We spent a very pleasant weekend anchored in Ria de
Vigo. We anchored outside Cangas as Vigo Marina read in the book as being
a bit congested. Went over there in the dinghy instead and were just about
to tie up when Andrew realized he had forgotten his shoes! So we went back
to the boat without seeing Vigo! Found a wonderful anchorage called Ensenada de
Barra where it would seem all the locals go but is not in our pilot books.
However the closest beach was a Spanish version of Shell Bay!!!! It was
actually hot enough that I went for my first swim of the trip.
This morning we came south again. We had the most
fantastic display of dolphins who played in our bow wave for about 25
minutes
We got to our first stop in Portugal - Viana do
Castelo. A very pretty old town. We caught the longest (650 meters)
and steepest funicular in Portugal The Elevator de Santa Luzia. This
took us to the Temple of Sacred Heart of Jesus in Santa Luzia. The view
was panoramic. We then went up in the lift to the top of the dome- at
least I went to the top of the dome - Andrew saw the tiny spiral staircase that
you had to climb to get to the very top and decided to stay put! The view
was even more spectacular.
On Tuesday we carried on down the coast to Povoa de
Varzim. The marina there is definitely the cheapest one anywhere we have
been. The downsides were that the swell was huge - we had so many ropes on
Alice but still a rope broke and one of our big fenders burst. It was also
foggy some of the time we were there. A very loud siren went off when
there was even a hint of moisture in the air which kept everyone awake.
