Bayonna and Viana do Castelo
Freespirit
Mon 11 Sep 2006 17:33
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We left Ilas Cies bound for Bayonna relatively
early on Sunday morning (1030) and put in to the marina for diesel, water
provisions and lunch. Diesel and water were easy enough but provisions
proved too much to ask on a Sunday in Portugal. Instead, we had a
magnificent lunch in the old town - wild smoked salmon and Spanish pie.
The fishing tackle shop and chandlery both closed seconds before we got to them
so we turned our backs on Bayonna and headed for Viana do Castelo, around 5
hours south. We set off with high hopes of a brisk sail in the sunshine
only to plunge YET AGAIN into thick fog and a head wind. We are all
getting fairly ticked off with the weather now although it has, in some ways,
helped us to cover the ground under engine. The diesel bill was a timely
reminder of the distance we have had to make under the "steel sail" but poor old
Free Spirit has been treated more as a motor launch than a yacht. She has
behaved very well, chewing up the miles without a complaint but we would all
like a bit more sailing.
The fog closed in dramatically as we approached the
harbour entrance at Viana do Castelo giving us some hairy moments as the
electronic charts also seemed to team up against us and provided no details
below the 12nm range view. I had to resort to good old fashioned
navigation for a while as we crept in a found the starboard breakwater about 50
meters away before we could actually see it. As we moved into the river we
came out of the fog and motored the last 1.5nm in brilliant
sunshine.
The marina at Viana was pretty full but we were
given a berth rafted up alongside a Dutch couple who were very friendly.
The harbour master was delightful but a little stretched but he managed to
appear out of nowhere every time we looked up with another piece of helpful
advice; mostly he directed us to eat or shop in establishments that we assume
were owned and run by members of his extended family! We ignored his
recommendation to eat at the yacht club by the marina and walked into the old
town for our first meal in Portugal. Sunday night was quiet but we found a
delightful place and then retired to bed at a civilised hour with a new plan for
Monday.
We decided to spend Monday morning getting laundry
done, provisioning and getting one or two items from the chandlery/fishing
shops. I also put a litre of oil into the engine (which otherwise looked
in fabulous shape) and, I think, managed to solve a little mystery with the
shore power connection which had been bugging me for a while. We left at
1204 (having discovered to our surprise that Portugal is on the same time zone
as the UK and therefore gave us another hour of preparation time) and are en
route for Nazare, skipping Porto altogether. We expect to arrive at 0900
tomorrow and sadly Tim is leaving us there to join his wife in Seville for a few
days. The three of us will press on to Lagos and meet up with Colin there.
We are passing through a miserable cold front at the moment, with rain and
moderate visibility and very chilly air temperatures. However, the weather
forecast for the next week is excellent for our trip to the Canaries so we are
hoping for some good sailing.
Apart from the water maker, everything on board has
been well shaken down and is working very well so I am feeling pretty good about
preparations for the ARC so far.
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