We arrived safely at Corme, it was a little tight for anchoring as there were already seven other boats there when we arrived. The majority of the ria ( inlet ) is occupied by viveros which are large wooden barge like structures anchored permanently in place, they are fish farm structures of some type, perhaps for mussels I suspect.  The anchorage is a small gap between these and the rocky shore, the wind kept up f5 pretty well all night and the next morning we left I am a little ashamed to admit without stepping ashore.

So we set off for the more sheltered looking Ria de Camerinas.  We made good speed 7.5 knots and over for the whole distance.  The wind speed had been creeping up on us and when we turned to enter the Harbour the weather helm was overwhelming which required a quick scramble to reef the sails mid channel.  By the time we had fully reefed we were well in the entrance and the wind speed had increased to a steady 34 with us still steaming along at 8+  (let's just say that not everyone was enjoying the ride there for a while and airport came up in conversation).  Once through into the inlet the wind subsided a bit and the anchorage is quite vast so we had no trouble settling in here.

We have been ashore a couple of times to the beach which is very sheltered from the persistent northerlies.  I guess the fact that the whole coastline from corme to here is littered with wind turbines is a bit of a give-away to prevailing conditions really. 

If you have ever wondered what happens when the dinghy painter has been checked for length but is actually just barely long enough to reach the outboard prop and it goes overboard while you are full steam ahead then I suspect the following could occur.  Your boat will slow down rapidly, the bow will be pulled beneath the water surface, water will flood over the front, the dinghy will fill with water in seconds and if you are really lucky the prop will digest the end of the painter, you'll be free of self tethering, the outboard will cease attempting to fold the rib inside out, the bow will appear again and you'll be merrily on your way quite wet and wondering what happened.  Well that's what I recon anyway, si.

We had a text from the solicitor letting us know that there was an email with a document for us to sign and have witnessed.  The first task then to retrieve the email proved fun.  We have a wifi aerial fitted to the boat but could not find an open connection so I went ashore in the dinghy but had little success 10 pm on a Sunday night, still very light at this time.  Monday morning I popped into the yacht club and made use of the open wifi there.   Really pleased now that we invested in a printer for the boat.  So with document in hand we trouped around town trying to convince various spaniards with pointing and shaking of papers to witness a document for us, unsurprisingly we were not successful.  A few cogs were then aligned and a we headed for the yacht club seeking out a red ensign.  Rejoice the stars and stripes, we found a very helpful American woman there who was only too pleased to help out, used the wifi again and set off to find the post office.

Whilst at the yacht club we noted a German catamaran that had died out on the boat ramp to do a quick and cheap scrub off in order to ensure a speedy return to the motherland.  Lesson here is when drying out do take note of the next height of tide, this poor chap dried on a spring and the tide levels today are a little less so he is now stuck there for a week unless he can organise a crane.  Scheiße!

Post office in Spanish is correos, that wee gem would have been useful indeed.  Camarinas has not really got a town centre of any description, the various shops are scattered sporadically amongst houses so finding the correos was a challenge in itself.  When we did find it at 3:30 we   discovered that it only opens to 2:30 so that blows the plan to leave early tomorrow.  Next on our shore list is the supermarcado, siesta is apparently 2:30 to 5:00 so we are waiting it out at the local kids playground and I'm making use of the iPad, fantastical little piece of kit, very hard to use in the bright Spanish sunshine though.  I might sound like I am complaining about everything but I am not, i am just giving you an insight into our learnings.  As crazy as it sounds the difficult things seem to be the little ones that we take for granted shoreside, getting fuel, groceries or posting a letter can turn into an all day affair.

I have had to rewire the amp counter as it had not been done correctly on installation, it certainly helps (essential) in our battle to keep the batteries in good health as now we should be able to see the exact state off affairs.  I'm really pleased with the new 80 amp charger that was certainly worthwhile, even then the generator seems to be idle so with the old 40 amp one we would be there for days recharging. 

For some reason that I am yet to discover I am getting no reading from the duogen or solar panel.  The duogen is our wind driven generator that also converts to a water driven one, it's a really smart piece of kit an can generate well over 10 amps.  Alas though I cannot tell if it is working or not, the solar panel works through the same regulator and as I am getting no reading through the shunt it is a bit of a mystery where all this generated power is going to just now.  I have rewired the output to the old battery charger cables as I first suspected the wiring had bypassed the shunt but we still have no positive reading from it.  More investigation is required.  I am 20 pages into the 12 volt bible for boats now.

Ok so now we are back at the boat with a few wet groceries.  It is blowing a hooley and we got absolutely soaked on the long dinghy trip back to the boat.  It turns out that our dinghy has no bung holes to let the water out and despite going dead slow into the wind the spray came into the boat on every other wave so by the time we reached Moxie we were in a paddling pool situation and at the very end were being swamped every now and then over the back.  Tins of food and drink were now bobbing around inside the pool with us, the petrol tank was threatening to leave and we were all a bit cold and fed up.  I think airport may have been mentioned again ;-(.   I will be investigating duck bill drainers at my earliest convenience.  We do have another larger dinghy which might be better in these conditions, hope so.  Aranya suggested we should have taken the life raft as it has a spray hood.

Tomorrow the weather looks OK for rounding Cape Finisterre one of the worlds great capes and the western edge of the old world.  I guess people looked from here and pointed to where the foolhardy Columbus must have fallen off after venturing over the horizon.  Check out www.theworldisflat.com there are still some believers out there.  We will go tomorrow to sardineiro around the corner a bit from Finisterre, looks well protected from these constant northerlies and with some nice swimming beaches and a supermarket to get some dry groceries.  We might be there for a few days I suspect waiting for weather to settle again.  With any luck we will be able to get a day trip to Finisterre lighthouse. 

The sea is still very cold although the kids enjoy it until and after they are two little blue lipped jackhammers. The sun works quickly to right that issue though and these are the same kids that spent an hour swimming in a 8 degree Solent in May.