Rias Baixas

South Pacific Familyadventure 2008
Claes Brodin
Wed 29 Jun 2022 07:02
To reach the landscape of fjords south of Cap Finisterre (the infamous most western point of Europe) you need a good weatherwindow to pass around the infamous point and lighthouse.
Cap Finisterre frequently have violent weather (especially in wintertime) sometimes in combination with fog. The lighthouse has seen many shipwrecks as well as some big battles between the British and the French (last time during the Napoleon wars) and the coast in this area is in Galician called Costa da Morte -The coast of Death.
We departed Ria Ares in the morning and in the evening passing Cap Finisterre we had winds around 28kts with quite disturbed seas and reduced visibility.
Once having passed the peninsula circumstances improved dramatically heading for Ria Pontevedra in the Rias Baixas.
Rias Baixas has it`s own microclimate  which is mild and moist with rich vegetation,large eucalyptus forrests,rivers ending in the "rias",and of course a strong impact from the Atlantic ocean. Marine life flourish and many are the small fishingvillages living from what the sea has to offer.
Here is also the home of the Albarino grape with many vineyards producing what some experts consider to be one of the best whitevines on the planet.
Beatufil beaches are plentiful and last decades tourism in summer has exploded. Sanxenxo in Ria Pontevedra is hype and often visited by the former king Juan Carlos when participating in sailraces.
Coming into leeward of Isla Ons (one of the Islas Atlanticos protecting the "rias" from the sea) we were plowing through flat waters and dropped anchor outside Playa Silgar (between Porto Novo and Sanxenxo) at 03.30

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