42:36.012N 08:46.176W Villagarcia

Ariel of Hamble
Jim and Valerie SHURVELL
Sun 12 Jul 2009 13:54

42:36.012N  08:46.176W    Villagarcia

 

11.07.09.

 

A beautiful sunny day was there to greet us as we awoke at anchor in ‘San Francisco’ bay.  We set sail at 10am and motorsailed for a while South along the coast and at the island of Salvora began to sail into Ria de Arosa. Just before we sailed into the Ria one solitary dolphin made two passes of Ariel, but didn’t stop to play in the bow wave. First we tried to stop at the port of Santa Eugenia de Riveira but were turned away.  It was a very small looking marina that may have been full, or couldn’t accommodate a yacht the size of Ariel. 

 

We then sailed the length of Ria de Arosa to Villagarcia a much larger town on the NW side of the Ria a distance of some 6-7 miles.  We were ale to see the vast area of the water in the Ria that is covered by ‘viveiros’ mussel farm rafts.  Most are unlit at night and so present a dangerous problem to sail in the Ria at night or poor visibility.

 

Villagarcia is a fairly large town and our opinion after an evening stroll, after dinner was that is nothing like as attractive as the many previous Northern Spanish towns that we have visited, no old historic town centre could be found. The yacht club dinner was local mussels followed by local fish, Hake or ‘Bacalo a la vizciana’, salt cod with cheese sauce washed down with Ria Baixas white wine, a very enjoyable meal.




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