New MEMBER from Spain

[jmcalvosotelo]

Hello! My name is Jose Calvo-Sotelo and I am from Spain. We have owned a Grand Banks 42 Europa for 17 years now, and our home port is Ribadeo in the Spanish north coast. We have sailed the coasts of the bay of Biscay, those of Cornwall and Bretagne and the western Mediterranean too. We are planning on sailing this summer up to the Scottish Isles, including Skye and the Outer Hebrides. Any advice would be very welcomed, and we are here to help with any quearies about the Spanish Cantabric coast and Galicia.

 

[Comodave]

Welcome aboard.

 

[Cigatoo]

Welcome. Always happy to have another GB owner on board. We sailed around Mallorca last September. Was a nice couple of weeks.

 

[ScottC]

Welcome aboard!

 

[rgano]

Hello. Jose. If I still had my GB42 and lived where you do, I would be doing the same things you have done and will soon be doing! We all look forward to hearing of your adventures. Can you tell us wheat engines and generator you have aboard.

 

[Mambo42]

Welcome aboard !
May have quite bit of questions about the Spanish coast (whether it is worth going there or not) since we are more or less always in Greece, Turkey and Croatia.

 

[Southern Boater]

Hello! My name is Jose Calvo-Sotelo and I am from Spain. We have owned a Grand Banks 42 Europa for 17 years now, and our home port is Ribadeo in the Spanish north coast. We have sailed the coasts of the bay of Biscay, those of Cornwall and Bretagne and the western Mediterranean too. We are planning on sailing this summer up to the Scottish Isles, including Skye and the Outer Hebrides. Any advice would be very welcomed, and we are here to help with any quearies about the Spanish Cantabric coast and Galicia.

Sounds like a great trip/cruise up to Scotland, and as you have already been to SW England, the big tidal variations will be no surprise. You may well be aware that just because it’s officially “summer” in Scotland, a decent heat source inside the boat could be handy, as you will be around 55 degrees North by the time you get to Skye. There are some excellent cruising guides for all the UK waterways of course.
There are plenty of semi-sheltered waterways and canal systems from the Clyde and north, the Crinan Canal into Loch Linnhe, and if the weather offshore is bad, up the impressive Neptune’s Staircase and into the Great Glenn and Loch Ness all the way to Inverness if time allows.
This is a vast and diverse cruising area, and of course subject to varying weather conditions, especially those used to the heat of the western Med.
I assume Stornaway will be your northern most port, Harris and Lewis is a great place to visit and quite sparsely populated, but even if you don’t get that far north and west, Skye to the Clyde will keep you entertained and busy.

 

[Southern Boater]

Another source of more localised information would be YBW (Yachting and Boating World) “Motorboat” forum, plenty of English, Welsh and West Coast Scots belong to this one