Seaduced's Web Diary - En Route to Vigo

En Route to Vigo

Seaduced

John & Jane Craven

Sun 18 Jul 2010 08:28

We left A Corunna after a days rest and set off towards Vigo so that our crew could catch a train to Oporto in Portugal and then fly home. The first day we headed out in good weather with a bit of wind, unfortunately it was on the nose, and as we had a good way to go (about 75miles) we simply motored on. With the tide we were making about 8k over ground so the journey passed quickly if uneventfully, passing Cape Finisterre on the way. We stayed for the night in Muros, a small town on the Ria (river) Muros. The guide promised a charming old town that seemed worthy of a trip ashore from our anchorage by dinghy. The promenade area looked very busy with a fairground which was part of their local Carmen festival. We had seen the Carmen festival in A Corunna the day before which involved the statute of Carmen, or the Madonna, not sure which, being taken from the church and paraded up and down the river by boat. The town fishing fleet then take their boats to the boat with Carmen on for a blessing for a good, safe harvest for the next season. The festival in A Corunna also involved some of the noisiest fireworks I have ever heard!! The previous day despite the size of the city the festival was a bit of a let down, but in Muros they certainly knew how to enjoy themselves! Fortunately we were far enough away from the shore on our anchor that we could not hear the fair and band which was still going strong at 6am!!

The next day we set off for the remainder of the trip towards Vigo arriving in the late afternoon. This trip was slightly more eventful that the previous day. As we were sailing downwind it seemed like a good idea to try out the twistle rig which is basically a system which allows us to fly both head sails at the same time, one on each side. It is a relatively straightforward process to put it together but it does take practice and it was a while since we had attempted it. Needless to say it took 2 attempts, nearly involved at least one member of the crew going overboard, and a few rope burns as well! Once up we sailed beautifully for a couple of hours. The photos show the twin headsails and also the hard working crew!

On arrival in Vigo we realised that the Marina we were in probably did not have many boats our size visiting and space for manoeuvring was to say the least limited, however full marks to the Skipper for managing to turn the boat round in probably 56ft of space at the most! Eventually with a little assistance we moored stern to, picked up the mooring line from the water (dirty, smelly horrid thing with embedded shells to cut your hands to pieces if you're not careful) when the marinero (berthing master) decided we should move to another berth. Lance helpfully went off in the dinghy to check out the space to make sure it was a walk-ashore berth and once happy we got ready to move. Lance also got the 'numpty of the week' award for getting out of the dinghy on his return and forgetting to tie it to the jetty! Luckily it didn't go too far before this was spotted!
Later that night we left the boat to find a tapas bar for dinner and in order to improve security in the marina the marineros had padlocked the gate at the end of our pontoon so we had to 'break out', climbing up the ladder and round the fence at the top - far easier when we got back after a few drinks! The keys that I had paid €20 for earlier in the day turned out to be access passes to the carpark - not much use - rather than pontoon keys as I had thought!

Following the boys departure early on Monday morning, John and I decided to spend some time sight seeing in the town and went to the Rua de Pescaderia, a street full of fish and seafood restaurants for a very nice lunch. Tomorrow we are going to go by train to Pontevedra a town mentioned in the guidebook as having the prettiest square in Spain.