Spinalonga At Sea

Sailing
We have had a mixture of weather, from nothing at all, to wind on the nose, to a Force 7 on the stern. Not a lot of rain though! Consequently we have had some good sails, but as often as not we have had to use the engine, either to help the sails when the wind direction is too upwind to sail using sails alone, or in some cases with no sails at all when there is no wind.
One problem with coast hopping is that winds often tend to blow along the coast, which means either a headwind or wind from the stern. Unless there is much from astern then any forward movement will decrease the apparent wind so it is not possible to sail usefully.
The best sails we had were approaching La Coruna in NW Spain, the approach to Porto in Portugal; the journey round the south-west tip of Portugal into Lagos; crossing the Bay of Cadiz approaching the Straits of Gibraltar, and approaching Toulon across the Golf de Lion in the south of France. In these cases we had a reach or broad reach or run with a force 5-7, which is great.
We have had no gales during the summer.

Weather and sea conditions
We suffered with quite a bit of fog on the Atlantic coasts of Spain and Portugal, so good charts and pilot books, the GPS, radar and our written log were invaluable.
Through Biscay and along the entire Atlantic coast of Spain and Portugal, there was a continuous significant swell, which made sighting of other boats, by eye or using the radar, a bit hit-and miss. It was not a big problem, but once we rounded the south-west tip of Portugal, the swell disappeared and it was a relief.
The tidal range in Guernsey is 10 metres on spring tides; in Falmouth about 5 metres; Atlantic Spain and Portugal about 3 metres, and along the south coast of Portugal towards Gibraltar decreasing to about 1 metre. Once some way into the SE coast of Spain the tide is barely noticeable.

Organising Watches, and Night Passages
Because we have a young child on board, it is more difficult to make a good watch system. With no child, you could catch up on sleep anytime during the day leaving the other person on watch. With Daniel, in rough weather or when he is hungry, grumpy, wanting to play with you or otherwise needing attention, it is very difficult for either of us to get a decent sleep during the day.
Also Nigel at first found it very difficult especially at night to relinquish control of the boat, and even if he tried to sleep he couldn’t. I myself find it difficult to function without several hours of sleep. Consequently during various night passages in the first couple of months, Nigel would take on the night watch at 11pm or midnight, I would sleep, and he wouldn’t bother waking me up until the morning. He would then be overtired and stubborn (he denies this!) and not let me have a watch to myself even then. On arrival in port he would crash out exhausted and sleep for twelve hours. Obviously this is not a system sustainable on longer passages, it was clear we had to change. Eventually now Nigel has become more comfortable with sleeping at sea, and the last few night passages have been split far better, with Nigel taking the first sleep at 10 or 11pm until 2 or 3 am, then I get to sleep the rest of the night. We usually find an hour or two each in the day to get a little more sleep, and be prepared for the next night at sea. It is a relief to me to have this sorted now.

Heavy Weather
We have not yet had to deal with weather above a force 7 in Spinalonga. However we have read widely, and Nigel has been across the English Channel in a much smaller sailing boat in a force 10, luckily driving him in the direction he wanted to go. He has therefore some opinions from experience. They sailed under bare poles and were full-time steering the boat over the massive waves.
We have an old spinnaker which we will use to make a drogue, which can slow us down by being towed behind the boat in certain types of waves. We do not have trysails and storm sails at this time, as when Nigel sailed under bare poles in his force 10 crossing that was enough!
No doubt when we sail in our first gale some further improvements will come to mind, some of the first might be lee cloths on the bunks, more points to attach a harness to e.g. in the cockpit, making our drogue, etc.