Camarinas, Muros and Ilas Cies
Freespirit
Sun 10 Sep 2006 15:48
 Leaving our berth (right) in La Coruna
with Real Club Nautico in background
Since La Coruna we have had very little wind, some
sun, a bit more fog (always at the vital moment whilst negotiating a narrow
channel with heavy traffic) and a lot of time spent creating or recovering from
hang-overs. Camarinas was a mere 54 nm hop with a welcoming yacht club at
the end of it. We arrived and it was apparently dead. On closer
inspection we discovered the bar and a delightful lady behind it took one look
at us and agreed to make a piella from scratch especially for us. It was very
good but judging from the impact on the crew I am thinking of using a
similar diet for the Atlantic to reduce wear and tear on the heads.
We had a very fruitful morning
having breakfast ashore and finding the local fishing shop right at
the back of the town. Using paper and pen, pigeon French and sign
language we set ourselves up for Atlantic fishing for under
€100! Very excited, we set off for Muros trailing 2 hand lines on
bungee cord off the back of the boat. The results so far have been less
than satisfactory. One lure has been taken by some enormous fish that got
away (unseen by us, of course); the other pink skuid lure has attracted a flock
of seagulls continuously for the last 3 days and proved so attractive that one
of them unfortunately got caught up in the hook and had to be freed by
Angus. Final score - Free Spirit zero, fish one hundred and eighty!
We are beginning to suspect that the Camarinas fishing shop might have been
manned by a representative of the Spanish fishing union. Whatever the
cause, more work is required if we are to live off fresh fish crossing the
Atlantic.
 Tim concentrating very hard as skipper
for the day, leaving Camarinas
Muros was a lovely little fishing
town. After several attempts to get the anchor to hold we eventually swung
peacefully in the bay and launched the dinghy to go ashore. A very
authentic looking bar and restaurant tempted us in with excellent calamari with
the first beers and then proceeded to dump on us some of the worst cooking that
we have had so far. We struggled through and wandered the back streets to
find solace in a couple of digestive aids. After nearly flagging at the
penultimate stop we found an excellent little place on the sea front and let
ourselves out after it became obvious that we were keeping the barman up
late. Surprisingly, no-one was lost over the side as we returned in the
dinghy to our anchorage.
 Muros - good place, long way back in
the dinghy
Angus was a little slow to get going the
following morning - we thought it was probably the fish. A viscious
session of swabbing the decks soon had him put to rights and we motored AGAIN
with no wind and fog to Ilas Cies. There was some sun, more unsuccessful
trawling, tuna pasta for lunch; the water maker stopped working but to
compensate for this disappointment I made bread on board for the first
time. No-one is more surprised than me at the stunning success of the
bread making skills kindly passed on to me by Simon Tuckey in Seaview last week
but it really is a revelation to be able to create fresh bread so easily.
If only we had the fish the experience would have become biblical. We had a
solitary anchorage to die for on the Ila del Norte (part of the Ilas Cies nature
reserve) and plunged in for a bracing swim in the late afternoon sunshine.
Wonderful.
 Loaf, no fishes!
Supper on board (you may have noted that we are not stinting too much on the food
and drink) and we went ashore on a beautiful sandy beach to explore. A
couple of bars, table football and pool. What more could a chap wish
for? We were not too late back and turned in for an early start to
provision and lunch in Bayonna and move down to Vienna do Castelo in the
afternoon.
 A couple of circuits round the boat
should soon shift that carbo-loading
 Alone at anchor in this bay - Ilas
Cies
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