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23
August 2000 A Coruña, Spain
Six days after starting and three hours from the coast of Spain the wind
slackened. I was preparing to drift around for the night, when I was called on
the radio by Louis, a Dutchman who had started his circumnavigation the same
time as me - of course - on board a big boat that was travelling faster than
Trojka. When he had heard the weather forecast, he was about 100 miles in front
of me. He had given his engine full power away from the storm. Unable to reach A
Coruña, he had seeked refuge inside a bay and had spent a few days at anchor.
From there they had measured wind speeds of 52 knots and was pretty worried
about me, since he knew I was right in the middle of it. He was considering how
long time there had to go by before he could inform the coast guard and get me
help. When he heard that I was doing ok, without any damages but with no more
gas and probably would be another day, he insisted on turning around and sailing
the eight miles towards me with his spare can for his own dinghy's engine. A
true gentleman.
We hurried to shore and nearly threw the boats at quay and conquered the nearest
restaurant. Happy to see each other and Spain again, enjoying that the Bay of
Biscay was behind us, just sitting in the pleasant warm night enjoying a meal we
hadn't made ourselves and a cold beer. Yes, it was well-deserved..
In the following days we spoke to several who hadn't been as
lucky as I had been. There were lots of damages to sails, booms and shrouds. One
had completely lost his rigging and another had lost his courage and turned
around to go home (a Dane).
Navigation by day in Spain
Dannebrog -
national flag of Denmark
Spain
News corner, Spain
31 August 2000 Isla Ons, Spain
I arrived at the island of Isla Ons on a dark night and anchored close
to shore at the island's northeast corner, I was about 50 metres from
shore. I woke up at around 10 and could hardly believe my own eyes. I
had ended up at a nudist beach. Despite of this, I felt bad and
thought that I might suffer mildly from sea sickness. I took a couple
of pills and decided to get solid ground beneath my feet, got my
dinghy inflated and packed a beach bag, a coke, biscuits, radio, etc.
and rowed to shore. As soon as I laid down, I fell asleep. "Mister,
Mister, you OK?". I woke up from somebody shaking my arm. For a moment
I thought I had gone blind. It was almost pitch-dark. An older man
looked worryingly into my eyes. "Yes, I'm okay", I tried to smile but
after a whole day in the sun, my skin felt somewhat tight. I felt like
my ears where moving instead in my attempt to smile and probably
looked like a schmuck.
I had a splitting headache and really felt more like lying down. But
staggering I got to my feet and managed to drag my dinghy to the
shoreline, from where I watched while they were gathering my
belongings!! Well arrived back at the boat, I prescribed myself with
penicillin treatment and a small amount of other medicine. I'm not a
doctor, but in the past I have had luck of getting my immune system
"jump-started", and fell right asleep. |
