4/5 August -Portosin
Magnetic Attraction
Roger and Margaret Pratt
Fri 7 Aug 2009 20:14
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42:45.8n
8:56.7w
Yo! This is definitely the trophy port for
this voyage! I love the name and have been looking forward to visiting
this superbly-named harbour. In reality, it's a very well organised small
yacht club and marina, set in a small fishing village with few amenities.
We motored accross from Muros, in time for lunch. We were greeted and
shown to a good berth, well into the marina, facing North into the wind.
All very snug. Myrica was found a berth on the end of the pontoons, more
exposed to the N swell and the wash of the passing fishing boats. Roger
has received more plaudits on what a beautiful boat Magnetic Attraction is from
passing yotties.
Here is my trophy pic, standing in front of the
Club Nautica de Portosin sign. I've got Roger a CNP baseball cap, and each
of us a t-shirt!
 After lunch we cycled south from Portosin to the
Castro de Barona. It was about 8+ miles, so a round trip rather longer
than standard - and a lot of hills. The cycling was on the main road as
well, which was less pleasant. But the site was stupendous in terms of
situation and excavated remains and well worth a visit. We clambered over
the remains, trying to work out how the site would have worked. There was
no interpretation that we saw. The weather was fine, but from time to time
the sea missed kept rolling in, reducing visibility.
 We had promised our neighbour, Laurent, that when
we got back we would share weather forecasts with him. He was bringing a
33ft boat back to La Rochelle from Toulon, single handed, We were
flabbergasted by the basic preparations that he had - a passage chart, with no
detail; and a Bloc Marine almanac that was skimpy (to put it politely!) on
Spanish ports. He made copious notes from the UGRIB and passage weather
forecasts of wind and swell, and set off early the following morning 5th
August. The four of us caught the bus after lunch to Noia, a town
commended by all the pilots but not particularly exciting. (But then
,we;ve been spoiled by Pontevedra!) In a sense it was like Pontevedra in
that it sits at the head of the Ria and used to be the principal port until it
was silted up, and is now not accessible for fin-keeled boats. The most
exciting bit was catching the bus (2.50 euros return - the journey took 15
minutes in each direction) and observing the length and steepness of the hills
we had avoided by catching the bus instead of cycling!
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