Islas Cies
Thursdays Child
Robin & Joanna Minchin
Mon 29 Sep 2014 21:49
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42:13.244N 008:53.984W National Park Islas Cies Sadly more muttering from the skipper this morning as we woke to find an on shore breeze (which would have been PERFECT yesterday!) He allowed himself a short walk ashore to look at the natural aquarium but returned to TC in case more wind arrived. The morning however wasn't wasted as he got the watermaker working more efficiently as there was a bubble in it yesterday and it pumped but didn't make water. So the children and I walked up through the pine and eucalyptus forest to an observation point (stopping at 'fruit time' for strawberry cornettos at a campsite) and we were well rewarded with views over both the Atlantic and the Ria de Vigo / mainland Spain. South of us lay Isla de San Martin, a bird sanctuary (entry is prohibited to people) which is home to shags, cormorants, shearwaters, guillemots, gannets, razorbills, terns, storm petrels and 30,000 pairs of black backed gulls. The drop from the window ledge at the observation hut was sheer, about 400ft and ended in a boiling swirling swell breaking on rocks right beneath us. A large heron appeared as a small insect as it soared above the foamy water, gaining lift from the breaking waves and landing on rocks further out to sea. We spent ages just gazing in all directions and took lots of photos. (Harry helped me write that para). We noticed from the summit that TC had swung back to an offshore breeze, so later on, Bol was able to come ashore and climb to the top as well which was good news; no mutterings from the skipper this evening! In contrast to Sunday, we were the only yacht at anchor today and virtually the only people on the beach. The water visibility has improved to about 20ft and there was an exciting assortment of fish to snorkel among and plenty of shells to collect ~ Harry is particularly proud of one duck~dive to collect his biggest shell yet, measuring 13 cm top to bottom (see photo). The children had a dreamy time on the beach, it is large with soft white sand that is perfect for digging, they had the run of the place and after a swim we went to warm up on the rocks which had lots of rock pools full of interesting creatures. Another difficult place to leave, but we head to Bayona tomorrow and our last port of call in Spain. |
