42:07.16N 8:50.35W

Friday 15th October 2010

“Quick – cut the rope Stella…” 

I felt myself being dragged backwards, and had little strength to hold on to the stern ladder for much longer before the line plucked me away from the safety of Ananda.

We had left Bayona a few hours earlier, and had just entered Portuguese waters when the problem occurred.  The area was peppered with lobster pots, and it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened and we caught a rope around the prop.  Stella was quick to put the gearbox into neutral.  But it was too late – we were held firmly by the stern in the northerly swell and a following breeze.  We dropped the sails and followed our well rehearsed procedure; me climbing into my wetsuit, donning weight belt, diver’s knife, safety rope around waist and makeshift breathing apparatus, Stellie working hard on the dinghy inflator.  With a plentiful supply of air, over I went.

Stellie’s quick action on the throttle had saved the stern gear from damage, and it was a quick job to dive under the boat to untangle and release the rope and pickup buoy from the propeller blades and shaft.  But I had neglected to cut the buoy free, and it had caught around a bight of my safety line, effectively dragging me backwards as the newly released boat surged forwards with the wind and swell. 

“Keith… what is it?”

Stellie couldn’t understand me - no surprise, as I still had the breathing pipe in my mouth.  I spat it out, and she quickly understood my predicament.  Freeing the diving knife from its holster, she cut the line around my waist with one stroke.  The buoy released me from its fierce grip and floated harmlessly astern, leaving me breathless but still holding on.

Back on board after tea and a hot shower, the learning point from this experience seemed obvious.  Before untangling the mess, always cut the boat free first!

The picturesque Galician Rias make a wonderful area for cruising.  The estuaries are wide and sheltered, with pretty bays where one can anchor against a backdrop of wooded mountains.  Add to that, the historic villages and friendly people and you can understand why we want to return someday.

 Fishing is prime here, and Ria de Arosa is one of the main mussel producing area in Europe.  The shellfish are farmed from about 3,500 vivaros - floating rafts - that are neatly moored in groups in specified areas.  When mature, the muscles are gathered by a fleet of small boats, washed on board in giant sieves, graded, and either bagged in small net sacks or paced in huge crane bags. These are then lifted ashore on pallets before being loaded onto huge refrigerated lorries, many of them French. 

Despite their number, the vivaros do not overwhelm the huge Rias and the old villages cater well for the industry, modernising where necessary.  Rather than rely on the limited space of a fishing wharf to unload catch, some have built fishing marinas – like yacht marinas, but scaled up to provide space for the larger pontoons that fishing boats need.

A bus ride takes us further inland to Santiago de Compostella.  Here, the tomb of St James provides still provides a focus for thousands of pilgrims, as it has done since the beginning of the 9^th century.  Nowadays, the pilgrims arrive by foot or bicycle, over prescribed long distances (100km walking, 200km cycling) in order to qualify for their official compostella (certificate).  Understandably, with their backpacks, canes and cockleshell necklaces, the pilgrims look tired, but the gilded shrine to St James in the 13^th century cathedral is certainly impressive.  They queue for long periods to touch the ornate statue of the saint. 

The city is larger than we imagine, and we pass a large and austere granite building.  With its barred windows, it looks like a prison but is in fact an old convent.  Designed to keep women in or men out?

Our new washing machine arrives, and is carefully placed on the pontoon by the amused delivery men, who thankfully take away the remains of the old machine (pillaged for spares). 

We don’t understand the Spanish labels and instructions, but Mr Google soon finds some English ones and we’re back in the laundry business!