42:45.817N 008:56.764W
Whisper
Noel Dilly
Sat 18 Aug 2012 16:20
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Thursday - 16th
August"
Today, we left Muros to sail to Portosin where we will attend the Rally's farewell dinner. As it is only about miles across the Ria to Portosin and we had all day, we took a walk around the old town and carried on to the old Sea Mill. The mill has been called "A jewel of industrial engineering", built in the second decade of the XIXth century. The increase in corn cultivation around this time and the descent of river water levels in summer gave the engineer the idea. The mill has 6 water entrances, each with its own gate and horizontal wheel which turns the grinding stones on the floor above. As well as the grinding wheels on this floor, the miller also had his home. The mill was abandon about 30 years ago following the increased use of electric mills. In 1990 it was restored only to be damaged again during a flood in 1994. It was finally completed in 1999. During our short journey across the Ria, with the wind and Atlantic swell to starboard we were once again elated to see a huge pod of dolphins swimming up the Ria from the ocean. They were a large species and intent on their mission so did not play with Whisper. As it was a rough sea it was impossible to identify them only to see that they were much larger in size than the dolphins we had seen in the Bay of Biscay. The waves were quite high but the water clear so as Whisper sank down in the trough of the waves, the dolphins were visible under the crescent of the next wave heading towards us, only to dive underneath and jump out spectacularly on the otherside. What a sight! We arrived in
Muros in 30 knots of wind, making mooring a little exciting in a small packed
marina.
Our Farewell Dinner closing the Rally started at 9pm in the Portosin Yacht Club. It was a splendid affair, lasting until gone 1.30am. It was clear from all the speeches that everyone had enjoyed themselves enormously. There was one very impromptu speech made by one of our American friends. Several speeches had been made by participants and a reply was made by one of our hosts daughters, hand clapping followed. Seeing a break in the proceedings, Jim stood up to pay a visit to the Gents, being a tall gentleman he was very noticeable and as people started clapping expecting a few words, he was somewhat obliged to proceed. He did it beautifully. Our host has a large family and the children, grandchildren, parents in law etc have also taken part in the rally making it seem as if we were part of their family. Saying good-bye was quite nostalgic, they have all made us so welcome to their country. We hope to see many of the group later on in our cruise as we continue to head south. It has been a great 10 days we have enjoyed it enormously. |