Because the gale was expected, we had a late start, although by 11am the wind was up to about 35 - 40 knots. The forecast indicates that the gale won't blow itself out until late tonight so I expect that we will try to make our way back to the berth tomorrow.

 

But in the interim we are enjoying being back in the UK.  We have radio on tap! although not DAB here. We had the TV on last night.  Roger has used the Vodafone dongle to access 3G wifi, now f.o.c - I have been able to do the same using my mobile attached to the computer.  Once Roger was on line we were very pleased to be skyped by John Kellet, who has been offline for a long while (we had been worried) because his internet provider had gone bust.  Then later on we had a text from Richard and Wendy (also gale bound in the ria de Vigo) so were able to have a good chat here.  I too have been able to touch base with cronies, prior to getting back to the hurly-burly.

 

There are a number of boats in the anchorage sitting it out as well.  One, Moonstone of Hamble (an HR, Richard!) has a small stabilising sail to try to stop it yawing around in the gusts.  But it's not working as well as the mizzen sail of another boat - although it seems to be flogging and doing damage  All very interesting!