Crossing from Belgium to Tenerife on a Luxury Dufour 56 sailing vessel
A dream that became a reality for Steve and Ina.
We started our preparations in August 2020 by putting all the equipment needed for doing such an enormous challenge, a crossing from Belgium to Tenerife. For the day and night non-stop sailing,we needed some extra electrical power installations like solar panels and a water generator under de boat to make electricity during the night.
We also had a company of a good skipper and his wife (Betrand and Katrin) for changing the shifts on the way. Safety is very important to us.
And because the boat was new, we also had some issues still to be solved by the factory. After taking out the boat for a new antifouling and normal maintenance, we started our journey on the 9th of October 2020.
Starting our first stage of the trip
We were fully charged with water and food and sailed off around 9 pm from the port of Ostend (Belgium). On our first night, we sailed to Brighton (England) to have the right wind angle in the sails. The weather was fine during the day but cold at night. After reaching the coast of Brighton around 8 am, we changed our course direction to Cherbourg (France). We checked the weather forecast and everything was looking good at that point.
In the afternoon, we had big swells coming in that were getting worse and worse. During the night we had speeds of 4 kn, which is slow because of the heavy weather. We even had to power up the engine to keep up this minor speed. Around 6 am,we arrived at Cherbourg and stayed in the marina for one night to wait for a better wind speed.
Stage two:
The next day, we left for Brest in France. During this crossing, we had pleasant weather and good winds that took us like a train to Brest. Once we arrived in Brest, we had a malfunction of the bow thruster. A mechanic from Cherbourg unfortunately couldn’t help us. Since we were only 24 hours away from the factory in La Rochelle, they asked us to move the boat to the factory, and we did.
Stage three:
After 2 days of deserved rest and some wonderful restaurants, we started our journey to La Rochelle. During the night, we received navigational warnings on the radio for orca’s in that area attacking vessels. Everybody was awake, but nothing happened. We enjoyed the company of a group of dolphins that night. After arriving in La Rochelle, we had to stay in the port for 10 days. The parts needed to fix the bow thruster were not available. During the repayment, the other 2 crew members went home and were planning to come back by plane in Arcachon.
Stage four:
After the mechanics mended the bow thruster, we moved to Arcachon. It is only 8 hours sailing to this delightful place. Arcachon has this big marina there is an enormous inside lake where you can navigate with small vessels in any weather condition. It’s close to Bordeaux and the perfect place for a relaxing holiday. Actually, it was so nice; we stayed for 2 enjoyable weeks. Our crew came back, and we moved on,as planned.
Stage five:
We sailed another 48 hours to Ribadeo, between the Province of Arturia and Galicia in Spain, where we took the night to rest and relax. The town of Ribadeo has some lovely restaurants and people say it is an oasis of stones on the coast of Lugo.
Stage six:
After filling the diesel tanks the next day, we pulled the sails and sailed another 48 hours to Cascais in Portugal. The weather conditions weren’t perfect, and a sailing vessel needs the right wind direction to sail. After checking the weather forecast, we noticed we had only 2 days of good wind direction before wind would turn against us. The first day and night at sea there was nothing special to mention, but on the second night we had heavy winds coming up. We even had a mayday on the radio of a sailing vessel that was sinking. Saddly,we were too far away to help with the rescue mission.
The next day we arrived in Cascais,where we stayed to wait for good winds to do the crossing to Tenerife. Cascais is the premier holiday destination of the Lisbon coastline. A traditional and charming Portuguese fishing town, developed into a popular resort town.
Stage seven:
The winds were fine on the 8th of November and off we are to Tenerife. The first 48 hours of our 5 day trip, we had some moderated winds and good speeds. The third day we had no wind at all and we were 3 days on engine until we finally arrived in Santa Cruz to fill up the empty diesel tanks. That was around 4 pm. After an hour we continued or trip to Marina San Miguel where we arrived around 10 pm. Yes, we made it at last! It was a hard but very rewarding adventure for true sailors!
After 13t long months, we finally got our certification and licensing of commercial vessels and started our excursion business on this lovely island.
