Fai Tira Blog Saturday 11/09,

Fai Tira in Sta Uxia De Riveira  42:.85N 8:59.18W

We really enjoyed the stay in Muros. The trip to Santiago has to be one of the highlights of the journey so far, and what with the late bus trip back, it was good to know that to-days shortish trip of just 20 miles or so, meant we could indulge in a really laid back start. However what we hadn’t expected, or anticipated was more fog.

Once more the weather forecast, obtained from the web, proved inaccurate and the few hours of good sailing, we were looking forward to never materialise.

So here we were again engine, radar and AIS on, and us, scouring the horizon ( all of 50 yards in front!! )We were looking for lobster pots or anything that the electronics might have missed.

There’s only so much you can say about fog and not a lot you can do, except resign yourself to it, so that’s just what we did.

It was on with the extra layers and with the speakers blasting Day In The Life from the Beatles Sergeant Pepper, loud enough that any craft within a two mile radius would hear, we pressed onward; pursuing the surrounding wall of cotton wool that we never quite caught. The sun wasn’t totally absent though. Every now and then the skies would brighten, and this barely definable milky white shape put in an appearance. Felt like it was just teasing and letting us know what we were missing.

And that’s about how it stayed, apart for a brief period when we sailed, as before. Once again, we found ourselves, having to put up with the frustration of not being able to see the spectacular Spanish coastline.

The first glimpse of land was after about five hours as we were almost entering the Ria. A really wide entrance welcomed us and we entered on a dead flat mill pond like sea. It was round about here that Pete caught his second fish, I thought it bigger than the last one, but no, it apparently didn’t match up so back it went.

Even now the visibility wasn’t brilliant, but the good old chart plotter and a great deal of care, saw us drop anchor within a boats row of the harbour. It was now 6.30pm. We grabbed some food on board before, what we thought would b e a quick look at the town, a beer and back.

The town and its harbour seem massively into fishing with a huge fleet of large boats moored up against the quay side with, what seemed, miles of nets laid out to dry or being repaired.

The town itself looked and felt a bit strange. The Spanishness, that obviously did exist, seemed to be cloaked in a veneer of modern buildings. And it was only infrequently, as you turned a corner that, little gems, of what I think, of as proper Spain grabbed you.

It happened to us rather dramatically just as we were getting bored. Crossing a road we looked right and saw a crowd. Heard music coming from the direction of the square, and caught sight of artists performing.

As we approached, we could see a huge temporary stage, in a great setting, flanked by towering palm trees and surrounded by seating occupied by, what looked like, many generations of families. They were all watching what seemed like a performance of ballet in slow motion. It was superb. The treat continued with a succession of groups, some with live accompaniment of pipes and drums, giving portrayals of all types of traditional dance in fantastic costumes.

Needless to say we stayed till the end. Then, as we left to look for another a beer, we heard more music, rounded another corner and there was another stage. Total contrast, this was modern, with all the appropriate sound effects, massive  speakers hanging from what looked like a crane and all the lighting associated with a modern band.

Unfortunately we haven’t yet quite evolved enough to have adopted the Spanish way of waking up at midnight.

So we missed a really good Queen tribute band. How do I know they were good? Well we could hear them quite clearly from the boat. After all they were only about a mile and a half away!!!

Bye for now. 

Pete and John.