Friday 3rd August - at Finisterre

Spellbinder
Fri 3 Aug 2007 15:52
Hope you all noticed the deliberate(?) mistake on the last report, which was from Ares and not Aviles.
We pottered across from Ares to Corunna on Monday morning, and found ourselves a berth in one of the marinas.Mondays priority, strangely enough, was laundry, as marina washing machines do not seem to be provided in Spain. Neither are self service launderettes ashore, so we finally consigned our possessions into the hands of a lady in a small laundry, who seemed to be happy to deal with our smalls,and understood by mutual incomprehension that it would be ready at noon the next day. Evening stroll and tapas near the waterfront, the whole of Corunna seemed to be out promenading and snacking.
Tuesday morning was exploration of the very historic old town, a dose of history at the museum, and a visit to the tomb of General Sir John Moore, who lost his life in covering the retreat of British troops from Corunna during the Napoleonic wars, in a lovely garden setting.Just setting off again from the boat for lunch at about 2.30 ( getting the hang of the way things are done here) when we were approached by a couple of guys from a 40 foot yacht who asked if we knew anything about boat engines. How could we resist! Turned out they were two Turks who were delivering an ex charter boat from Turkey to Holyhead, assisted by a young South African. All quite ignorant of boat engines, and they had just called in a local engineer who had told them that they needed a new water pump, which would take several days to arrive.We quickly established that it was just the water pump impeller that had failed, and they had a spare onboard, so we went ahead and fitted it together with a bit of a teach in. 3 friends for life, two good contacts near Marmaris, and one potential future crew member from S Africa later, we had them on their way by 4.30, and it still was not too late for lunch! Later ashore for the evening tapas, and an early bed around midnight.And yes, we did get the laundry back.
Wedneday morning was stocking up at the market and other domestics ahead of Eric's arrival. A little sightseeing in the afternoon and of course the evening stroll and tapas, plus fireworks and music in the town square. What a place.
Sailed on Thursday morning, on the final west going section towards Finisterre, anchoring in a lovely ria off Camarinas. Quite a blow by the afternoon, so settled for staying onboard rather than getting the dinghy out.
On again on Friday morning, another beautiful day with a good north easterly blow of force 4 or 6 which carried us swiftly along the coast to Cape Finisterre. Awesome and magnificent, and quite a momentous occasion to round the cape and come in to the bay to the east of the cape, to anchor off the small town of Finisterre. Swimming and exploring planned for the late afternoon.
Starting to see pods of dolphins some of which played in the bow wave of Spellbinder off Cape Villano and others in the anchorage at Finisterre.
The next few days will be spent exploring the rias to the south of Finisterre