Not a huge amount of wind and in the totally wrong direction for where we were going, yes we could have beat into it all the way but it would have added hours onto our journey, so motor sail it was. There was still a fairly large swell especially just about an hour from Bayona, it really whipped up. We did take some photos of it but as usual in the pics it looks like a mill pond so we won’t bother putting them on otherwise it looks like we are talking rubbish.

Cardinal buoy on approach to Bayona with the surf breaking on rocks beyond

Initial impressions were just ok, however, the more you see of this place the more you get to really like it. There is the old part at the back which is all wee alleyways and cobbled streets which are packed with cafes, bars and restaurants. Great place to be on a Saturday night, people watching.

We did as the Spanish do and went for a stroll round the streets, stopping off for the occasional refreshment which is supplied with a small plate of food. You could just go from place to place and by the end of the night you would have had dinner, but we found a lovely restaurant where we had an amazing meal. Far too much ordered, but we did manage to eat it all the same. The black pudding was as good if not better than the Stornoway stuff

 

 

Out for a meal

Today is Sunday and we decided to have a relaxing day going to the beach. Gosh! It’s noisy on the beaches here. They all go for a few hours and catch up on what’s been going on the rest of the week. There was even some old geezer doing his exercises at the back of us. All I could hear was this grunting and groaning, I was wondering what I was going to find when I turned round. Our few hours on the beach was followed by a trip up to the castle and Gordon also went for a look at the replica of the Pinta which is here. This is the first place Columbus made landfall after discovering the Americas.

 

 

 

One of the beaches with the fortress in the background

 

You need a head for heights!

Gordon riding his horse …. Lol.

We are moving on tomorrow, so Bayona is our last place in Spain for now anyway. Tomorrow it’s Portugal. I wonder what that will have in store for us?

This is where we are headed, straight out

 

As it turns out we decided to go for the trip round Finnisterre.

On the way out the swell was well over two and a half metres at times, was a bit like a roller coaster.

We reckoned on it lessening as the day wore on which is what happened thankfully.

The pic below is us rounding Finisterre, Don’t know if you can appreciate the swell from it? If it helps, there is another boat there, but she is hull down behind the swell.

 

According to the pilot books once you get to the Ria of Muros the weather is supposed to immediately change for the better. We hoped so.

And so it did…… Muros town was very pretty with “Canary Island” windows in the houses, little winding alleys and odd little squares all with cafes and bars. I think it’s amongst one of the nicest places we have visited along the coast. It’s only a shame we spent one night there.

I am writing this as we sail further down the coast to Bayona which will be our last stop in Spain, so it will soon be up with the Portuguese courtesy flag.

 

                  Entering the Ria                        The “Crew “ready with the shore lines

 

Next stop Bayona , in about 5 hours.

Bye for now.

 

We reluctantly left A Coruna on Sunday 24^th August bound for Ria de Camarinas, a long established waiting point for favourable weather to round Cape Finnisterre.

On the way we were visited by some dolphins

 

 

We chose to say in Muxia on the South West of the Ria as opposed to Camarinas. It’s a new marina and empty, the 1^st night was only ourselves and a German cruiser. It’s not the most picturesque town but it grows on you and the Marina staff are excellent.

We are now established in the Gallician Costa da Morte and just to demonstrate Mother Nature has dished up 3 days of hoolie ……so far!

Just so we are not sickening you with pictures of blue skies and sunshine here are some pics from the last few days , storm bound in Muxia.

 

  

  

                View from the top of the hill with the marina in the background below

 

                   Costa da Morte                                             Clown!

 

                                                                          Anyone got a Neurofen?

Wee red fishing boat in the empty marina ……………. Just cos I like it.

It’s now 1900 on Wednesday and I am just about to go up to the office to check the feasibility of leaving tomorrow to go round Finisterre. I am not hopeful given the winds that have been blowing up till now. The swell will be quite big. I think it may be Friday before we leave. Heh Ho! Will let you know later.

Bye for now

We left Viveiro on Friday 22^nd August , just a day sail this time, although ten hours plus. Oh for a wee jaunt across to Rossy.

 

Leaving Viveiro

Arriving A Coruna – Torre de Hercules Light House

Coruna is to Spain what La Rochelle is to France. We are now two thirds of the 1,600 miles or so to reach Gibraltar. I feel another milestone has been reached. Having said that – had we left from Cork / Falmouth or similar we could’ve been here in 4 or 5 days direct across Biscay. We left Ardrossan at the end of April, LOL.

The marina is massive, Camira was dwarfed by all the ocean going 40 footers as you can see by the berth we were in!

 

We took the opportunity to remove a fish from our hull that we picked up along the way

 

                                                                  Oh bite ………. please bite…. please !

 

There is a beautiful central square “Plaza de Maria Pita” who is credited with reducing the Corunan losses during the Francis Drake assault of 1589, and of course of the bread fame.

 

       

This is where Picasso had his 1^st outing at 13, it now seems to be a flat, maybe the lass is a relative?

I did the impromptu green piece to the left of the door, Picasso eat your heart out

This is the the famous Real Club Nautico and the nearest I’ll get to it in my flip flop attire.

 

Really nice and would recommend as a city break from UK.

We stayed Friday & Saturday and had another night out with Ali ,Pete & Tigger during which there was a free concert in the square.

 

                                                                           Iberico hams ………mmm

           

Tigger wanting a walk and trying to hypnotise                     “ Pals R Us”

me to take her

Ali & Pete

We really liked Coruna and probably would’ve have liked to say a bit longer but a weather window was available and so….

 

Rested, we set sail on the Monday afternoon at 1300 for another 20 hour overnighter to Viveiro. We managed to sail the vast majority of this passage.

In fact we arrived too early at 0430 on Tuesday and sat head to wind and swell until the dawn to allow us to go into the Ria in daylight. In retrospect it would have been easier to find our way in in the dark and waited in the Ria , before heading up the canalised river to the Marina. We found out later we were experiencing gusts of 30 knots; just as well our wind instrument is not working properly!

We eventually tied up at 0830, got the paperwork sorted and again had a kip. We were knackered after the last 4 hour part of the 19 hour trip.

Viveiro is quite a cultural place with a long history dating back to the Romans, what remains of the old wall was built to protect the inhabitants from attacks or from the plague.

 

 

There is also a grotto, a copy of the one at Lourdes. You can leave any affected bits of your anatomy requiring divine intervention in a wax effigy in the hope that it will be looked on favourably. I won’t mention what bit I left. Apologies if I have offended any religious readers.

There was a lovely river walk which reminded me of Scotland

 

 

Louise & I had a night out on calamari and pork pinchos in a wee tapas bar to spoil ourselves from the battering we had had. Ali, Pete and Tigger came along later for a drink later, Tigger was just happy to have her ears rubbed and passed on the Rioja, though.

 

Captain Chaos has taken on the blog for the next couple of episodes, so apologies to those of you who prefer Mrs M’s East Kilbride patois.

We have decided to get a wee shift on for two reasons. Firstly, we have been advised it would be prudent to get down the Atlantic Coast of Spain and Portugal before the equinox around the 23^rd of September which can, and is usually is, accompanied by bigger seas and winds. Secondly Snawbaw my sister- in – law is arriving at Lagos, Algarve, Portugal on the 22^nd September to grace us with her company, an equinoctial experience in its own right! Only kidding D – looking forward to it – bring tea bags xx.

As you can see it’s a fair distance. We believe our night sailing and thus longer passage making will be restricted once we are on the Portuguese coast due to the proliferation of unmarked fishing nets and pots. We could go further offshore to miss them, we’ll see once we get there.

We left Laredo on Friday 15^th Aug at 1130 and the forecast from San Sebastian to Santander was West force 3-4 and the swell from memory about a metre, all of which was OK. We managed to complete the passage between sailing and motor sailing when the wind died. Dinner was chilli out “the dog bowls” to stop us spilling it in the swell. We split the watches to get some sleep passing Santander, Ribidasella and other possible stopovers in the night and arrived in Gijon on Saturday morning at 0830, 106 miles further on. Had breakfast and went for a kip.

Gijon pronounced HeeHohn marina is right in the centre of the city. It was virtually completely destroyed during the Spanish civil war and has been rebuilt, so a mixture of a modern city with parks and a smattering of the old town remaining.

 

 

 

The beach was bunged on the Sunday as you can see below.

We stayed in Gijon Saturday & Sunday and had Pete and Ali around on Saturday night. Louise originally got talking to them in Hodarribia and we have been partly sailing in company along the North Coast of Spain.

This is their boat, Tyra

There were some funny characters in the market square though …

 

We did however manage to dispose of the empty wine bottles we have drunk since leaving Ardrossan

 

We are now in Laredo, a new marina, it’s pretty empty and we had the pick of any berth.

 

The town itself is typically Spanish, with old cobbled streets and lots of wee tapas bars, which we visited last night with Ali and Pete who were originally sailing to Brazil but now are heading to the Med due to restrictions with their dog Tigger. They have a big old 46 ft. American built yacht. It’s amazing …..it even has a bath, which is currently full of porcelain for Ali’s sculpting.

Ali and Louise chose the tapas, having no idea what they were choosing, went for the dish of the day expecting great things, and ended up with an assortment which included a tin of anchovies with the lid off…… tadaaah.

We consoled ourselves with another glass of Vino – that we do know a bit about!

We are hoping to head off tomorrow for an overnighter to Gijon after this front we have had for the last couple of days passes and the winds and swell abate a wee bit.

Once Louise has fished making her mosquito net that is ……………….

 

Bye for now

 

We had a few days in Las Arenas Marina, Bilbao. The sail here was an uncomfortable one with the swell on the beam and very little wind. There are three marinas here, this one, Portugalete and Gexto which is newer but twice the price. Las Arenas won the day, plus you also get temporary membership to the sailing club with its swimming pool, gym and lounge with big comfy chairs and sofas. It’s a bit stuffy, but that’s what the sailing clubs in Spain are like, it’s more a social thing which the members pay a lot of money for rather than about the sailing. Two lovely glasses of Rioja for 3.50 euros, not bad.

 

Las Arenas sailing club

 

Las Arenas Bridge at night

 

 

Tapas bar …….yes another one!                                 Bilbao city centre

 

You can’t come to Bilbao and not go to the Guggenheim. Can you???? Only kidding, but a visit to see the building would have been more than enough for me (Editor’s inserted quote “Now for two hoors of hell”).

It is an amazing piece of architecture and well worth seeing.

 

 

Very colourful and fun                                However, some art I just don’t get?

Someone dancing under a sheet, which you could join in with?

or the temporary exhibition by Yoko Ono, well……., a picture of a fly on a woman’s private parts is anything but art, but maybe that’s just me! Not to knock it completely, some of the other artists’ work was quite interesting but the main highlight for me was the building itself.

 

We took a walk to the old part of the city along the river from the Guggenheim and had tapas in one of the old traditional bars.

Back in Las Arenas we met a nice couple, Gordon and Carol who are on their way back to the UK having spent last year and this year sailing this area. We were round for drinks on their boat and Carol and kindly gave me her Spanish phrase book which we desperately need as our total Spanish amounts to about three or four words. I tried to say good evening to someone the other night and wished him a Good Crisp instead- buenas nachos instead of buenas noches, easy mistake, no?

 

We left Bilbao harbour dodging some of the other wee boats coming in !

 

  

It felt good hoisting the Spanish and Basque courtesy flags, quite exciting sailing into another country and Northern Spain is somewhere I have wanted to go to for a while.

Hondarribia is the first town no the Northern Spanish coastline. It is separated from Hendaye in France by Ria Bidasoa. We loved this place; the marina itself was ok and had a nice beach right next to it. The town is gorgeous though, especially the old fortified part with its medieval buildings and alleyways. The

 

We loved this place; the marina itself was ok and had a nice beach right next to it. The town is gorgeous though, especially the old fortified part with its medieval buildings and alleyways. The newer part of town has a great buzz about it, loads of restaurants, cafes, and tapas bars.

 

                                                                      A Saturday night there is a must.

We had a few days here, partly because we really liked it and partly because we had to replace the choke cable which snapped and had to be ordered up.

We took the opportunity to go to Hendaye (in France acrsoos the river) for the day, which incidentally is twinned with Peebles.

 

Our wee walk over to Hendaye ended up a twelve mile trek as we took a detour trying to find a mosquito net for over the bed. No mosquito net but plenty of blisters. Anyway, Hendaye is ok I suppose, just a holiday town with not much atmosphere. Thankfully there was a boat you could get back across the river to Hondarribia!

This is my anti-mosquito nightwear, not the coolest look or feel!

Our next stop, passing San Sebastian on route (see below)

was Zumaia, described in the pilot book as a town full of happy people. I think the author was taking the micky, either that or the happy people had gone somewhere else for the day. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but we just found it a bit depressing, pretty enough but just dull. So much so that a walk around during the day when we arrived was enough and we just ate on board that night.

 

Great Tapas, even if I do say so myself.

We had a chat with Kevin the other day and he thinks we should get a bit of a push on so as to be down the Atlantic coast of Portugal before the equinox which is around the 23^rd of September. The weather can start to change around then and this coast is not meant to be one to linger on anyway according to the books. Not because there are not some great places to visit but it can be pretty inhospitable to sail down. This does however mean we might need to rush the Spanish Rias which we were looking forward to seeing. Mmmmm!

We are also trying to get to A Coruna by the 22^nd of August as Dave and Iain were thinking of coming out to see us for a few days if we can get there by then.