42:45.821 N 08:56.771 W

All alone and the great escape,

It has been rather surreal over the last couple of days with just Norma and myself aboard. We have had to readjust to all of this extra room now that the crew have departed for good old blighty. At a fast lick I can now run from one end of our little world to the other in 2.5 seconds flat, impressive eh! It was at least 3 seconds before I got all fit on this trip. Life is normalising again and as is our normal life cycle I potter about the boat putting a line through a few items on the todo list while adding twice as many to the bottom of it. Norma  meanwhile sets forth to find interesting people and bring them back with her as prizes like a trusty cat would do with a dead mouse. We had the Dutch commercial skipper aboard as mentioned in an earlier blog and an ex electricity linesman / Navy rating from Norway popped over for a chat. The skipper from the rather swish Swan next door came aboard and said nice things about Spectra so he’s a keeper and the Swedish lads from the little red yacht came over to say goodbye as they were braving the high winds to cross the bay for a festival that was just starting in another village. Finally the German chap and his wife from the yacht that has anchored outside the harbour all week had a catch up on weather, Muxia and all things nautical.

Meanwhile the wind and rain continued to batter poor old Spectra right up to midnight on Saturday and then it went dead calm (spooky).  I set the alarm for 7am and when I got up it was still calmJ. The weather window looked good on the latest Grib file so we virtually cut our lines in our hurry to get out of Dodge. Muxia is a great little place, but 48 hours is about it, after a week I was beginning to think I had been a really naughty boy in a previous life, (shame I couldn’t remember any of the details though).  Anyway I digress, we pushed the start button all full of hope and joy, nothing! Flicked several switches and tried again, nothing! At this stage a very large and ominously dark cloud was beginning to form, it was exactly 53 feet long and 12 feet wide with its epicentre directly above Spectra’s mainmast.  A quick prayer to Neptune and a very liberal spray of WD40 behind the cockpit electrical panel and everything burst into life, including Norma and myself. What a relief, as Muxia could not provide a spare battery an engine repair man was probably going to be a stretch. So navigation lights ablaze we motor-sailed due West, out into the Atlantic with no land between us and the Americas, in order to test our metal and see what all of that ocean had in store for us. What it actually had in store was a flat calm and a rather sea sick inducing 2 meter swell, ho hum at least Muxia was behind us. Our little patch of the Atlantic was a bit like the start line of an RTYC Sunday race we had 9 yachts, in sight at one point all scurrying on to their next ports of call after being holed up for a week. The main difference from a Sunday morning race was that with 90 horses throbbing away in the engine room and not a single IRC handicapper in sight, this was one race Spectra and I could win. Norma then told me it was breakfast time and I had to slow down so I let the other yachts win just this once.

With the problems starting the engine a re-plan was in order. The original idea was to anchor up in the Ria de Muros for a couple of nights and then move on. I really didn’t fancy risking an overnight anchor until I was confident in the engine starting up the following morning. Having said that I am pretty sure it was damp in the circuit as we had been exposed to some pretty monsoon like conditions over the last week. Anyway, we decided to go to Portosin marina instead as it has repair facilities should we need them.

A notable point of the 46 mile trip was that we passed by Cabo Finisterre the most westerly point of mainland Europe along the way. The approach to the Ria de Muros was pretty spectacular and it is a very picturesque location with Portosin tucked into the bottom right hand corner about 5 miles in. We moored up after motor sailing for 8.5 hours and typically the engine restarted 5 times on the trot. I shall however test again in the morning.

I am now sitting on the aft deck in glorious sunshine with a cold beer at my elbow updating my travails for you good people.

That’s it for now, Norma has just invited the Grizzly looking Frenchman from the yacht at the end of the pontoon over for a beer or three. I wonder why she never meets any nice young ladies on her travels?  Just bad luck I suppose.

Cabo Finisterre the most Westerly point of mainland Europe

One of our competitors in the great Muxia escape race

Entrance to Ria de Muros and Portosins Marina