Saturday 7 July 2012

Into the Spanish Ria's


From Rebadeo we have continued to move west, we anchored for a couple of nights in two separate bays which were very tranquil, although on one night the fog descended on us and we ended up not being able to see the beach. At one of the beaches Kevin took his first dip of the trip, after seeing him go in I decided it was too cold for me, after swimming ashore Kevin took a stroll along the beach before swimming back.

The scenery along this coastline is very impressive, Kevin described it as the Cornish coats meets the Lake District and I have to say I can’t think of a better description.



We then moved on to A Caruna, which is a major city we decided to stay here for five nights, whilst there we manage to purchase a new radio so that we can use my iPod as we only have one CD and we have started to get fed up of listening to it even though it’s very good. Kevin also got his hair cut whilst we were there, he certainly won’t need another for several weeks.

The town of A Caruna although big is much nicer that those of Gijon and Rabadeo, there were plenty of shops, and I did manage to purchase some items of clothing although when I came to pay on the credit card they wanted to see my passport, never had that happen before. Kevin also took me to see this huge square, with a very impressive official looking building where it appeared several weddings were taking place.



Whilst in A Caruna we also met up with Nick and Judith who we had met in Rebadea, not sure who is following who.

From A Caruna it was back to anchoring as we moved more south west, there was no wind at all and so we had to motor all the way, within the first hour of leaving the marina we felt the boat jolt, we had something stuck around the propeller which reduced our speed by more than one knot meaning our journey would take a little longer. We found an anchorage in Laxe, and as soon as it was secure Kevin once again donned his trunks to swim under the boat to release whatever was caught on the propeller, it turned out to be a sheet of plastic, the look on his face said everything, it was freezing, he has warned me it’s my turn next time. That night as we sat on the boat  we could hear the cheers from the Spanish as they won the European cup, again the fog descended on us, so we moved on the following day to Calamarinas. On the way there we could see the clouds rolling over the hills, it looked as though we were watching a waterfall in slow motion.



 When we arrived in Camarinas we decided not to go into the harbour but anchor by the beach as we prepared to drop anchor we got an awful whiff, only to find there was a fish factory across from us so we moved further up wind and just hoped that the wind didn’t change direction in the night. We had also clocked up our first 1,000 miles and so we celebrated with a bottle of champagne and a nice juicy fillet steak.



The following morning we had some wind and so we sailed out of the bay and headed towards Finisterre. The weather again was cloudy with some mist, the wind was in the wrong direction for us to sail straight there and so several tacks were required, we didn’t seem to be making any headway at all so we decided to motor as it looked like more rain was on its way. We planned to stay for two nights in Finisterre and spend a day walking to the lighthouse on the headland to look at the impressive views, but when we got up in the morning the headland was covered in cloud, and so we decided to move on to Portosin which is in Ria Muros.

The marina itself is very nice but the local town does not have much to offer, once again we have bumped into Nick and Judith, and have spent a couple of evenings with them in the marina bar. This is the first marina where the British have outnumbered the French, never seen so many red ensigns or red dusters as they are nicknamed.

Whilst here we took a trip by local bus to Santiago de Compostela, where apparently in the 9th century the tomb of St James was discovered, and the town is now the focus for thousands of pilgrims who visit each year. The new part of the town is full of department shops but the old town has narrow cobbled streets with numerous shops selling souvenirs, and café bars and restaurants so you are spoilt for choice when looking for somewhere to eat.



There is also a beautiful old cathedral with very ornate carvings both inside and out, the alter is completely covered in gold leaf it looks very spectacular, and around the outer sides there are spate little chapels.



One thing we have noticed whilst sailing in France and Spain is that the fishermen must work on some sort of point scoring system, because whenever we are near one, they head straight for us. So we think the scoring system goes something like this, one point for getting a yacht to alter course whilst motoring, two if under sail, and three at night.

Since leaving Britain I have tried to learn both French and now Spanish, I am able to ask for things like wine and the bill, good morning and hello, but I keep forgetting where I am and so now I speak a bit of Spanish, a bit of French and a bit of English all in one sentence, it must confuse the hell out of the person I am speaking to.

We are planning to leave here today to move onto Ria Auros where we again plan to do some anchoring, the weather at the moment is awful, raining and it sounds as if the wind is picking up, but having kept track of the weather back home its certainly better here than there.

Total distance to date:  1068 nautical miles

1 nautical mile = 1.15077 mile



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