We woke to a glorious morning – sunshine and the gentlest of breezes. We grabbed the rucksack and jumped into the dinghy for a row ashore. What a reward greeted us. We dragged the dinghy through mud to the slipway which took us straight into the marketplace. Leaving the shopping until later we squelched towards the old town with our eyes searching in all directions for somewhere to wash our muddy feet. They are obviously used to many visitors as information boards in three languages were dotted around. The old town was a maze of the narrowest paths and tiniest squares I have ever seen. Numerous gift shops and cafes were now opening to cater for the visitors. In a quaint little square we found a water fountain and rinsed the smelly mud from our feet. I clicked away madly on the camera.

   Back at the market I practiced my Spanish at the vegetable stall doing not too badly apart from ordering four kilos of mushrooms instead of a quarter! We then bought more local cheese and a lump of dense bread packed with large juicy raisins. The tide had gone out even further now and we decided it would be easier to pick the dinghy up and take it round the corner to a smaller slipway that was still in water. We staggered up to the market and round the corner to a very slippery slipway. Back on Brindabella the wind had died.

   By early afternoon a pretty decent breeze had built up. We weighed the anchor and set sail for the next ria. It was a cracking sail with fab scenery round to Bayona where the wind promptly died and I experienced ‘déjà vu’. Three years ago en-route to the Azores we had engine failure along the west coast. This wasn’t too bad at the time as we were flying along the lee shore with F4/5 winds. The wind then died and we were eventually towed round the rocks into the Monte Real Yacht Club. I held my breath today while Si started the engine. All was well, until that is we entered the yacht club and commenced a rather stressful mooring. I panicked somewhat to see we’d be moored stern-to with a pick up line, not a manoeuvre I’ve practiced for a long time. Si then had no steering in reverse as the hydrovane rudder had rotated and we couldn’t straighten it. We quickly turned round and went in bow-to where luckily a dock master was waiting to help with our lines. Safely moored I cooked a quick vegetable stir fry and noodles then went to bed to nurse my headache.