In this Episode we walk through EMPRESS our Contest 36 which is currently for sale in D-Marin Lefkas Marina.

This is a first episode of the EMPRESS EATS where we share the recipe of our favourite boat food and how we cook it on board. This Episode Michelle bakes the EMPRESS favourite Banana bread whic has been made many times when the banana's went a bit too quick brown. This particular loaf was made for the SV Revelation of London crew who spent almost 4 months with the Scabby Monohulls and set off west to prepare for their Atlantic Crossing with the ARC+. Have a great trip and thanks for the great times we had and hope to meet up again one day Neil, Hallie, Amelia ,Lorelei and Abby. :)

In this Episode we find a good weather window to set off from Port Louis near Sines with our Contest 36 and go on a looong day passage past Orca alley around the tuna nets and through the straight of Gibraltar to catch up with our friends from @Salingragdoll who spent the winter at Ocean Village Marina and started a kids boats group to explore the med with. Fleur spent the whole winter gaming with Jasper online and Anouk was looking forward to see some monkeys in the wild.

In this episode we leave Lagos Marina, in our Contest 36 named EMPRPESS, where we have spent the last 5 months over winter and continue our sail towards the Mediterranean. We find our self in all sorts of conditions, have to divert due to head wind, cross a shallow bar and push our boundaries underway and at anchor.

In this episode of Empress Sailing, Anouk feels lonely in Lagos, Portugal, and struggles to find a social outlet. Once the girls are finished with school for the day Fleur enjoys time online with friends. Often playing Minecraft and using Discord to connect to even more friends. see what she gets up to as Anouk finds friends from the Marina at the beach Praia Maia here in Lagos. After our time in Australia the girls love the idea of surfing, so we are doing our best to encourage them to get out there on the water. In this episode we head to Praia Maia for the nearest surf for learners and beginners. Of course Mum is on hand as health and safety officer if anything should go wrong. Anouk is quite chuffed with herself for re-creating this Pinterest trend inspired thumbnail this week.

In this episode Catran leaves to go to Holland to catch up with Family and attend the METS Marine Equipment Trade Show in Amsterdam. Michelle, Fleur and Anouk stay in Lagos where they enjoy the weather and go exploring. They find a sailing school and more beaches.

After having arrived in Lagos last week we setup for 6 months of wintering in Lagos. We find ourself in hospital after Fleur trips and hits her nose pretty hard on the table in the boat. I start with the long list of boat jobs and Michelle does homeschooling with the girls and explores Lagos and surroundings. We visit our friends from sv Dali in Portimão before they set off for Madeira. The girls enjoy the beach and we buy them a used surfboard so they can practice the skills they learned earlier this year in Australia. They discover a cool science museum where they spend a whole afternoon or two.

This week we decide to do things different. We really want to get the boat to Lagos and get settled down for the winter but the conditions are too rough for us as a family. Our friend Bart had offered during our last get together in the Aquarium to sail with me and have the girls travel by land. We decide to take him up on his offer and let the girls celebrate Halloween with their friends. And so it is done. We drive with a hire car to their house at Sao Bartolomeu de Messines, and I take Bart back to the boat. We set off from Cascais Marina at dawn and fight our way against a headwind to Lagos. The girls hang out and get ready for Halloween. Michelle get to try the new Bed and Breakfast and loves sleeping in a proper bed for a night or two. If you also want to stay with these lovely people at their BnB check out the link below:

Still stuck in Lisbon, the lows keep coming and we don't want to put ourself through rough conditions to make the last big leap to Lagos. We say goodbye to our buddy boat Thees Bott as they are willing to take the plunge. When we decide to also take the plunge we find a problem with the engine which stops us from going and go day by day. See what we get up to in this weird weather.

In this episode we explore Cascais, Lisbon and the aquarium (Oceanário de Lisboa), we meet up with old friends and we batten down the hatches of our Contest 36 because in a sudden Autumn has arrived to Marina de Cascais.

In this episode we sail with our Contest 36 from Baiona in Spain via Porto, Figuera da Foz, Nazzare, and Peniche to Cascais Lisbon. We cross the Portugese border, do lot's of motoring, see some dolphins Explore Figuera da Foz, Michelle bakes some corn bread and we hang out with our buddy boat friends from Thees Bott, Slioch and Ragdoll @SailingRagdoll

In this Episode we explore the city of Vigo, catch up with our buddies Mikael and Anika from Thees Bott and The Slioch gang. We anchor at the Anseada de Barra, stay in the lovely town of Moana and sail with our Contest 36 to Baiona to start our trip down the Portuguese coast.

In this episode we sail accross the Spanish Ria's and towns with our Contest 36. We visit Muros, Ribeira, Vilagarcia de Arousa, Sanxenxo, and end in Vigo. During a rainy and windy day we take the train to Santiago the Compostella to see where all the pilgrims are going who follow the Canimo de Santiago.

In this episode we fid ourselves in the midst of a large festival with people coming from all over Europe. We join the party of the lady of the sea and are amazed. We continue our trip along the Coast of Death on our Contest 36 from Muxia to Muros and round cape Finistere, also known as Cape of Death.

In this Episode we continue to explore A Coruna. We visit the Aquarium Finistere, we climb the Hercules Tower, the oldest extant lighthouse in the world, originally built by the romans, and we go through our day to day business such as homeschooling etc. When the right weather window pops up, lot's of thunderstorms predicted, we make a move for Muxia.

In this episode we have another go at sailing from Viviero to A Coruna with our Contest 36. The conditions where predicted to be slightly better so we gave it another shot. Find out if Catran gets to celebrate his birthday in A Coruna.

In this episode we sail from Gijon to Cudillero a beatifull town we explore and meet another Dutch vertrekkers boat with kids. We continue on to Viveiro and attempt to sail on to A Coruna where I want to celebrate my 45th B'day, but if we manage this....

In this episode we explore Bilbao including of course the Guggenheim Museum. We have a leisurely sail with our Contest yacht to Santander and explore the city we visited in 2009 but this time as a family. We continue to Gijon a 16 hour trip and arrive in the dark. Here we spend two days at Marina Yates.

In this episode we sail from La Rochelle Les Minimes Marina with our Contest 36 to Bilbao in Spain. We leave early in the morning to cross the Bay of Biscay. It took us 37 hours, a day, a night and a day and is the longest crossing we have done this far. Underway we see lot's of birds, dolphins, tuna and something that looks like a whale, or was it an Orca?

In this episode we stay 2 weeks in Les Menimes Marina near La Rochelle. Here we are waiting for a good weather window to make the Biscay Bay crossing to Bilbao. We do some boat works, some sight seeing, some eating and say goodbye to our Buddy boat, or do we....