RITES OF PASSAGE ACROSS BISCAY

Faced with seasickness and Force 8 winds, Madeleine Strobel experiences a challenging sail across fearsome Biscay

- Madeleine Strobel

How do you measure sailing experience? For most of us it will be harbours visited and miles logged. But there’s more to it than just numbers; certain stretches of water pose unique challenges and their reputations hold a strange power in the minds of all who set sail. Completing one of these passages is an initiation, a rite of passage, that engenders the respect of others and a new self-confidence. With a nod to the 1980s YM book, Classic Passages, the Royal Cruising Club Pilotage Foundation and Imray have collated some of the milestone passages through and around British waters that should be on every cruising sailor’s to-do list. This article is from the series Rites of Passage, commissioned by Yachting Monthly, the Royal Cruising Club Pilotage Foundation and Imray, which will be available as a book in 2020.

We arrived in Falmouth by train on May bank holiday to move back aboard our Bowman 40 Easy Rider after her well-deserved re-fit. The clouds were virtually touching the ground. It was bitterly cold and raw in the persistent rain. But the strong to gale force winds in the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel gave us plenty of time to settle back into life aboard and to prepare for our passage. We were embarking double-handed across the Bay of Biscay with a tinge of apprehension. Would our crossing be a smooth one or were we going to encounter a rough ride?

Over the coming days we monitored the weather, got up to speed with our brand new electronic charting and multi-function displays, stowed away everything safely for a potentially rough crossing, checked all the systems, and did all the essential last-minute shopping. Powering up the touch screen of our new navigation system gave an intermittent but persistent low-voltage warning, despitefully charged service batteries. The engineer who fitted the system told us we could ignore this. Trusting his opinion, we did.