Our ultimate aim is to sail to Greece, a cruising ground where we have enjoyed so many family holidays. We aim to take our time about this. The journey is as much of an adventure as the destination. The first year we aimed to reach Lagos, the following Barcelona after that we are not sure, but onwards towards Greece.
For 2013 we originally planned to sail along the south coast from Lyra’s berth at Lyminton to Falmouth, from there we were to cross Biscay to Baiona, avoiding the tricky corner of the Costa del Morte, and ,after a week there, we would tackle the Portuguese coast. We hoped at some point the family would be able to join us for a holiday. Our overwinter destination was Lagos and we thought the Algarve could be the spot for a family holiday. Then Bill, our Yachtmaster tutor, went misty eyed talking about the Spanish Rias. Bill is not a man given to overstatement, so we changed out plans, so that we would spend our holiday with the family cruising the Rias Bajas. So Plan B was to strike for La Coruna, head round the coast of death and linger in the Rias, before tackling the long stretches on the Portuguese coast and arriving in Lagos in early August. This may seem early for an overwinter arrival, but John was committed to walking the Coast to Coast path in September and needed to train. In the event this worked so well we plan to head home for August in future years.
Our route for 2013 is as follows:
https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zocsF1oa6wfI.k801_DY_saeY
The blog entries for our various ports of call are on the following links:
La Coruna visiting Santiago de Compostela
The Voyages of Lyra 