Gijón, Asturias
7–12 August 2026
How we got here: Three Days Across Biscay to Gijón
Aber Wrac'h, Brittany → Gijón, Asturias
Left Aber Wrac'h at first light, rounded Ushant on the last of a fair tide, and pointed south into open water — no stop in between, straight across the Bay of Biscay to landfall in Spain. Timed the departure for the last of three cold, occluded fronts to pass through. Three days and nights out here, one of the more notorious stretches of water in this part of the world — the wind started out south-westerly and veered through the crossing into an easterly by the time we arrived, holding between 10 and 25 knots throughout.
No land, no other boats for most of it, watches rotating around the clock and the depth sounder reading nothing but "no bottom" for two straight days.
Landfall at last — the Asturian coast came up green and mountainous, a real contrast to the low granite coast of Brittany we left three days earlier.
What we did here
Tied up in Gijón’s marina under the old town and the Cimavilla headland — the first big town since leaving, and we made the most of it: cider bars, restaurants, and free summer concerts around the city.
Kept busy between outings too — hiking, running, the gym, and a day off the boat paragliding at Pico del Sol.
Got ready to head out on the water for the full solar eclipse before continuing on to A Coruña, but it stayed too cloudy to actually see the sun — it just dimmed toward near-dark and then brightened again before sunset (the eclipse fell in the evening). This was also the first time we had to seriously look into the Iberian orcas’ activity, with some groups ranging as far north as Asturias.
