September 1st - 14th, 2012 (Spain)
Progress so far (Click picture to zoom)
After a late breakfast we motored into Muros marina and had a vast choice of pontoon as the place was deserted, with only a few local power boats tied up. We were the only yacht until the following day, when a few more came in - Dutch, French, Swedish, Norwegian and a couple of English boats. A few were on their way to the Canaries for the start of the ARC and one of the British boats is going round the world and the other down to Brazil. It’s great hearing all the stories of their travels so far.
Muros is a very attractive little town and we intended spending two nights here before moving on to another anchorage in the Ria. However, as we were getting ready to leave, Mike started talking to Jane & Tony Good from Capisce, a Moody 44 and before we knew it, it was 15:30 and we still hadn’t had lunch, so we decided just to stay for an extra night. The next morning we walked through the town to the head of the Ria to visit The “Pozo de Cachón”, an old sea mill. Unfortunately, the exhibition had been removed the previous day, presumably for the winter, and all that was left were some posters, a model of the mill and a video in Spanish with Spanish subtitles. We had previously visited a similar sea mill in Portugal a few years ago, so we knew the layout and how it operated.
After lunch we left the marina and had a great sail across the Ria to another secluded anchorage off Ensenada de Esteiro, where we dropped the hook and settled down for the evening. The wind picked up again and was gusting at least 30 kts overnight and most of the following morning, before dying down slightly in the afternoon. We took the dinghy ashore and left it on the beach while we wandered around the village and did some shopping, before stopping for the obligatory alcoholic beverage at one of the local hostelries on our way back. Once back on Mistroma, we motored across the Ria to the marina at Portosin to check out the winter storage prices, which were exorbitant, and then went off to another beautiful bay near the mouth of the Ria where we dropped the hook and admired the scenery.
The following morning we motored down to the Ria Arousa and managed a short sail as we entered, but then the wind died completely again, so we were back on the engine once more. We anchored in the bay outside the marina at Pobra do Caramiñal and noticed a nice big Gadis (supermarket) just across the road from the beach, so at high water we took the dinghy in and again left it parked on the beach while we stocked up with all the important and heavy items (water, wine, larger etc)! The beach shelved so quickly that we could load up the dinghy with all the purchases and Mike (so he didn’t get his feet wet), and start the outboard while I stood in ankle deep water holding the bows. A great way to do the shopping!
The next day was our anniversary and thankfully nothing untoward happened to spoil the day. We spent a very enjoyable evening with Julian & Sue Scudamore from Eromaducs, a Seastream 43, before taking the dinghy ashore to go for a meal. I really can’t get used to eating after 10.00 at night and we haven’t had too many evening meals out, preferring to go for lunch instead. We spent three nights at this anchorage before sailing across the Ria to the marina in Vilanova de Arousa, where Mike wanted to get prices for winter storage. He got a good price from them but wants to check out a couple of other marinas in the next Ria before committing himself.
From there we drifted back across the Ria to Rianxo and anchored near Eromaducs, who had arrived shortly before us. Another enjoyable evening was spent in their company, with Mike sorting out their Kindle library! The town is currently celebrating the week long fiesta of Santa Maria de Guadaloupe with loud entertainment every night, which we can hear from the boat and culminates with an all-night event on Friday.
We had a nice wander around the old town the next morning and watched groups & brass bands playing at various street locations. Lunch consisted of beer, sidra and the largest Bocadillos I've seen. Incredibly cheap, filling and tasty. Lynne also managed to get her hair cut in the town. No English spoken, but after lots of pointing at pictures and waving of arms she was pleased with the result.
Strong wind and very hot weather altered our plan to sail over to Vilagarcia and the following day we only managed to move as far as the beach around the corner from Rianxo. There we found three other UK boats at anchor, Eromaducs, Capisce and Vlad, a one design 38 footer sailed by Greg Marsh and Juliet Wilson. Tony and Jane invited us to a party on Capisce and we had a great night with nine people aboard. Gregg sold a small cruising boat and almost sold his racing boat to get a larger one to go off cruising but unfortunately, the sale of his One Design racing boat fell through. Plan "B" involved cutting the deck off his racing boat and fitting a new deck to give much more room below. Sounds drastic but he’s made a very good job of it and now has a good cruising boat. Lynne thought that her 16 Euro visit to the hairdresser was good value until Juliet mentioned that she had paid 9 Euros recently. Not bad when you consider the prices in UK.
By the time the party broke up we were too tired (& full of alcohol) to manage the all night fiesta going on ashore. It must have been good judging by the noise and number of people we saw asleep on the beach the next morning. We took the dinghy ashore before lunch and discovered an army of people brushing, hosing and generally cleaning up the town. I guess that they have it pretty well planned as it is an annual event.
