s/y TROLDAND - From the Baltic to the Med

A short account  of the year 2010
After a successful Southerly regatta at the Solent, 2010 brought  us (via Alderny and Guernsey) to St Malo (and Dinan, what a gem). Further a marvellous trip along the French coast: Northern and southern Brittany, and later the Atlantic isles where particularly Belle Ile and Ile de Re are exquisite). Further from the Garonne (Royan) to Angelet (Bayonne and Biarritz) and Spain where we had a a wonderful time I Hondarribia. Here in between fiestas and family visits) we borrowed a car from my Basque cousin and visited Rioja. Further along the Spanish coast where we ended up in Viveiro some 120 km NE of A Coruña. 

Video clip rom Hondarribia: Basque fiesta and parade 

Apart from being a nice place (and btw. Viveiro would be a god point to make land after a Biscay crossing) the marina staff there are very nice people and prices were extremely attractive (we paied €700 for 6 month ashore incl. travel lift up & down). I think though that our (even if limited) knowledge og Spanish language helped us as: 1) Troldands length shrunk to price group <10 meters and 2)  As by the time we made the arrangements for staying, we had already been in Vivero 3 weeks. We were thus considered permanent residents which gave a further discount. The only problem with the place really is, that it is 120 km from the airport in Coruña (= €125 by taxi), but as the harbourmaster ‘Andres’ drove us to the airport (he had to visit his girlfriend in Vigo anyway he said) it wasn’t a problem.

International flights from Coruña are limited (in fact there is only a direct connection to London) so we decided to take advantage of friends and went home via Barcelona and spend some lovely days with our Catalan friend ‘Carme’. Further to Brussels where we visited our Irish-French friends Betty and Didier and then back to Copenhagen where we arrived late October.

The coming season will start mid March. We plan to go via London and  expect to spend April, May and early June in Galicia only interrupted by a short trip to Copenhagen around May 10th  (a family celebration). By mid June we hope to be able to cross over to the Azores and back again at the end of August. However, back to where is still not decided.