When dorsal fins come into view, the sailor’s heart usually rejoices. Soon dolphins will be accompanying the boat, showing off their artistic skills. Near the Spanish and Portuguese coasts, however, the heart starts racing. Wasn’t that the black dorsal fin of an orca?

In five weeks, we sailed the south coast between Portsmouth and Falmouth. As the crow flies, that’s an unimpressive 280 kilometers. Nevertheless, the winding coastline and a cruising speed of about eleven kilometers per hour meant many days of sailing fun – even if the wind was not always helpful and often enough blew directly in our faces. Anyway, the next beautiful bay is never far away.

With the upcoming leg to Spain in sight, we take a close look at our logbook and realize that we have seen and experienced a lot in the first three months. The coastlines are so attractive and the towns and fishing villages so beautiful that we are already dreaming of vacation or retirement homes by the sea. France knows to impress with its flair, good food and relaxed lifestyle; England with its incredibly green landscapes, postcard-perfect bays and English charm. The wildlife is also not to be missed: Starfish, lobsters, crabs, seals and dolphins await us in the water. Here is an overview of the places we have visited so far. France, England and the Channel Islands are now behind us. Here in Falmouth we are preparing to leave for Spain, waiting for a favorable weather window for the Bay of Biscay.

Since our arrival on the English side of the channel, we have made the acquaintance of the eddy - which is clearly to be avoided. Not only because of its own character, but also because of the accompanying overturns. The eddy can be identified by symbols on the charts or by looking closely at the water surface, ideally with binoculars.

Since the beginning of our trip, we have been waiting for a favourable opportunity to try out a special ability of our OVNI: “drying out”, i.e. running the boat aground on solid ground at falling tide in a controlled manner, and thus standing completely on dry land at low tide. The centreboard can be completely folded into the hull of the Nikola so that the boat comes to a standstill on the hull and on the two rudder blades.

Yesterday, we achieved a new record in daily solar power output, at 5.9 kWh produced in one day. Our solar panels technically have a peak output of 910 Wp, and close to 800 W were produced during midday (the panels are mounted flat, and are not angled perfectly at the sun). Needless to say, it was a very sunny day. Averaged across the last 31 days, we produced 3.4 kWh per day - still not bad.

Les Sables d’Olonne showed us how quickly you can feel at home somewhere else. During the off-season we discovered it to be a tranquil, charming place with friendly inhabitants. So it was not easy for us to say goodbye to what felt like our home port. The time was too good, the mussels too delicious, the people too lovable, the carousel operators too familiar. The ever changing weather conditions, however, made rubber boots together with sun hats our constant companions and taught us the benefits of the good old fishing hat.

With good sailing conditions dominating in Les Sables-d’Olonne in the second half of April, we were finally able to do the second part of the certification of our Oceanvolt propulsion system, which is testing the regeneration performance under sail (in November, we only tested and certified the propulsion performance). In 12-16 knots of wind and good sea state (around 1 meter of wind waves), and using our genoa or Code D sail, we were able to test regeneration at different true wind angles to the wind, and different speeds.

As part of the delivery of our boat, Oceanvolt sent a technician to certify the installation of all components related to the electric propulsion system, and test the engine performance.

Finally, the big day had arrived. Since the launching in the harbor of Les Sables-d’Olonne can best be done at high tide, and furthermore the almost 10 km trip with the ship on the trailer from the shipyard to the harbor should best be done with little traffic, we started at 6 o’clock in the morning in complete darkness and autumnal rain. The tractor pulling the trailer with our Nikola passed various traffic circles with flying colors and finally let her glide gently backwards into the water. First test - it floats!