Preparing to sail the Bay of BISCAY | sailboat passage planning and preparation #8

Join us as we begin sailing passage preparations for us and the boat to tackle our first offshore passage sailing across the Bay of Biscay!

We sail back from the Isles of Scilly departing in lively conditions with quite a chop initially as we pass round the top of the islands and then avoid a cruise ship in a traffic separation zone. We then spend a few weeks in Falmouth preparing the boat for the upcoming voyage sailing across the mighty bay of Biscay to Spain.

To prepare for our passage Iain single handedly docks the boat in a marina and climbs the mast to check the rigging, fits man over board AIS to our life jackets along with our personal locator beacons, fit bilge high water alarms and crash pumps, check and pack the grab bag. We practice heaving too and hanking on our stay sail to prepare for our passage and then we scrub the waterline and then shelter up the river Fal from storm Evert.

We spend the night on anchor watch due to 45kt winds and are nearly hit when a nearby boat drags anchor and hear the RNLI deployed to boats lower down the river!

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