Delivery of our new Southerly 42 sailboat & first voyage from England to Portugal. Crossing the English Channel and Bay of Biscay
05/12/07 07:02

Hello Everyone,
Greetings from Lisbon, Portugal, where we have just completed the first leg of this year's voyage from Falmouth, England, aboard our brand new Southerly 42RST sailboat, “Distant Shores” built by Northshore Yachts in Itchenor, England. The boat is beautiful and we are really thrilled!
We took delivery of the boat on November 21st, which was two months behind schedule unfortunately. This meant we were now trying to leave England late in the season in cold weather and when there are more frequent gales. This could hold us up further, especially for the 3-4 day passage across the notorius Bay of Biscay where we'd need several days of reliable northerly, preferably northwest, winds to get across to Spain.
Joining us on this leg of the voyage as our first guest is Gord Zimmerman of Bobcaygeon, Canada. We first met Gord and his wife Sue when they attended one of our “Outfitting and Provisioning for Cruising” seminars before they left for their 2-year cruise to the Caribbean aboard their Sidelmann 37, “Lady Simcoe”. We have kept in touch and we are now all members of the same yacht club at home. Gord is a life-long racing and cruising sailor but had never sailed in Europe and wanted to experience some longer offshore passages.
“It's not too often you get the opportunity to sail aboard a brand new half-million dollar yacht that has all the latest safety and navigation equipment installed. I'm getting to learn how to use all this gear, having a wonderful adventure, and having a great time with Paul and Sheryl,” says Gord who will sail with us as far as the Canary Islands.

We received a lovely farewell from everyone at Northshore Yachts who have built a beautiful and seaworthy boat for us. They couldn't do enough to make the boat as perfect as could be and even on the day when we got our weather window and were scheduled to cast off from Chichester at noon with the tide, people were still onboard “just checking this” and “touching up that” so that finally Paul had to say, “Okay, everyone. You have one minute to get off this boat!” Gord keeps checking lockers to see if anyone has stayed on board :-)
Our first sail was an overnight passage from Chichester along the south coast of England to Falmouth in the west where we would jump off to cross the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay as we headed south. We had great conditions, winds from the north, and the boat sailed like a dream. But it was cold! We were dressed in so many layers we could hardly move and the person on deck on watch was given a hot water bottle to stuff down their foul weather jacket. At midday the next day, we were headed by west winds so pulled into the picturesque little harbour at Fowey (pronounced Foy) a little east of Falmouth. We were very happy with our new Mastervolt generator so we could run our heaters and stay warm below! That night Paul's Aunt Janet and cousin, Clare, drove down from Truro to see the boat and say farewell.

We returned to the boat and had a lovely visit from the rest of Paul's family in Truro – Uncle Chris, cousin Daniel and his 3 children who we wouldn't be seeing again for some time. Another bittersweet farewell. Then we went mad running errands including purchasing another few sets of “thermals”, thick gloves, and balaclava hats. My gosh, but night watches were cold but as we got further south each day the weather warmed delightfully. Here in Portugal we in T-shirts during the day and sweaters or light jackets in the evening.
As it turned out, a high pressure system moved in and remained settled throughout our whole voyage south to Lisbon. After a couple of hours of sailing we had to turn on the motor and so it continued most of the way across the English Channel and Bay of Biscay. As we rounded Cape Finesterre where there is always wind, it was so flat calm the stars were reflected in the water!

We had hoped to continue on straight to Lisbon, but due to the lack of wind we stopped at the lovely Club Nautico in Portosin, Spain, in the Ria Muros to get fuel, before continuing south to Lisbon on December 1st.

Before we sign off we have a few announcements:
Wishing you all the best for the season and health, happiness and prosperity in the coming year!
Sheryl and Paul Shard
Aboard SV Distant Shores
Marina Cascais
Lisbon, Portugal
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