We woke to a grey day, before we had finished preparing the boat for our sail to Muros the drizzle had set in.  As we left the sheltered marina the wind became stronger,  where was it from - on the nose! We bashed into the waves for the first part of our journey west down the Ria Arosa before heading north up the Ria Muros. Not only was it choppy but as I pulled up the mainsail the engine oil pressure light came on, closely followed by the water gauge indicating the engine was overheating.  I hurriedly pulled up the sail to the first reef point, pulled in the reefing lines only to hear the words from the cockpit "the topping lift shackle has broken".  Sure enough there was the topping lift halyard swinging in the breeze merrily wrapping itself around the back stay.  Armed with our long boat hook and having slackened and made off the topping lift I hurried back to the cockpit and fished about in the air trying to hook the recalcient dancing rope. Eventually it was captured and unraveled from the backstay.  Close inspection showed it was not broken but had just undone itself!  Now how the dickens this happened we will never know.  It is not a part of ship that is touched once it has been fixed at the beginning of the season.  The shackle is not easily done up and is even more difficult to undo and needs more than just fingers.  Just another of those unexplained boating mysteries which happen at inopportune moments. The headsail was then deployed, the engine switched off and we were close hauled, reefed and heading in the right direction at 6 knots. 

By now the drizzle had stopped but we were in fog again, not so dense, but enough to make you concentrate on what might be in front of you. The next excitement for the day was taking the shorter route between two lighthouses and their associated rocks.  What the chart did not alert one to was the fact that fishing boats find it a good place to fish, as we approached, there were two of them!  One pulling in a large net to our starboard side and the other heading towards us on our port side.  Noel stayed calm and negotiated them brilliantly, even getting a cheery 'thank you' wave from the smaller boat and he missed the beacons and the rocks too! It was certainly rough as the Atlantic swell rolled in. We had several more rocks to negotiate, thanks to Norman, they too were avoided.  Eventually we were able to bear away and headed up the Ria Muros.  The misty conditions were lifting and the wind was now behind us, as we gently rolled our way  up the ria with the Atlantic waves pushing us along.  Although reefed we were making 7 knots. 

As we approached Muros, the question was what would the engine do? We went into the harbour entrance under sail, started the engine, dropped the foresail and then the mainsail, all was well with the engine, so no need to anchor outside the harbour.  Fenders and mooring lines were quickly found as we turned into the marina entrance. Now going into an unknown marina is difficult enough without the necessity to practise 'man overboard' routines within the confines of boats and pontoons.  As we approached our berth there was much gesticulation from people on the pontoon.  I looked over my shoulder and saw that one of my hastily tied fenders had dropped off the boat. Round we went and fortunately under the eyes of an audience we managed to recover it and manoeuvre sufficiently to arrive in our berth unscathed.  Well done the skipper and thank goodness once again for our long handled boat hook!

An invitation to drinks onboard by one of our comrades boats at 7:30pm was sadly washed out.  Yes! It is pouring with rain in sunny Spain this evening.  We are now cosily back onboard surrounded by wet clothes and coats.  We could just as easily be camping in the UK!