For most blue water sailors, trade winds form a critical part of planning your ocean voyaging. The first trade winds to be encountered on leaving northern Europe are the Portuguese trades, which for most of the year blow from the north down the western side of the Iberian Peninsula. They vary considerably in strength – and sometimes don’t even blow at all and can reverse into the southern quadrant, often bringing fog and rainy weather to the Spanish and Portuguese coasts. Ho

After a month cruising the Galician Rias, these crystal-clear waters and sandy bottoms (for Saecwen´s anchor), were starting to feel like home. The Rias Baixas are a series of four wide inlets that run in from the sea on the north west corner of Spain. Each Ria is peppered with sandy beaches on both northern and southern shores providing shelter from the Atlantic in pretty much any wind condition. Whilst we did get caught out a couple of times with a quick shift in the wind

Guest blog by crewmate Angus My time with Saecwen started with a ‘bat signal’ in the form of a Whatsapp message, informing me that a long awaited Atlantic low-pressure system had emerged. There was a short window of fair-weather for Saecwen to make her way across the Bay of Biscay and, to my delight, there was a berth with my name on it. With little but a broad idea of what was in store for me, I gathered my belongings and caught a flight to Brest where we set sail for A Co