All sailing plans made in Jelly
So, The plan was to solo sail to Plymouth at the end of April 26, wait for a 5 day weather window (waiting patiently for a predicted calm 5 day weather forecast), then give my friends Steve and Ian a call from “racing yacht Aassifa” to crew for me to cross the Bay of Biscay to Baiona in Spain before popping across the boarder to Porto, Portugal, leaving my boat there in readiness to sail the coast of Portugal during the rest of the 2026, before passing through the Stait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean early 2027.
I returned from a January family holiday to my 18 year old daughter being very unwell, Thankfully she appears now to have fully recovered. (this was generally the worst time of our lives). I decided to temporarily park my Mediterranean sailing plans not knowing if she would need me at home, with the ambition and hope I could scoot off at short notice. No sooner was I happy she was okay, my 87 year old father became very unwell, scared the life out of me! He is now out of hospital but remains very unwell and I want to be available to help my mother to provide care for him as and when he needs it. In the meantime, I discover that the usual January closing of the Chatham marina lock (the lock allows you to exit the marina at most tide heights and is usually closed for the whole of January for its yearly maintenance) is now being undertaken during the whole of April. This, in any event, has scuppered any chance of a short notice decision to sail to Plymouth.
To add to this, Steve is no longer available to assist me at short notice in Crossing the Bay of Biscay as he is now prepping his yacht Aassifia, currently in Spain, for the Mediterranean racing season. (He only really had the a short early May window to help out). If that wasn’t enough I now discover I have shingles, which to say the least is very painful and I certainly can’t and it would be very foolish to solo sail anywhere until its gone. Hopefully this will be in the next couple of weeks.
As I am in Spain at the end of May delivering Aassifa with Steve to St Tropez for the Loro Piana Giraglia regatta, finishing in Genoa Italy and then at the end of July, again helping Steve delivering Aassifa from Genoa Italy to Palma for the Copa Del Ray (Kings Cup regatta) it is difficult to see when I will now set off across the Bay of Biscay.
The saying “all sailing plans are made of jelly” is certainly true. Its a lot of work planning these trips, from passage and pilotage planning, refuge planning in case of emergency or need of shelter, weather forecasting, tide and tidal stream calculations, (its important to get the tidal stream calculations right as this can make a significant difference to your passage time), marina availability and so on. so I guess its back to square one. Although, I am slightly worried that many Portuguese marinas may now be full during the summer.
All being well I now hope to set off later in the year, but although very disappointing, there’s no rush and family will always come first.