Galicia - Rias Altas

Thursday 5th July.... A very good sleep last night, but a bit achy this morning. We did the usual walk into town and were more than pleasantly surprised. It’s a bigger town than we expected, lovely gardens and unusual buildings, and there’s a festival going on this weekend called 'Ribadeo Indiano'. Walking the dog we always seem to have someone stop and talk to us, and today was no different when a Spanish gentleman and his dog stopped and made a comment. They’re a little taken aback when they find out we don't understand them, and he subsequently seemed delighted to want to practise his English on us.

 Beautiful gardens

...and more

 Lovely rooftops

  

Not sure what's going on here

There’s a good supermarket here and we also passed a Fishing Tackle shop which has a Fishing Tackle vending machine outside in the wall. Never seen one of those before. Dean couldn’t resist going inside and treated himself to a new lure because he lost his favourite one the other day. He reckons this new lure will be the answer to catching a big tuna. Er, I’ll keep you posted on that one. Dean has fell in love with this place and is very upbeat at the moment. We think we will stay for another few days, and we get a free night too.

 Guaranteed to catch the big one

At lunchtime we had only been back on the boat for about 20 minutes when there was a knock and a voice called ‘Hello’. That’s not unusual but it was unexpected. Dean stuck his head out to find three Spanish Customs Officers! Wow, wasn’t expecting that. They came on board to inspect our passports and ships papers and were with us for about 30 minutes. We made them chuckle when we showed Saffy’s pet passport too. We were expecting them to want to look around inside the boat, but they didn't. Once they had completed their paperwork Dean asked if we could take a photo, and amazingly they said yes. 

 Of course you can come onboard.... anything at all, no problem Sirs

We’re surprised at the different formalities between France and Spain. In French marinas they just book you in and not once were we asked to show passports or documents of any kind, but in Spanish marinas they’ve all wanted to see Passports, Ships Registration and Insurance documents, your last port of call, and the next one.  

Tonight we went out to eat for Dean’s belated birthday. We’d spotted a nice looking restaurant along the marina and their menu had English translation too so that makes it much easier. We were a bit early for the restaurant so had a drink and Linda got the biggest measure of Bacardi she’d ever seen, straight from bottle to glass. The food was very good, wine, dessert, and coffee. We had tuna and steak, Dean being cheeky enough to ask for a ‘Bolsode Perrito’. What a great day.

The lovely restaurant

Belated Birthday Boy with his bread and wine

Friday 6th July… This morning Dean paid for another two nights and we got one more free, so we will be here until Monday. We didn’t do a great deal and it was nice just to not do anything, apart from a little more victualling while we have the chance. Not much sunshine again but it’s still about 20 degrees. We’ve been thinking about where we are going to berth Thesee over the winter months, and we’ve sent off an enquiry to a marina in Gibraltar. Tonight the Ribadeo Indiana Festival has started and there’s something going on across the other side of the marina, plus a pleasure boat going around with people dressed up from the 1920’s. There’s a lot of people dressed up, which is good to see the locals taking part. We hear the festivals are quite a big thing in Spain, we'll probably be kept awake with fireworks.

 The party-goers re-enacting the 1920's

Saturday 7th July… A lie in today, well it is the weekend after all, then a stroll into and around the town to see what’s going on festivalwise. Almost everyone we saw were dressed up in their 20’s gear, we’ve never seen so many straw hats. We stopped and had a beer and cider alongside the town gardens listening to music (not live I might add). Back at the marina a stage had been set up and there was live entertainment going on, but not many people watching (they were all in town promenading!) . There's a display of vintage cars along the quayside. Here's some photos of the day....

Chevrolet Confederate Roadster 1932

This one has wooden spokes

This afternoon has been very sunny and warm, in fact it’s a lovely evening. Two boats have just arrived that we met in La Rochelle. They are doing the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) in November. We are both well and chilled out, doing homework for our next hop along which will probably be to Viveiro on Monday. We’ve still got a mosquito in the fore-cabin despite catching two already. Every morning we wake up with new bites, it’s so annoying. Linda has four bites on one hand now.

Sunday 8th July… Weather’s picking up here and although there’s been some morning cloud in the hills, the afternoons have been bright and sunny. Took the chance to do a little laundry this morning, trying to work out the Spanish instructions. This afternoon Linda hoisted Dean up the mast… that hasn’t happened for a while! He’s not happy with the lazy lines that hold up the mainsail bag and we’ve been swapping them around to try and improve their performance, and stop the sail flopping all over the place when the sail comes down. 

Taking it easy with the Trail Mix

The new lazy lines set-up on trial

There wasn’t many fancy dressers about today, and it would seem the festival has just about run its course. We’ll be on the move tomorrow to a new destination…Viveiro. We may lose the AIS signal as it’s another ria, but let’s see.

Monday 9th July… Would you believe it, we woke up to fog! We’ve been in Ribadeo for five days and wanted to move on so we thought we would go ahead with the plan and departed about 8.30am. We have radar and AIS plus there aren’t many boats around, and we’ve done fog before as you know. Visibility wasn’t too good but we felt ok about it. At one point we had a blip on the radar quite close and when the object came into view it was a seagull! After about 2 hours the fog started to clear. We were only about 4 miles off the coast and once again the depth was over 100 metres. We had been motorsailing due to little wind, and then decided to try the cruising chute, but there wasn’t even enough wind for that. We tried various sail plans, and had the main sail up and down twice but nothing could make for a comfortable ride, so we just motored with the mainsail up in the end with the swell behind us.

Stranded starfish on the marina steps this morning

A foggy start

Split screens on the chartplotter with the radar on

The hills at Viveiro came into view after about 5 hours and it looked a beautiful scene. The anchorage we intended to stay at looked rolly so we carried on into the bay to the other anchorage where there were already three sail boats at anchor. Two of them we knew!  We decided to join them and dropped the anchor. 

Entering the ria

Here's a couple of our 'mates' already here

Hanan and Silhouette

Peaceful views across the bay

This afternoon has been very warm. We dinghy’d into the town for walkies, It was quite a jaunt down the channel to the marina and on the way back it was very bumpy. This anchorage in the bay is really lovely, the views are superb and the beach. It would be nice to spend a couple of days here especially as it costs nothing, but we may move on tomorrow anyway to start going ‘round the corner’!

We can't catch fish, but a fish caught us!

Don't get excited, it's only a lure

Keeping cool under the bimini

Dean helming the dinghy

Tuesday 10th July… HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUMMER. This morning started with a lovely phone call to Summer on her 6th Birthday before she went off to school, and she delighted in telling us all about her presents, plus asking “how did you get my card here?” 

After taking Saffy ashore on the beach, which she really enjoyed, we departed Viveiro for destination Cedeira. Once again, the swell coming from the north determined our heading. We wanted to go west but having the swell sideways on is nasty for us and for the boat, so we motored north west into it for two hours or so until it calmed down somewhat. Then we did manage to alter our heading to west and get sailing. It was a very comfortable point of sail, the sea was a fabulous dark blue, just as if someone had tipped dye in to colour it. A few dolphins passed by and it was just like looking into an aquarium it was so clear. Thankfully we didn’t have the onslaught of flies, like yesterday (that if forgot to write about). 

Viveiro and Thesee from the shore this morning

This was our heading at one point....... Florida??

All calm for now

If Saffy's happy, we're all happy

Once we reached the 8 degrees West mark we turned and made a course for Cedeira. All was fine for a while then as we approached land there was a huge unwelcoming cloud looming, that we thought was fog but ended up being on the land anyway. By now we were going with the swell which is normally fine, but it got really windy and the swell was big. It wasn’t very nice at all. A couple of miles from Cedeira the wind was up to 26 knots. We got the genoa away quickly but still had to get the main sail down before we entered the harbour. That meant turning back into the wind and sideways to swell. As it turns out all went better than expected and Dean dropped the main sail quickly and then we turned back once again onto our heading. It seemed to take ages to get into the entrance, and finally inside the bay the swell did let up. 

The horrid cloud 

Entering Cedeira

There were already numerous boats here at anchor and we found ourselves a spot and settled down for the night after taking a quick trip ashore this evening. 

Cedeira anchorage this evening

Kiddies sea slides

Tonight's spot

Wednesday 11th July…  Sometimes you hear me say “You never know what the day will bring” and today was one of those days.  Here’s the story… We had just started to dinghy ashore with Saffy this morning and hadn’t gone far at all when Dean noticed there was a woman waving frantically from a neighbouring boat. We went across to her to find out what was wrong. She was French and on the next boat along was her friend too. We had a bit of trouble communicating, but it seemed that both of their husbands had gone ashore to the beach in the secluded bay behind the anchorage and had not returned. She was obviously very distressed, and we had been the first dinghy she could flag down. We didn’t know how long they had been missing, at first we thought she said overnight.  She seemed to say that the outboard engine had broken down. We agreed to postpone our walkies and go over to take a look to see what was wrong. 

As we got around the corner and into the bay we could see two people on the beach, but as we neared the shore the waves were breaking and it looked like it was going to be an awkward landing. The men were waving their arms and started walking towards where we were coming in. All of a sudden a big wave broke and completely drenched us and the dog, leaving at least two inches of water floating around in the bottom of the dinghy. Fortunately the outboard motor was still working, and at least the wave washed us up closer to the beach and Dean could get out. Everything was soaked, even inside the backpack which was sitting in the water on the floor of the dinghy. 

The two men helped us in but they didn’t speak any English and we were trying to ask them what the problem was but they didn’t understand. Dean offered to tow their dinghys back somehow but they kept saying no. Eventually we managed to work out that they didn’t actually have a problem at all, it was just that the waves were too high to try and make it back and they were waiting for the sea to calm down. We decided to head back and with a helping push (from the men up to their waists in water) we got across the breakers and were able to start the outboard motor and head back. The two wives were waiting for news and were so relieved when we reported their husbands were OK but just waiting for the sea to calm down. Even another nearby boat was worried and waiting to hear what the news was.

We went straight back to Thesee as all our clothes were completely drenched and Saffy was too, so we thought we may as well give her a wash and shampoo, then got ourselves dried off. After about an hour we saw the men coming back and then half an hour later they came across to thank us and gave us two bottles of wine. We then found out that they had been missing for over 3 hours so that’s why the wives were obviously concerned. Their outboard engine was indeed dodgy and they couldn't even get it started when they left our boat, so we think that's what the wives had been thinking (if you get what i mean). Strangely enough one of their boats is a very distinctive turquoise colour and infact we recognised it from about a month ago when we were anchored near to it in Anse de Pen-Hir near Brest. 

Our wet clothes piled up on the floor, Dean trying to dry off

Saffy after the adventure and bath.... she said 'she didn't sign up for this'

So we think we deserve to change our name from The Three Sailors to The Three Rescueteers.  This afternoon we did finally get Saffy on a walkies and we went into the town as always. Bought a bit of shopping and had a quick look around. A small boat has come into the bay today and we’ve found out it came all across Biscay straight from Brest. Wow, four days in a small boat in the swell, that takes some going. We’re hoping to move on tomorrow to the A Coruna area.

Lovely gardens again in town

Thursday 12th July…  This is our 5th free night in a row! How good is that?  Our track today after leaving Cedeira was south west for about 5 hours to a place called Ares. It’s in the Ria de Betanzos. It’s quite a large ria and also has the towns of Sada and A Coruna across on the south shore. We are anchored in the bay just east of Ares. 

We motorsailed almost all of the way, and it was a bit chilly so we had to wear long trousers! However, after we anchored about 3pm everything warmed up and we were happy to feel the heat. This seems like a great spot, the boat isn’t moving about too much considering we’re in a bay so we’re happy. About 6pm another boat we know came into the bay and anchored near us. They have two dogs on board and after dinner we dinghy’d over to them to say hello and one of their dogs jumped straight into our dinghy. That was a bit of a shock for Saffy dog.

It’s a bit of a jaunt to get ashore but we couldn’t get any closer in because of the depth. We needed to anchor in 6.5 metres of water as the tide will drop 3.5m at low water tonight, that leaves us with the 3 metre clearance we give ourselves. Our keel is 1.8 metres and we like to have about a metre spare.  However we did go ashore for a quick walk about. 

 Beautiful houses on the shore at our anchorage

I'll have this one please

Grapevines in the town

.... and the nearby marina should we need it

We will be spending about a week in this area as Dean has some replacement parts being delivered to A Coruna marina next week. The weather is calming over the next few days so we might just keep on anchoring… well why not?  Anyway, it looks really nice here.

Friday 13th July…  Waking up this morning was one of those days we’ve been dreaming of.  Lying there looking up at the blue sky through the open hatch, a warm breeze and a calm anchorage in a beautiful bay. We sat outside to eat breakfast then got ready and went ashore. It was half tide and there was a fair amount of weed about where we landed on the ‘doggy friendly’ beach. 

It was a nice stroll along the front with the café’s just opening and a mere handful of people about. A short stop for tomatoes and butter, then a walk about round the little seafront park. We noticed the lamp-posts were unusual and  the dustbins were even more-so. On the way back we stopped at a Chinese Bazaar and they sold just about every knick-knack you could think of. We bought 10 poo bag rolls, a sieve, butane gas, anti-mosquito plug in, and  a bread tin, all this for 12 euros! Then it was a stop for coffee at a beachside café, and to get the wifi code. We have a wifi booster on the boat and we can usually get reception from quite a distance, meaning we can use the café wifi instead of 4G. By the time we got back to the dinghy the tide was right out and we had to walk through some mud and weed to get the dinghy back into the water. It wasn’t very pleasant at all especially bare-footed and Linda likes to see what she’s treading on!

How's this for a balcony?

 In the park

Time for a selfie

The lamp-posts

....and the bins

...and the cappuccino....yum

The shopping

We didn’t arrive back on Thesee until gone mid-day. Linda’s phone has been playing up since our little rescue episode two days ago when it got slightly wet in the backpack. It wouldn’t charge and kept saying moisture was detected in the charge point, so we’ve been trying to dry it out. It said on the internet to try and suck the moisture out with a vacuum, so we used the dinghy pump in reverse, and thankfully it has seemed to work a treat. The phone now fully charged and working. 

There is now 5 boats here at anchor with us, including a catamaran we think from the Channel Islands, and a lovely sleek looking boat with a big Dutch flag. We’ve done a bit of research on an anchorage in the next bay but it looks a bit too shallow for us, also it’s spring tides which makes it worse, so we’ve decided to head across to the marina at Sada tomorrow instead. The sun has shone all day long, it’s been one of the best days so far. 

Tonight's sunset

Saturday 14th July…  A quick hour across the bay took us to Sada, where we got a berth at Club Nautico. This marina is part of the Asnauga group where we get a 15% discount on berthing. At the local rigging shop we tried to get two new lines made up for the lazy bag but it’s proving difficult. Also the camping-gaz situation hasn’t improved, they can only offer you something called Butsir gas, but  these bottles are only exchangeable in Spain so you’re stuck with it outside the country. 

It was a pleasant afternoon, and Dean found out there was a festival going on today. Fancy that, our second festival in a couple of weeks. We seem to be in the right place at the right time, or maybe it's just that there are a lot of festivals! We think it was all about giving thanks to the sea, and at 7pm there was a maritime procession and all the local boats gathered and went out into the bay to throw flowers. If we'd had more notice we could have put our flags out again. An hour later they were all back and everyone got together along the promenade to eat sardines, but not us no thankyou.

Not a bad view from our pontoon

One of the decorated boats getting ready for the procession

Here's another

Off they go

Sunday 15th July…  It’s been cloudy all day today so the weather forecast was correct. A stroll southwards along the promenade this morning was followed by Dean working his socks off scrubbing the decks and washing the hull. Yesterday he scrubbed the growth from the starboard side, he said it was difficult to get off. He reckons the growth needs scrubbing at least once a month. Tomorrow we will turn the boat around so he can scrub the other side. It’s been a quiet day in the marina after all the festivities last night. Dean said the music went on until 4am but Linda heard nothing. Oh the joys of hearing loss! Linda made cookies and studied the next ports of call. 

We came across this unusual Chinese looking building on the seafront

We are all well and the mosquito bites have slowed, at least for a while. The boat batteries have had a good charge, and we are all psyched up for a move tomorrow, but it won’t be far, still in the bay area. There’s not much to see here in Sada, in fact it’s a little disappointing. Still, we’re glad we came to have a look.  Maybe Dean will be up for a game of scrabble tonight?

Monday 16th July…  It took us ages to find the harbourmaster this morning to pay our dues. This place is getting on our nerves a little. The showers don’t even open until around midday. We turned Thesee around and whilst Dean scrubbed the starboard hull, Linda went shopping at the nearby Carrefour. Then about 1pm we were all done and ready to leave. We wanted to get fuel but there was a boat stuck on the fuel berth….great.  It was low water and at our pontoon we only had 2.1 metres, that after harbie told us there was 4 metres. We edged our way out anyway and nothing went wrong. 

So we headed off to an anchorage at Ensenada de Mera just on the opposite side of the bay to A Coruna. It was a very pleasant afternoon and the sea was fairly calm. When we dinghy’d ashore it was getting on for high water and the slipway had waves crashing up against it. Oh no, not again! We did a quick about turn and headed instead to the northern end of the beach where we found it much calmer to get ashore. 

Its 9pm now and still quite rolly, so we won’t be getting much sleep tonight I expect. Tomorrow we’re going across the bay to spend a couple of nights in the main marina as Dean is expecting a parts delivery. 

Lovely surroundings here at the anchorage in Mera

Tonight's spot in the bay

Dean and Saffy checking out the beach walkway

Tuesday 17th July… Before we left the anchorage this morning we took a ride ashore and a lovely walk along the seafront, finding a nature park at the end of the bay. Along the promenade we passed a lady walking her two dogs and a parrot! 

We had just got back to the boat when a small home-made looking catamaran anchored near to us and asked Dean if he would take him ashore in the dinghy. Of course he obliged but told him he wasn’t waiting around to bring him back. No more big dinghy favours after last week's episode thank you!

Our lone dinghy on the beach

This little cutie is definately NOT an ugly duckling

We found a lake in the park

 Back at the lovely beach

Pretty Polly

 

Kids summer club canoeing

Late morning we skipped across the bay to the town of A Coruna… finally. We chose the city centre marina because we get 25% Cruising Association discount. Once settled in we got the bikes out and rode through town to try and get some new lazy lines made up. It’s ridiculous, all the shops close from 1pm to 4pm, and so it was closed when we arrived. We carried on cycling to another marina (getting lost along the way because we didn’t have a map because the Tourist Information Bureau was closed for lunch… surprise surprise) where we believed we could get the job done, but after waiting around for an hour we were told they couldn’t do it. We had a coffee and then cycled back to the original shop who by now had opened. They could do the job but it would take an hour or so. We agreed and went to sit in a nice nearby city centre park. Twiddling our thumbs Dean decided to go off and try to find us ice cream. He hadn’t been gone long when he returned empty handed. But he was excited because he had  found a shop with ‘real’ campingaz and they also sold vacuum packing bags… Double Whammy!! 

So off we all went  to purchase the above items, things were definitely looking up. Back at the rope shop they hadn’t finished the job and so we went to get ice cream. It was about another hour before they had finished the lazy lines, but we didn’t mind too much, we just wanted the job done. We didn’t get back to the boat until 7.30pm to find the boats in the marina rocking about all over the place. Apparantly it’s the norm here. To be honest it’s far worse than last night’s anchorage. Don’t know if we will be able to put up with it for three days. 

Wednesday 18th July… Ooh what a fabulous sight when we got up this morning….. a huge P&O cruise ship sitting virtually nextdoor. And, it was only British, and, it was only ‘Brittania!  This ship is amazing, 15 passenger decks, all outside cabins with balconies.

So we took a bike ride out along the seafront, past the fort and other marina, along the very long breakwater and back, through the old town, and into the main square where we stopped for coffee break. We would have eaten but the menu was only in Spanish and when we translated it, first on the menu was Octopus sandwich so we thought better of it. Obviously the town was full of cruise ship passengers talking English, and we had a chat to a couple. They told us the ship itinerary was Southampton, Guernsey, A Coruna, Santander, La Rochelle, Southampton. 

Wow, that's something to wake up to

Brits are in town

This morning's cycle ride

Port Control along the breakwater

Convent of Santa Domingo with a skewiff tower

The old town

 in Main Square now

Cappuccino and Espresso Doble

Early afternoon the sun came out and it was lovely again. We took advantage of the absence of swell and Linda hoisted Dean up the mast to fit the new lazy lines and oil the main sheet track. It seems calm here at low water and bouncy bouncy at high water. When the shops re-opened at 4.30pm Dean cycled to the Chandlery shop again to get some mosquito netting for the little hatches, a collapsible bucket, and some dynema for making more soft shackles. He also collected one of the packages we’ve been waiting for as it arrived at the marina this afternoon. 

Brittania sounded its departure at 5pm with a few blasts on the horn, then magically slipped away from the dock and out to sea. It's daft, but i miss having it here. It was such a great view and now the view to the south is dockyards again. 

Bye Bye Britannia

Our new lazy lines, should make dropping the sail easier

...and a happy Dean with his new bottle of Campingaz

This evening we had a walk with Saffy along the seafront again, then past the bars and restaurants which were very busy. We found out that A Coruna is nicknamed the Crystal City because of all the windowed balconies along the Avenida de la Marina.

Thursday 19th July... Dean's other mail that he's been waiting for arrived late morning thankfully. That's all jobs here completed. So we finished off our A Coruna visit with a bicycle ride to the Tower of Hercules, situated up on the headland. We think we're becoming accustomed to bike riding now as we've done three days of it here and we don't have bum ache this time. We saw some sights along the way and then cut back through the main part of town stopping off for coffee. 

Tin Octopus

Fancy streetlighting

Bit cool today for outdoor swimming pools

Don't know who this is but he's guarding the Tower

So we've been to the Tower of Hercules

Surfboard Fountain near the beach

We're going to be leaving here early tomorrow morning, setting sail for the next hop down to Camarinas. Some of the boats went today, and we think there will be some others with us tomorrow too. It's about a ten hour journey and all being well we are hoping to do it in one go, otherwise we have a Plan B up our sleeves. 

This is the last blog post entitled Galicia - Rias Altas. 

The next post will be called Camarinas to the Rias Baixas.