Never been a fan of boats and remember family trips to Guernsey being a nightmare. Took the ferry to Bilbao in 2019 and it was not as bad as my memory was telling me. Hope you have a great time and stay safe Andy
If you are on the Plymouth to Santander crossing on Sunday, two of my mates will be on board. Watch for the Diavel and a GS together. Btw, meeting them Monday for a week in the Picos!
Went across from Pompy to Santander in 2012/14, if you suffer from travel or sea sickness take some pills and occupy yourself with films whilst on board or download stuff to your phone, there was a decent cinema on the ferry we went on, but the bay of Biscay is notorious for being a bit ''choppy''...its worth it though for the smooth Spanish roads and scenery in the Picos, you'll love it. Second time we went our ferry was diverted to Plymouth instead of Portsmouth on the return trip, we didnt realise how far Plymouth is from Portsmouth, it was a long old slog back to Lincs in the pissing rain.
Be sure to turn your phone to airplane mode as soon as you leave the port, otherwise they hook up to a spurious satellite, update all your stuff without asking and land you with a mega… and I mean mega, bill. Even if you don’t use the phone. Don’t call or text unless you use the ships wifi or get a French signal when you reach the coast. I know from experience. You’ve been warned.
I did a stint on a North Sea supply boat doing sea trials on some marine trenching equipment we designed. I was worried about being sea sick so asked one of the old hands about what’s best. He said “eat apples”. I asked if they stop you being sea sick. He said, “no, but they taste the same coming up as going down”. I hope you find this useful.
Have a great trip. Done that route quite a few times, yet to have a rough crossing though they have been known. Great to tip out and be in the mountains in 30 mins.
Have a great one. Make sure to post up lots of pictures, including bins for Viv and food pictures for me!
