Boat charter
from San Sebastián.
Private skippered sailing along the Gipuzkoa coast: La Concha bay, Santa Clara island, the Jaizkibel cliffs and Cape Higuer. We sail from Hondarribia Marina, twenty minutes east of San Sebastián.
Why sail from Hondarribia and not San Sebastián?
Because San Sebastián's harbour is small, old and built for little boats: a 14 or 23 metre yacht has nowhere to sit there, and the entrance is exposed in a northerly.
Hondarribia sits in the sheltered mouth of the Bidasoa, with proper depth and direct access to the Bay of Biscay without waiting on tide. It is the harbour you actually leave from.
It is a twenty-minute drive from central Donostia on the A-8, or about thirty-five minutes on the E21 Lurraldebus. San Sebastián airport is literally in Hondarribia, five minutes from the pontoon.
What the coast looks like from the water.
The shore between Hondarribia and San Sebastián is among the most vertical on the Biscay coast. From the sea it reads completely differently.
Cape Higuer
The lighthouse marking the French border. Rock, current and seabirds — the first headland you round leaving the Bidasoa.
Jaizkibel cliffs
Eight kilometres of sandstone wall dropping into the Atlantic without a single building on it. Barely visible from land; unmistakable from the water.
Pasaia
A narrow gap between two hills opening into a hidden natural harbour. One of the most dramatic entrances on the Basque coast.
La Concha and Santa Clara
San Sebastián's bay seen from outside, Santa Clara island on one side, Igeldo and Urgull framing it. The postcard, from the angle almost nobody gets.
Three ways to get out.
Skippered day charter
The whole boat for your group, with skipper and crew. You pick the course: La Concha, Jaizkibel, or across to Saint-Jean-de-Luz.
Sailing course
Practical ISSA training in Spanish or English, from first sail to offshore miles. Txingudi bay is an unusually good classroom.
Offshore passage
Real legs across the Bay of Biscay and the run north. You sail as crew, standing watches, with nights at sea.
The Biscay window.
May to October gives the Bay of Biscay its best days: a thermal north-westerly filling in through the afternoon, manageable sea, and light until late. July and August are the busiest — also Semana Grande and the trainera regattas, when the bay fills up. June and September usually strike the best balance of weather and quiet.
We sail out of season too. Biscay in winter is serious water, and for anyone chasing real miles it is when the most is learned.
Taught in Spanish.
The skipper and crew are native Spanish speakers. Every briefing, safety drill and manoeuvre is explained in Spanish — or English if you prefer. On a coast where the sailing scene runs in Basque, Spanish and French in equal measure, that is not a detail: understanding the first time someone tells you what to do with a sheet is a safety matter.
The boat is twenty minutes
from La Concha.
Tell us the day you have in mind and how many of you there are. We will tell you what is possible on that week's forecast — and if it isn't, we will tell you that too.