17 August 2013 – at Anchor, Muros

Alarums and excursions today.  As expected, the fiesta party started at 10pm last night – until late (I didn’t look.)  This morning we went, well, early for us, 9.30am local time, to get bread and vegetables in town.  At the entrance to the bakery I was accosted by an old lady, bent over with a dowie’s hump, with plastic bags of vegetables (there was no market this morning.)  Small quantities of everything – I assume that bags were the pickings of her garden or allotment.  I’m a sucker – taking 3 small leeks and a handful of green beans.  I gave her a euro and was persuaded to increase this to 1.50; probably as much as I’d have spent in a shop.  From the bakery we went on to a grocery and bought some tomatoes and a couple of bottles of wine, including a very local bottle from Barona, on the other side of the Ria. (5.95 euros.)

We came back to the boat to put the stuff away and have a cup of coffee – when Hans and Agneta from Laya, a Swedish yacht anchored alongside us, came over.  Would we keep an eye on their boat please whilst they went ashore – they had had a fire in their inverter just, and were going ashore for electrical sundries to bypass the error.  They were in shock so we invited them aboard for coffee.  From conversation they have been very fortunate:  they are an all-electric boat; and Hans had realised immediately what was happening.  Even so, the boat was filled with fumes, and Agneta had faced the prospect of getting them both ashore without any documentation and damaged lungs, just leaving the boat to burn.  But fortunately Hans had the presence of mind to turn off the electrical supply, thus starving the fire of fuel, and had a CO2 fire extinguisher to hand to stop any spread.  We went over this evening and he told us that there is a layer of CO2 in the bilge that they will need to pump out with a vacuum cleaner.  It’s unclear whether this will be an insurance claim or not (due to Hans’ very prompt action there is not so much damage and the insurance policy has a hefty excess.)  They’re off to Vigo tomorrow for an assessment.  But it’s caused us to reflect on fire odds – 2 experiences in 3 trips to Galicia for us- and the importance of having the grab bag always to hand.

The fiesta has continued.  This morning there was a fun run, with spectators lining the route and clapping on the runners.   A local band with pipes, drums and tambourines, was playing in the organisers tent, alongside the physios and the bar.

The weather has been hot and sunny, and the fishing boats have stayed on their moorings.  In consequence we didn’t buy seafood from the market – although there were razor clams we weren’t sure of their age.   The wind filled in at about 4pm, although there was some low cloud below the mountains in the outer ria.  Most bizarre.

I’m rereading Peter Mandelson’s memoir “The Third Man.”  I’ve just got to the account of the Blair-Brown leadership fight in 1995 – gripping stuff!