42:46:8700N 9:03:4400W Ria Muros
Silver Bear
Ray Lawry
Mon 31 Aug 2009 16:52
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Ria de Muros has to be one of the more
spectacular and beautiful of the Spanish Ria's. We arrived last evening
from Camarinas after a very quick passage under double reefed main and
working jib (worked a treat to those of you who understand what I'm blabbering
about). We anchored in a very quiet corner off Playa de San Francisco, ideal for
an early morning swim -about 10ish- and morning on the beach. Now en-route
to Muros an old fishing village/town for a look around and try to find an
internet connection.
We have spent 3 nights in Camarinas waiting for the
tail end of Hurricaine Bill to pass over, a small place full of Spanish
youngsters driving old bangers too fast around the narrow streets whilst blaring
out dreadful music. And another thing, there were far too many dogs left to
roam the streets fouling the pavements unchecked.(editor's note 'silly old
fart' Other than that it was quite a nice place really.
On arrival we had a lovely meal at a local
restaurant and settled in for an early night. That was soon put in turmoil by
the sound of shouting and a lot of banging. The smell of acrid smoke drove me to
the conclusion I ought to investigate and it took seconds to realise the
boat immediately in front of us, about 2 meters across the pontoon from us, was
belching out smoke from the companionway and the mainsail was alight. The owner,
a man from Finland, was coughing and clutching the side of Silver Bear, whilst
others empied the contents of several fire extinguishers and the hose reel into
his boat. Fortunately we were able to move Silver Bear to a safe location to
witness the arrival of the local firefighter (singular) in a fire truck that
probably doubled as a holding tank for his daily catch! The newspapers the
following day reported that this guy had been drunk and implied that he had
deliberately set fire to the boat, thereafter booking into a hotel where he
trashed the room before catching a taxi out of the area!
The picture of Lady Gina was also taken in
Camarinas. I thought I would include it as a caption competition with first
prize being a week on Silver Bear at a surprise destination. The second
prize will be 2 weeks and the third prize an adventure as crew on the return
trip across the Atlantic in June! Rude or unkind comments will not be considered
by the judges.
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