ALMA’s travels have begun for 2010! ALMA had been in winter storage in Lymington waiting for the summer to begin her long voyage to Malta. We had a great test sail to Weymouth on 8/9 May – good winds (although very cold for May) and everything seemed to be in good shape except the anchor light which Berthon had somehow managed to re-wire incorrectly (it came on at the same time as the radar!) after putting the mast back up! It took a good few very frustrating hours to find the cause and fix it. However, I now know a little bit more about the boat’s wiring! I guess that’s why it’s good to have a test sail at the beginning of the season.

On Friday 14th May we sailed to Plymouth to be ready for the start of Rally Portugal. Another great trip - little wind overnight but a lovely breeze on Saturday as we crossed Lyme Bay and past Start Point, Dartmouth and Salcombe and on to Plymouth arriving at 5pm. We left ALMA there for two weeks then we (Helen and I plus Geoff, Doug and Andy) were all back on board by Friday 28th to get ready for the Rally – safety checks, provisioning, checking over the boat, getting new charts, navigation prep, weather forecasts etc. Sunday morning 9.00am start and we were away from the pontoon by 0730 so we had time to check the instruments (electronic compass and main compass were not agreeing!) and the start line. Nice breeze at the start and at 0900 the fleet was heading out of Plymouth Sound for the Channel and Ouessant. I was a little late at the start and we were behind a few boats to begin with but by the time we left the bay we were in the lead (ALMA sails really well in these conditions – upwind in a breeze over 12 knots) and upwind of the fleet. We settled into our 3 hour watch system and looked forward to warmer weather further south.

We had a couple of periods when the wind was very light but for most of the time we had great winds, up to 25 knots. At one point we had a little too much wind when we had the gennaker up and we had a real struggle getting it down! I think it was about 3am – always seems to be the middle of the night when these things happen! Anyway, once we were back under control the off watch slept a bit better. We also had periods of fog which are always disconcerting – especially in the very busy shipping lanes around Oessant and Cape Finisterre. We were very grateful we had radar and AIS (a radio signalling system that gives the position, course and identity of ships). Downside of having these systems is that you see just how much traffic there is!

Much of the way across Biscay we had frequent visits from dolphins (some dolphins may have been porpoises!) – great feeling as they jumped alongside us or “torpedoed” the boat then dived under us at the last moment. I’d swear they were laughing at us as they came alongside to watch us struggle with the gennaker in the middle of the night! One boat saw two whales – minke I think.

After 3 days it was great to see land again as we approached the coast of north west Spain. We had been sailing off the continental shelf in depths of over 4,000 metres (the depth drops from 150m to over 4,000m in only 30 miles!!) and enjoyed the longer ocean waves but were now back into choppier seas as we sailed down the Costa del Morte and rounded Cape Finisterre.

We crossed the finish line at Baiona at 0050BST on Thursday – about 550 miles in 3 days 15hours 50 minutes. A great trip and although we were pleased to have arrived in Baiona we were really enjoying the fantastic sailing conditions on Wed as the weather improved (sunshine, blue skies, warm, and great wind – champagne sailing) and we had settled into our sailing routines and felt we could have just kept on going!

Doug, Geoff and Andy had a day to explore Baiona before they had to fly back to the UK from Porto. Helen and I have been able to relax and enjoy the town ( famous for being the first place in Europe to hear about the “New World” as the Pinta sailed into Baiona on her return from Columbus’ voyage. We’ve also visited Santiago Compostella – amazing to see the huge numbers of pilgrims making the journey from many parts of Europe as well as other areas of Spain by bike and on foot to visit the burial site of the Apostle Saint James who had lived and preached in Galicia for many years. His body was apparently brought back from Palestine after he had been executed. Santiago also has a wonderful Parador hotel which claims to be the oldest in the world – dating from 1499! And it looks wonderful – if we ever return to Santiago we hope we’ll stay there!

Now we’re getting ready for the next leg of the Rally on Tuesday to Povoa de Varzim near Porto. Let you know how it goes in next update.

Best wishes
Helen and Iain