A Pobro do Caraminal 42:36.137N 8:55.838W

Pau Amma
Matthew Shaw
Tue 2 Aug 2011 19:30
We had an interesting day cruising down to Pobro - we started out with a fantastic breeze but eventually the wind from the south west headed us and the engine had to come on. Yup - wind from the south west instead of north east!! Makes a nice change and it feels more like home although we hope it's just a temporary blip.
We had some thick fog on the way and our visibility dropped just 50metres. Pretty interesting as we were homing in on the headland to Ria da Arosa and it seemed the entire Spanish fishing fleet were filing out of town.
Just a quick mention about fishing here... They take it VERY seriously. I managed a mackerel the other day but I wonder if there can be much left. Yesterday morning I woke at 4am and stayed up - I was lucky enough to watch the sunrise and about 50 fishermen in tiny boats sitting still like herons drifting slowly in the tide. As the mist cleared and revealed them I was quite taken aback. It reminded me of watching fishermen in dug out canoes on a similar sleepless morning in Cochin India looking out from the Taj Malabar.
Anyway I digress....
On the way into anchor at Pobro we had a very interesting experience with a Police launch. They circled us and stared for about 10 minutes - we carried on packing away the sails and ignored them and eventually the captain raised one hand as a "wave" and they shot off. I assume they looked us up on our AIS and decided we were low risk. For the non boaties amongst you - google AIS and you can see a list of ships and where they are - there's even an App....
Rowing.
In boats similar to Cornish "gigs" the local towns each have a boat and a team. Similar to the fishing, they take this subject VERY seriously. Tonight the local boat is in training with a rib riding by the side and the coach shouting loudly at the crew in a very animated way. Frankie is still laughing having seen the coach waving his arms and shouting and then nearly jerking himself into the sea in his latin excitement. Amazingly the crew didn't wet themselves in laughter but carried on rowing.
Our Pasta bake is cooked to perfection so that's all folks.