Overpowered on the Atlantic coast

Shannon Deconinck recalls a challenging sail around Cabo de São Vicente in southern Portugal, a headland renowned for its surf

- Shannon Deconinck

Sailing down the coast of Portugal in winter had never been my intention; a holdup in Nazaré put me three months behind schedule. Still, there’s worse places to be stuck. So there I was, in February, running on a 30-35 knot wind, while surfing down 5m breaking waves.

This, my dear Kathleen was never designed to do. She’s an east coaster, bilge keel, steel ketch, built for the coast and estuaries of Essex and Suffolk, sheltered, shallow waters. Now I’m watching the spray hammer against the wet, tan sails, as she heaves and bucks over the messy swell hitting the port stern quarter, I’m literally fighting the wheel when the gusts hit, I have way too much canvas up and the wheel is way too small.

Looking over the stern I see these heaving green lumps of ocean, breaking into sheets of spray, rolling towards me, and I can’t help imagining a surfer hurtling across the face as it approaches. As a surfer I know about sets, same at sea: See them and prepare!

I have one reef in the main, and the genoa up. Way too much canvas!

That’s the trouble with these funky old boats with hank-on sails and heaps of personality in a situation like this; alone, with my level of skill, I have pretty much no chance of reducing sail. So I just try to fight out the gusts and line her up to ride the sets, dodging the increasingly breaking peaks. She’s surfing! 9.5 tonnes of British steel, hitting 14 knots as we surge down the face. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so scary.