Bayona

I have had some success spearfishing - 2 fish! Unfortunately they were grey mullet. A shame I had wanted something a little different, but no other fish were big enough.

We have received our first invite to dinner today since leaving LR! Larry on "Suli" is doing a prawn curry - shld be good.

We have ordered the Atlantic Islands pilotbook, so we are stuck here until it arrives; not a problem for the next days at the forecast is pretty bad & full of winds from the South. Where are the NE trades? Hope they arrive the day after we get the book. Thats all for now.

Notes on Costs

Mooring fees:
Last year, during 28 days spent in England, we spent an average of 19 euro/night on mooring fees. So far, during 37 days in Spain, we have spent an average of 1.88 euros/night! To be fair we were in a slight rush while in England & I would love to go back sometime & discover all the nice anchorages which I'm sure exist; but, even so, it's quite a comparison!

Food:
Is more expensive than I thought - except at Asda!
Fishing is harder than I thought - except grey mullet, which fight over who's to be first in the frying pan!

Toiletries:
We have recently purchased our 1st toothpaste tube! We had allways just seemed to aquire toothpaste from visitors or from visits home.
We have never bought toilet paper or tissues! Hey, it's included in the price when you stay in a marina or visit a cafe or bar, so you may as well stock-up.

Laundry:
What?! Occasional handwash is perfectly sufficient.

Showers:
There are allways ways around paying for a shower.

Anniversary!

Today is the 13th June 2007. One year ago today we motored out of Hamburger Yachthafen into the River Elbe.

We have come a long way since then: Down the Elbe, turn left; the desolate beauty of the East Frisian islands; the hot sunny weather of the Dutch inland waterways; along the coast of Belgium to France; a channel crossing across the bussiest shipping lanes in the world in a thick pea-souper; that green & pleasant land, England, & a chance for me to reaquaint myself with the things I had missed about my homeland, not least fishnchips and pasties; Falmouth to L'Aberwrach; the French Islands along the Atlantic coast; a long winter in La Rochelle & a chance to make some good friends; our longest passage aboard 1494 to date: 320M to Spain; the dolphins & the Spanish rias; and now poised near the Portuguese border.

I wonder where I will be writting the 2nd year anniversary blog?!

Thurs 7th June till Now

On Thurs 7th we decided, after checking the forecast, to leave Portosin. Unhappily I went to pay the harbour dues but the nice receptionist let us pay the rate for a boat under 8m, so the damage was under 24 Euro for 2 nights.

We were late leaving Portosin & we motor-sailed most of the way to arrive at about 2100 in San Vincente (no probs experienced from the exhaust pipe!). It was a seemingly nice beach anchorage but we awoke at 0300 to find that the wind had turned onshore and 1494 was riding quite large waves. It reminded me of the time I had anchored my previous yacht "Taboo" off Woolacombe beach (a spot favoured by surfers). I didn't get much sleep that night either!

I was pleased to leave San Vincente & we had a leisurely sail into the Ria de Pontevedra (where we saw more dolphins) & up to the touristy but fantastic little town of Combarro. I really liked the narrow streets & flights of steps winding their way between the old stone houses & it was the 1st place in Spain where I said to Susi "I wouldn't mind living here". Also there were a couple of bars where we could tie up the tender & sup a beer while able to see Vega1494.

On the 9th we sailed to Beluso, also in the Ria de Pontevedra, & dropped the hook off a small rocky beach set at the foot of a steep cliff. This anchorage was notable for 2 things: - We had our 1st encounter with "boat boys"; they were after a beer & they got one, mainly because we were erm busy & it was the easiest way to get rid of them! - This was the 1st time I went spear fishing & I spent 3 hours in the water without catching anything except, possibly, a cold! It was an interesting experience though, plenty of life down there but nothing worth eating.

Monday 11th we went into town for internet weather info & decided to leave immediately to give us the chance to spend a night on the Isla Cies & then make our way to Bayona before the next lot of crap weather arrived.

Isla Cies is a nature reserve with fantastic beaches, real postcard stuff (will try to add photos soon) & we were both glad to have made the effort to visit, if only briefly.

Yesterday, the 12th, we motored most of the way against headwinds to Bayona (on this occasion we couldn' be bothered to tack upwind, although that is what we usually do if we have time). It was only the last few miles that we were able to sail, but wow! 7-8 knots boatspeed!

Work

A hard days work yesterday (yes, work. I still remember that word!). The exhaust is (touchwood) fixed and we found out why the bilge pump wouldn't work: It had an old t-shirt (or a part of one) stuck in it!!

We rewarded ourselves with a nice meal out (Susis´ birthday money). The food was really nice but not quite so excellent as in La Coruña. When we saw that the bread had been itemised on the bill we took the rest of it with us. We have no shame!

Finisterre

We had a good time in Camariñas: Did some touristy stuff, daytrips, met other yotspeople. But with two days of light winds forecast before the next depression we decided to move on (on Sat 2nd June). I wasn't too bothered that the wind might be too light to sail as I was quite happy with my temp repair to the exhaust pipe and, since Finisterre has quite a bad reputation, I wasn't going to become a purist "sailing only" type. As it turned out the repair was rather more tepmorary than I would have liked! On top of that the bilge pump ...er... didn't &, when we did get enough wind to sail, a fitting pulled out of the spinnaker pole. Oh, & the autohelm was playing up. All said & done I was a bit pissed off by the time we dropped hook in Muros but it didn´t take me long to appreciate that the important thing was that we had arrived safely.

(I would put the photos of Cape Finisterre here, but I took em with good ol 35mm film. So you'll just have to take my word for it!).

We liked Muros. A nice old town. We would have liked to have seen more of it but all we wanted was a cold beer in the sun in a harbourside cafe. Susi wrote her book but I was happy just to sit & watch the world (& the chicas!) go by.

Because the wind was forecast to go around to the East on Sunday we followed the advice in the pilot book & headed for Portosin, where we could expect better shelter. We had a great sail there: Flat waters, sun shining, the wind was just right and we saw scores of dolphins at close quarters!

The wind increased in the afternoon & we weren't too happy with our anchorage at Portosin. Luckily the wind abated for the night to allow us to get a good sleep but, by 0530, it had increased again. During a lull at around 0800 we decided to go into the marina. Looking at the wind now it was the right decision: Even in the marina it is quite rolly & the wind noise is pretty unbearable.

In fact to escape the wind we hit the beach. It was still windy, but not as much. Even with the wind it is hot hot hot. Should have brought some windsurfing kit with me!