we got to Portimao (Well I was). The boat was filthy, the laundry bag was over flowing and we were very low on water and food. Within …
The passage from Cascais to Sagres was probably our most spectacular to date in terms of wild life. We rendezvoused with Tabasco in Lisbon bay in what has come to be our standard cruising formation. We were set to motor initially as the wind wasn't due to pick up for a few hours. This gave …
On the road again Looking back, our week anchored off Cascais was pretty busy - on Friday afternoon after school we rented bikes from the marina and headed north out of Cascais on the excellent cycle track(Thanks for the tip JT X). The boys loved being on bikes again but it was pretty hot. We …
Image:The well of initiation, Sintra. Image:Look up. I'm always telling the kids to look up - sometimes that's where the best view is. This is the view from the galley hatch on the way from Leixoes(Porto) to Cascais. The 30 hour passage was pretty tiring with neither Tom or I getting much sleep. Fortunately Ted …
Image:Sunset on Spain.... for a little while. It's fair to say that we have loved our time in Galacia this summer but it's time to move on. Our broad plan is to tackle the Atlantic Portuguese coast in 2-3 longer hops. Step 1 - Baiona to Porto. (Well, Leixoes actually which is some 40 mins …
A family of four from Cowes set sail for an adventure on their sailing boat.
