Accomplice
Tue 10 Sep 2019 21:20
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SV Accomplice Blog week 5 4/9/19 to 11/9/19
Oh yay, our moment came to leave behind A Coruna. A chink in the weather appeared and we decided to take it fearing that another may be some time coming.
We couldn’t really progress much but a day on the water, though motoring, would take us nearer to our destination, so good. We made our passage for the day Camarinas, a beautiful ria some 50 miles from A Coruna, on the west most corner of Spain.
On the whole we had a good stay in A Coruna, over two weeks was ample though and new places were calling. The weather was generally good, nice and warm, warm enough to lay on the beach but then on occasions chilly in the wind.
Fishermen and fisher ladies were bountiful along the harbour walls in A Coruna, it did seem a bit of a national pastime, enjoyed also by young and old. I must share an amusing moment. Old git men would spend what seemed like days and nights on end sitting on top of the harbour wall with their deck chairs and rods in their laps, in all the time we watched not one fish did we see. Enter small boy with younger brother in tow, he dangled his toy plastic rod over the edge with a piece of bread as bait. No sooner had it touched the water he caught a god almighty sea bass, too heavy for him to reel in. Dad comes reluctantly to the rescue and lands the fish by hand and duly throws it back in the water, the younger boy squealing with excitement the older boy not impressed. The older boy told not to put his rod out again by the Dad. I can only surmise what would have gone through the old gits minds!
On Saturday we went to a football match, as you do, the home team RC Deportivo v Albacete at the Raizor stadium. Turned out a so-so game but was a different diversion. Interesting to see the Spanish munching their way through bags of sunflower seeds leaving around their feet piles of shucks. A bag would probably last the whole match.
Pleased to note that Janet on our passage to Camarinas, given it at times being rolly, didn’t suffer mal de mer. Hopefully she has cracked it, mind you she did have knobs of ginger stuffed in her ears and if she could of laid her hands on ginger suppositories she would have used them willingly 😂
The highlight of the passage, after Janet not being sick, was running down a lobster pot buoy. These are like little mines set by fisherman miles out to sea, in our case 5 miles offshore and in 100m of water. Some are big orange ones and some a not so helpful small and white, of course this was the type that got us. Luckily no damage was done, but it did cause a fright as it thumped its way along under the hull. We did have a loss of speed after but we have now put this down to the buoy causing the propeller to change from overdrive to normal drive. Matthew had psyched himself up to dive under the boat to inspect the propeller for any problems.....in a water temperature of 14 degrees!! Luckily we managed to get photos with a Go-pro on the end of a pole to reassure ourselves that nothing was amiss. Janet had offered her bathing suit to Matthew to give him a good coverage against the cold, I mean a good coverage....it was either that or his pants, shame about the lost photo opportunity!!
Camarinas is a sleepy, tumbleweed, back of nowhere type of place set in stunning surroundings with views across the ria. There are the wind farms, but these somehow blend into the scenery. A nice old harbour with a handful of bars/eateries. The only architectural interest are stone sheds placed upon tall mushroom shaped pedestals, randomly found around the village. Very much like the coveted mushrooms on the Isle of Wight but taller.
Needless to say we have sampled the local beer and seafood, very tasty octopus.🐙
It has an active fishing fleet which makes for broken sleep as they return during the night. You never get to sleep fully through the night, last night we had an alarm going up for the lift boat service and the resulting noise of startled seagulls, slapping waves just by your ears and having to shut an overhead hatch to stop the water pouring onto your face as the boat pitches and yaws tipping water laying in the boom out of the end of it and through the hatch! Oh and more old gits fishing, sitting on the harbour wall in deck chairs, with rods in their laps nattering like old ladies!
Tomorrow we set off again, bound for Muros, apparently in another beautiful ria. From there we hope to then leave for Lisbon. At the moment the wind is howling, the sea slapping and slamming against the hull, boat rocking, a loose rope clanging against the mast, the fishing boats engines thudding out of the harbour, the old ladies nattering loudly.......in for a good night, I can tell!!
Andrew, Janet and Matthew
10.09.19 Camarinas, Spain