The Countdown Begins (again!)

Planning for our journey, we used information from other sailors, the internet and commercially produced pilot guides.

We quickly found that there are several new issues that we now need to consider. The main ones being coronavirus and Brexit. Both have had a major impact on travel, making visiting other countries increasingly challenging.

All countries have their own immigration procedures that we must abide by, but coronavirus has obviously meant that these are changing almost daily: countries have closed their boarders, restricted travel within the country and insisted on various testing and quarantine periods. This is, of course, in addition to day to day restrictions once in a country.

Brexit has had implications on how long we can visit countries. Most of the European Countries are in something called the Schengen Area. As citizens of a non-european country, Brits are only allowed to visit this area for 90 days out of 180. Our original plan was to spend six months travelling from Spain to the Canary Islands, so plans needed to change.

With these things in mind, we are making provisional and very flexible plans. So…….

Leaving Ipswich in May 2021, we plan to travel leisurely down the south coast towards Falmouth. On route, we hope to take a detour to the Channel Islands to collect an outboard engine and a new, bigger anchor.

We will wait in Falmouth (or Plymouth) for a good weather window and set off across the Bay of Biscay to northern Spain. We would like to spend a month exploring the rugged rias of Galicia before moving on to Portugal. The Atlantic coastline has limited safe stopping points, so we will need to make long hops south, stopping at places like Porto and Lisbon.

From here, we will cross over the Gibraltar Straits to Tangier (Morocco). The plan is to spending a few weeks there, leaving Escapade in a secure marina while we travel inland, before moving on to Rabat. Again basing ourselves there, we intend to travel inland – hopefully visiting the Sahara and Marrakesh.

Then, it is off to the Canaries to explore the islands, arriving in Las Palmas (Gran Canaria) in October to prepare for the ARC+ Rally. This is due to leave at the start of November and goes to St Vincent (Caribbean) via Cape Verde.

Fingers crossed for Christmas 2021 in the warm!!