From Ramsgate to La Coruna

On 18 June Rode Zora left Ramsgate with Crew No 2, Ben, Gerrit, Boris and Skipper Jakob. Two members of Crew No 1, Rahel and Tobias unfortunately had to fly to Hamburg again. Crew No 2 used the high pressure system over the British Isles and sailed in two hops in 3.5 days from Cowes all the way to Dartmouth. It was important to the skipper to round Portland bill with the infamous Portland tide race and Lyme bay in good weather conditions. After two days at anchor in the river Dart and enjoying the beautiful English countryside, Zora left for Plymouth for another crew change. This time Ben and Gerrit left and Henrik and Felix Zachariassen joined.  Plymouth was a good place for this crew change as Felix had spent 1 year there as a student and could introduce the rest of the crew to the local haunts.

With a stop in Falmouth, Zora went on to the Isles of Scilly. The high pressure system was already on the way out but the weather was still reasonably quiet to allow this visit. The Scillies lie almost 50 miles off Lands End in the Atlantic and visits  in strong winds are generally not recommended. Most island in the archipelago have no proper harbours and the anchorages are exposed to various wind directions.

The weather was reasonably stable during the visit, unfortunately not sunny, but the crew was impressed with the almost Mediterranean atmosphere.   

As the next depression finally cleaned out the remains of the high pressure system, Zora came flying back with 7 Beaufort on her heels to Falmouth. Another day was spent exploring the area and finally crew No 4, Skipper Jakob with only one other crew set off for Spain. The distance from Falmouth to Finisterre is 460 nm and we had foreseen 4-5 days. Weather forecasts get uncertain after the third day. In addition the forecast in this period was showing a small depression forming over the Iberian peninsula towards the end of the forecast period with winds of more than 30kn from SW around Finisterre.

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