La Costa Dulce to Ria de Arousa  9th August 2007

 

No! Andy did not look under the boat in the anchorage in Ria Ares - it was too cold and we got very content drinking wine and watching the world from the cockpit .

We left for Laxe the next morning in big seas and against the wind so it was a pretty good fairground ride, I threw up and stayed below a lot of the time just wishing to be at my destination.  Laxe was lovely.  Nick google earthed us a picture and asked, ‘where is Selkie Dancer’  I’m surprised he couldn’t see us as we swam and Andy inspected the bottom of the boat for electrolysis (a bad thing so big sigh of relief that there were no signs)  We walked up to a little church at the top of the hill where everything was festooned with flowers inside and out - we could only see inside if we squinted in by a keyhole but it looked so pretty.  We took a walk along the coast past a  beach with huge surf and looked out at our prospective course.

 

We were rudely and suddenly awakened early on Sunday morning by what I took to be an urgent banging on the hull, immediately awake to all the possible horrors we peered out of the cabin port to see two young lads hanging on to the sides of our boat, smiling and shouting, not with the seriousness I thought should have accompanied the following words, ‘You have fire’   Aaaaagh! what’s going on…….fire in the engine? gas bottles exploded?, all these scenarios flashed through my mind but slowly it dawned that all they wanted was a match for their cigarette!  We watched while they skulled their boat expertly to the next yacht who were not so accommodating and just got fenders out to protect their sides from the big black tyres strapped on the side of the little boat.  Later that morning as we prepared to up anchor we couldn’t see the little yellow float that was our marker, where had it gone?  On scanning around we noticed along the line of floats marking off the swimming area a little yellow float that looked suspiciously like ours - yes I think the likely lads of Laxe had played a jolly jape and cut it off and repositioned it - it had certainly been cut off.  Now we have an old Tesco washing liquid bottle that serves just as well.

 

We had a good sail down to the next Ria past a lowering, evil looking Cabo  Villano and as we entered we had what looked like a welcome party as all the fishing boats were out, festooned with flags and making a progress around the coast.  Looked like it was the same sort of celebration as in La Coruna, fireworks and firecrackers going off all over the place.  We tried to get into Camerinas but the wind was too strong at the time and the pontoons too close so we went and anchored and later had to re-anchor as we noticed little rocks appearing all over the place and realised we were almost sitting on a small reef!

 

Another good sail to Ria de Muros, this time past Cabo Finisterre which compared to Villano was a pussy cat, and anchored in Ensenada Bay opposite the small town of Muros.  A very pretty little port with colonnaded streets and a church that rang out the same CD of bells as La Coruna!  After two nights there we motored across the bay to Portosin a very good Club Nautica, which had absolutely everything.  Café, restaurant, laundry, wifi - the first time we have been able to use our computer from the boat and Andy was able to call his mother using Skype and I had a lovely talk with Tim who was in Burntisland for the weekend.

 

From here we visited Santiago de Compostela by bus and stayed overnight in a hotel.  By most standards the room with accompanying bathroom was small but to us; after the relative, and I stress the word relative confines of our boat, it was amazingly spacious and we made use of the abundance of hot water.  Santiago was great.  The little tourist shops resembled the ones on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh - they sold plastic macs, umbrellas and  t shirts showing sheep in the rain in all seasons, needless to say it didn’t rain once.  In fact we have seen no rain for two weeks and Andy has just finished washing the salt encrusted surfaces of Selkie Dancer.

 

The best sail so far came next as we went on to Ria de Arousa.  The wind was strong and the sun shone, for what more can one ask?  Here we anchored off the Kirkcaldy of North West Spain, a place called Riveira, it resembled ‘the lang toun’ in that it had an elongated waterfront with a fun fair and, as we walked around the next day a feeling of a place passed over, its hey day gone - no nice little waterfront cafes here.  This is the biggest Ria. The mussel beds take up a lot of space, there are more here than we have seen so far.  We spent two nights in a very pretty little bay enclosed and guarded by a cross on each headland.  We have got into a pattern that suits us now.  I find that staying in a Marina is all very well and we love the facilities but only up to a point.  Anchoring gives a feeling of self reliance and independence that I rather like and in Marinas I get grumpy after a few days.  We have learned from this and now plan accordingly.  In this anchorage Andy connected us to the world by aid of a paper clip, how ingenious is my mate!  Paper clip attached to the back stay provided the vital link between aerial and short wave radio set.  Now we have BBC world service loud and clear along with snores and grunts as we sleep through another bout of foot and mouth.  I looked at some of the things I have to do before my Nia course in October which include studying muscles and for this purpose I was recommended the Anatomy Coloring Book - wonderful you identify the muscles and colour them in.  I also took up my mini guitar and carried on reading.  At some Marinas there are books you can swap.  At Sada I picked up one by Rachel Billington who is a know quantity but in Portosin the only book in English was a horse racing thriller!  I suppose its good to read outside your usual tastes from time to time and I have started writing in the flyleaf where I have picked them up and the name of the boat.

 

Last night we were off a town called Rianxo, anchored off a beach and beside a wary Portuguese catamaran.  I expect he was thanking us later as we found ourselves the buffer between him and nine boats rafted together plus various hangers on.  In the morning it was really extraordinary as we found that in place of the club rally we were now surrounded by clam fishermen.  There were about 30 little boats milling around and using wire scoop baskets at the end of long poles to wiggle and scrape along the bottom of the sand for clams, razor fish and the like.  They didn’t seem to be getting much and it seemed such hard work, one wondered what their return was.  

 

We are now in a Marina at Vilagarcia, next to a shiny black Darth Vadar of a motor boat, must be about 50’ long and carrying a shiny black jet ski on its stern.   So, in knowledge of grumpiness, we will do our communications, emails and updating the web site, maybe get a meal ashore and move swiftly on.

 

Jinti and Andy