We refueled in Bayona this morning and said goodbye to the luxury yacht club (Stephen does love his granite and marble). To be honest it was getting a little chilly in the evenings.

We had a gentle 30 mile day sail to Viana do Castelo just inside the Portuguese border. Most of the time we had about 0.5 kn of wind so we motored the whole way – apart from the approach to the river when the wind picked up to 20 kn just when we didn’t need it. To keep us amused we spent the day playing dodge the lobster pot. This involved spotting lots of tiny floating flags that could tangle your prop and make it a very bad day.

We hoped, and were rewarded with no lobster pots in the river. Instead we played dodge the kite surfer in the river. At least the lobster pots don’t move!

We went up the river and struggled to find the marina. Even when we could see masts and realised we were about 100m away we still couldn’t figure out how to get in. We realised we had to get past a fixed bridge but it was too low. We called up the marina on the VHF but couldn’t understand what they said, so we circled like vultures. Eventually we heard a beeping and realised the whole bridge, that appeared to be fixed, swung open. We darted in and were given a really thin berth (the only one left). Wandering Dragon needs to go on a diet!

The staff are really friendly and the weather is so hot it is like another country (ok it is another country but only 30nm south of Bayona in Spain). The facilities are brand new and brilliant, lots of stone floors (not quite granite but still very good). We had to change the clocks back one hour as Portugal and Spain are in different time zones.

We are going to spend a couple of days here exploring.