Biscay bay has a bad reputation with a lot of bad weather during autumn and winter. During the race « vendée globe », race all around the world, it’s common that they take the worst weather in Biscay bay.
So we followed the weather forecast really carefully before deciding to cross in the beginning of October.
Kata Lind crossed Biscay bay, from La Rochelle to La Coruna in Spain, in 2 days with a really light wind from east. Probably the calmest weather to cross Biscay bay in October in the all maritime history. We spent 12 hours (the second night) completely stopped with no wind at all, sails down, sleeping the full night like home.
Again, dolphins swam with us. Unlike the passage Reykjavík-Brest, it was dark during night, so we could see stars in the sky and the fluorescent sea, full of plankton. Sky during night at sea is absolutely fantastic. There is no light pollution at sea so you see 10 times more stars than on land. Also the view of the sky is complete, there are no tries or mountains to block the view. So it’s really beautiful. The fluorescent sea is also extremely beautiful, it’s not everywhere at every times, but when it’s there, it’s magic. It’s the plankton that light when you stress it. it’s a defense mechanism. So when the boat sail, the sea is fluorescent all around and leave a fluorescent tail sometimes up to 20 meters. And it’s beautiful. It’s a little bit like the aurora in Iceland.
We got also two clandestine. 2 land birds lost at sea, pushed by this Est wind (land wind). Not afraid, one event invite himself inside. Hey, it was warmer… =) Then when we were close to Spain, he left.
Some photos of the passage in really light wind with dolphins on a flat sea and full sun. Can’t be better, especially for October!
Trace of the passage (in red). In green, calculation of the computer in function of forecast and the speed of Kata Lind. The computer was good this time. In sailboat, the fastest route is never the straight line. Actually engine boat should do weather routing too, but usually they don’t unfortunately. With weather routing, a power vessel will reduce significantly its consumption and arrive at the same time, or even faster.