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SPAIN
May 26th
Ria Muros
Portosin and beyond!
Left Portosin 09.00hrs, don't know what day (!), sun at last and a good sail to Combarro including catching another large Garfish which we ate for dinner, (even if they do have bright green bones!). We arrived at Combarro to discover progress had beaten us to it. It is billed as "an attractive old fishing village with many
Horreos, in which grain was stored, (so the rats could not get in they are raised on stone mushrooms) and the centre of the place has been restored as a heritage site". We saw that a new harbour wall had been built, enclosing the area our pilot book recommended to anchor! We went ashore this morning early, and it really was as good as billed. However, as we sat at a bar in the main square suddenly 4 buses arrived with tourists ... English and Americans. Out came the cine cameras. Round and round the little streets they walked following the guides with their numbers on long poles ... then back into the bus in 20 minutes and off, leaving a whirl of dust, and relief at the loss of the sound of vehicle aircon plants! When we left
Portosin, and on arriving here at
Camborro, we were subjected to a series of rockets with the bang of thunder flashes, several times every 15 minutes. We thought they might be military or anti bird devices, but no, its fiesta time tonight in this part of Spain. Shortly after we went ashore a band marched round the headland complete with a "rocket man" carrying the offending articles. We watched as a broadside was launched. They were some 2 meters long each and on exploding, some 50 meters up, a long stick hurtles to the ground like a bolt from the blue!
At the Supermercado we bought frozen langoustines, which is often the method of keeping uncooked seafood on sale here. Compared to UK they are fantastic value for money. We are going in tonight to see what the fiesta brings. There are many Tapas bars and little restaurants along the sea wall. Again, wonderful stone houses, many derelict and for sale, very tempting if we had no boat! Today there is a deep blue sky and full sun. During our lunch on deck each village tried to out do the next with their noisy bombardments....all sorts of bangs and smoke in the sky!
22.5.99
16.00
Temp. in chartroom 19C Humidity 45% sea water COLD! But its not all lounging around, Malcolm and I repainted the foredeck before lunch. The "barky" has to be kept in first class trim. The "to do" list is always on the go. Solar panels are keeping the batteries at 13.2 volts notwithstanding that the fridge is now up a notch.
Malcolm sorted out the
watermaker, which had some gunge in one of its internal bits. Lucky we have an engineer board. He is very familiar with this type of equipment having spent some time in the Gulf States working at a remote Decca station based on an island. The evening fiesta turned out to be half a "do". Good band in the square by the sea but few people. We had tapas in two bars, one of which was deep in a stone house and felt like a grotto. Tapas were excellent, Spanish omelet/egg custard type flan and apple with something! They get placed in the middle of the table and you share amongst yourselves. Wonderful evening meal back aboard, stayed on deck late into the night. Warm winds and clear skies.
24.5.99
Left early in good "Aubrey" style (reference to Captain Aubrey in Patrick O'Brien books) getting the anchor up under sail, and off down the
Ria. Wind went by 11.00am so we motored on one engine to Isle Cies anchorage. Looks like the West Indies, clear blue water, golden beach with few people and the whole place teaming with fish and mammals. We caught two large mackerel and saw blunt nosed dolphin, some black, others white with large fins. We think they may have been Risso's Dolphins, said to be fairly abundant around here. We noted the many body scars from squid and other dolphins - up to 3.8m long. We are now anchored in 8m in sand off Isle Cies with lobster pot and gill net down, waiting for the day to cool before we go ashore. Further out in the bay is a large charter boat with every conceivable toy on the deck ... power boat, ribs etc. The electronics look like you could run the office from it, no problem. The ship's boat scuttles around taking the guests here and there ....serious money!
25.5.99
Up early, and got the
weatherfax, which is showing NE winds and a trough coming south from the UK. It looks like the UK is getting another low-pressure system. Pulled up lobster pot ... only small crabs and snails. Nothing in the gill net, even though there is wall to wall mullet around the boat! Sailed out the anchor but wind has now died, we are now under one engine doing 2.5 knots on slow idle. Weather clear, blue skies and little wind. A large schooner came down the channel but is slating around with no wind. As usual we have a list of ships stores required in
Vigo. The name of the game is to keep the ship in perfect trim ... you never achieve it! However the decks are resplendent in the new coat of snow white deck paint. For the first time we are now putting the curtains up at some of the windows to keep it cool below.
All round us are the high wooded hills of Ria de
Vigo. We wonder if there will be a space for us in the City Marina, this early in the season we think we should get in. Very little water sports activity here, amazing, considering the beaches and sheltered sea areas. In the same circumstances it would be packed in Northern European waters.
By 12.30 pm we arrived at Vigo marina to be told there was "no room in the Inn", in Spanish. Noticing a fuel pontoon I said we needed petrol ... yes O.K. Got petrol and water, then noticed a slot at the entrance to the marina harbour against a concrete wall, just outside the marina "fences". Yes, we could go there. We had seen that it was subject to wash from the ferries, still we had to be near Vigo to get our daughter Ruth from the airport ... any port in a storm. We are now tied up alongside, with our main fenders plus the large Avon blow up fenders, warps and springs to keep us from concrete rash on the starboard hull. What we do for our daughters! It's baking hot and the deck bimini cover is up, or it would be untenable on deck for lunch. After siesta we will venture into town to hunt for sea food and ships stores. I want to buy a Spanish guitar (no don't worry not for my nil musical skills) - for guests with talent! Malcolm has his with him and plays very well. Its really good to hear him in the evening as the sun goes down etc. Near us we have ocean tugs, a USA cruise ship and island ferries. It's a vast port with nearly 2 miles of quays. Our pilot book says,
"Vigo has everything a sailor could want "! The solar panels are working like a nuclear power station ... batteries at 13.4 volts even after watermaker and fridge have been in use.
22.00hrs
By default we have fallen into Spanish customs. We fell asleep out of the midday sun, a siesta, and then went shopping at 18.00 hrs when the shops reopened, sun still burning hot. Dinner at 21.30 hrs. The locals began promenading the harbour wall. Lovers clinched against the setting sun. A Brazilian drummer turned up beneath the red port light and began his rhythmic beat. Couples of all ages walked up and down looking at us, some asking where we came from, where we were going. The sun set into the Atlantic - very romantic evening, cool breezes ......it's great to be here. A man came on his moped and began fishing. The Spanish know how to enjoy an evening like this one. Tirla was made for warm climes and was at her best. It's all is so different to the 08.10 bus into the City of London and the intense, but "challenging", competition. They look at our solar panels, fishing gear, and wonder. Coffee is on the way ....... Malcolm's off to see the night life .........The Biscay seems far away now.
We have learnt to only cross roads with locals all around you. Also, when you have indicated how much salami you need for three people, and you end up with three slices each the thickness of the total size you wanted - it's better to laugh than try to correct! Typical English, not speaking any other language! We are getting to know how things work as a foreigner. It's dark now and the drummer at the pier heads in well into his stride. Ruth's here tomorrow night. Close to us is a Dutch sail training schooner bound from the Med back to Holland. Behind her is one of the many cruise ships that call for a day and passengers bus into places like Combarro for 15 minutes. A 120ft super yacht came in to moor ... Ho Ho! They were told to go to
Bayona, then someone realised they had missed a money-making opportunity and roared after them in a rib and told them they could re water and refuel. It took an hour to fill their water tanks! It also took 6 man-hours this morning for two non-Spanish speaking Brits to locate and purchase an electrical relay to add to our fridge circuit! We did buy a ship's guitar on the way! We also walked into a big and potentially nasty demonstration against unemployment. About 500 men walked straight down the main roads blocking traffic and shouting at the police. We tried to look Spanish and kept our eyes down ...several saw us and called out " British are O.K. Yes!!" We agreed by nodding and walking faster. It must have been Malcolm's shorts! Being in harbour we have had our first mosquito attack and lost 10 bites to one kill, so Fae has spent her ships biz time implementing our defenses which were planned in the UK. material all bought ... strategy thought out! A number of hatches now are covered in moz netting which should help a lot. We carry anti moz burners which run off 12 volts, and also a "blue" light fly fryer! So we can beef up our system if required. Malcolm installed the relay in the fridge pump system, and sorted out the problem with it cutting in and out as greater demands were made of it in the hotter weather. I worked at providing tools and bits as needed by the real workers, also took credit for Fae's work when talking to Malcolm and Malcolm's work when speaking to
Fae! I am of course a highly trained manager so claiming all the success when only partially involved came naturally - unfortunately on this boat they seem to spot my tactics rather quickly. The result is that what little I did do was ignored! Malcolm's gone off to one of the local Cyber cafes to check on, and sent out, messages. Using HotMail it would have been possible to keep in touch by email in the same way as we do on the boat, using Cyber cafes at Corunna,
Muros, Santiago and
Vigo. He is also getting some good weather fax info which we find hard to pick up on the SSB when near to cities, too much electrical static about. Sky overcast today but hot .. 21C
We will run out of cooking gas about 5th June. We are currently using our English filled Propane gas bottles (2x 6k 2x 3.9K), we also carry two Camping Gas bottles. We believe in Spain we can get Camping Gas very cheaply, and possibly refill our propane high pressure tanks with butane as a lower pressure fuel. (Note -this refilling proved to be now a non starter as under EEC new laws you will have to have each tank re-tested every time!!) Propane is easy to get in the West Indies (rather far to go at the moment!). Butane and Camping Gas is available here but I'm told the thread is the opposite way to the UK's. Portugal's is same as us. We think it takes 50% of our time in port to refuel, re-water, get spares and fresh produce. It's blindingly obvious that if you cannot
"speaka de language " you need to take one of the things you need to get another one!! It can save hours. We are learning all the time... We are flying our Spanish courtesy flag, then the C.A. pennant followed by the Blue Peter and our house flag on another halyard. We expect to leave early tomorrow morning for somewhere as yet undecided. Ruth leaves from Vigo on Sunday night, then we head south for the long hop down Northern Portugal. We hope to sail down the Portuguese coast on the "trade winds" which should by now be blowing steadily from the North . . . I wonder if nature will oblige!
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