Land Ahoy!

Tillymint.fortescue
Tue 18 Aug 2009 19:32

 
Monday 17 August - Another day on the beautiful Ilas de Cies. The fog cleared and we attempted another walk and this time were rewarded with spectacular views of the mainland and the islands themselves. A large portion of the islands is dedicated to a bird sanctuary and we wondered if the Spanish word for seagull is Cies - it's not in our little phrase book so another unanswered question til we get home. As the sun sets and the hoards of humanity retreat to the ferries and anchored boats, the seagulls crowd onto the beach and reclaim the shoreline until just after breakfast when they seem to have the good sense to go elsewhere for the day.
 
You may have a passing curiosity to wonder how we are getting by with our rustic Spanish - ha well we have taken to a life of self sufficiency, that's how. We did try lunch at the beach cafe on our first day, a sunny motorway cafe sort of experience, self service and all dishes served with chips and large pools of olive oil. It wasn't 40 Euros well spent and one of those meals that you put down to experience. We cheered ourselves up with an ice cream on the way back to the beach and worked out that we could have had 16 Magnums or Cornettos for the price of our lunch and improved the nutritional content of our meal. The children were wholeheartedly in favour of this experiment but because we are boring grown-ups we have opted for meals on board ever since.
 
We had a small world experience this morning, a British yacht had arrived overnight, another Discovery boat like our own. It being the yachtie thing to do we wandered over on our way to the beach to say good morning. The yacht, Ticketeeboo, was sailed by Alan & Sue who turned out to hail from Lancashire very near to where I grew up and their children went to the same school as me. Now you couldn't have planned that!
 
Tomorrow we are off to Portugual, anchorages aren't so plentiful so we need a bit more precision as to our plan of how to slam into land. Skipper wants to set off at 4am - I expect he'll bump into the milkman being up at that time of day.

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