......................many thanks for your email and guide to Galicia. It gives a good indication for what to look ‘at’ and ‘out for’ !  We are now very comfortably established in La Coruna - I think the trip took more out of us than we realised and it has taken time to find our feet here in Spain.

The success of our passage owed much to our earlier passage with you.  After a fortunate chance encounter, through Jinti’s hairdresser’s brother (working commercially off Lisboa), we signed up for a free trial of buoy weather, www.buoyweather.com  , and identified a weather window to do the passage in a oner.  Even so I rang the met office to confirm the plan assuming that the Irish Sea would be benign and that the problems, if any, would start at Fastnet.  The met man strongly advised a delay before entering the Irish Sea and so we went to Campbeltown and delayed our effective start by 12 hours.  From all that we have heard from other boats - a good decision.

After deciding against fitting Sea-me, we did fit AIS.  What a boon.  Jinti got ever bolder at calling vessels that were set for a close encounter, making friends with a wide range of nationalities in the process!  We took a direct course through the Irish Sea to cut inside Tuskar and then on out to 8 west.  We had to motor into SW winds in the lower half of the Irish Sea and then out to 8 west.  After that it was a steady starboard tack, close hauled or reaching all the way to THE shipping lane.  Although the sea was rough and, at first, confused, Jinti was fine (ish) throughout.  The Hydrovane was magnificent - until it started behaving erratically.  After some very confusing gyrations I realised that it was no longer vertical and had rotated forward on the stern.  I think it a design weakness that it could do so. That said I hope, aware of the problem, that we can work with it!  Once again we hit the shipping lane at night, fortunately free of fog, but with radar and the AIS negotiated our way through with confidence.  The fishing fleet was also out in strength on the edge of the continental shelf - stationary and clear of fog, no challenge.  And so to la Coruna, made a couple of attempts to raise the marina on radio without success.  So sauntered slowly in and were met by a small boat who conducted us to a remote pontoon, this at 2000 or thereabouts.

Apart from the hydrovane the only damage was a severed reefing line.  In sum Campbeltown to la Coruna 809 nautical miles in 5 ½ days (130 hours) of which 60 hours were under motor.  Best ,sail only, day midnight to midnight 169 miles - only take the GPS distance readings at midnight!).

What next?  Well we like it here and are in no mood to move on.  I suspect that Galicia will hold us for the rest of the month and into August.  Have yet to find out what Portugal might have of interest - don’t meet too many boats coming north.
Communications have improved dramatically now that I have, courtesy of a Jinti encounter in the ladies loo, discovered how to use wifi from the public gardens opposite a building with an insecure wifi site!! Sounds awful- but it works, for free!  .................