Baiona, Islas Cies again, Islas Ons, Combarro, Sanxenxo
Moxie - Beck Family Adventure
Mike, Denise, Asia and Aranya Beck
Wed 18 Aug 2010 16:14
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42.23.30N 008.55.45W Combarro
Baiona
Another day in Baiona - we moved out to anchor and took
the dinghy ashore. All harbours in Spain have been littered with mooring
buoys for local boats, each one has a shore line attached. Navigating
between all these little boats and tangles of semi submerged ropes to get a
dinghy ashore takes a bit of concentration. The weather forecast looks
pretty rough (thanks Dad we know!) so we will stay around here for a few days
for it to pass. Our next passage is a 12 hour sail down the Portuguese
coast with little in they way emergency bolt holes.
Rescue 2.
On our trip ashore we were beckoned to a marina pontoon
by a Dutch family, they had locked their dinghy to a marina pontoon and had
arrived back to find that it had been moved off and out to a mooring buoy.
The marina staff had obviously been unimpressed with them making free use of the
facilities and had cut the padlock to teach them a lesson. Anyway we were
able to shuttle them out to the mooring buoy and they were soon on their way
again. Lesson learnt there then, we (per usual) tied our dinghy up at the
harbour wall. Also I have discovered that I've been suffering from
flaglexia, that's where you get the Dutch and French flags confused - or the
German and Belgian ones same colours different stripe direction- oh well it's
not like the NZ one is particularly unique either guess.
We took a nice stroll around the old town although Asia
earned the nickname of 'Donkey' - (Shrek again) as it was a continuous barrage
of questions all day, even today she is still in hyperdrive. Kids
eh! We found a fishing store that spoke English so now we have the right
kit and can hopefully get a tuna or two at some stage. Oh and of course
another domestic appliance, cordless vacuum cleaner to keep on top of all this
sand that the kids drag back in their clothing every day... and a fly swat,
having been in England so long we hardly remembered what a bloody pain flies
are. I don't know where they come from but Moxie must seem a nice
refuge from the heat or something. Oh yes and new beach shoes for the kids
- Asia's strap broke within 90 minutes - but they were happily exchanged.
Cities = expense = time to move on so at 7:30pm we headed back to
Islas Cies 3 hours into a force six and two metre swell - worth it
yes. We did not want to be stuck in fog and it rolled in really
quickly last night, we'd seen it over the mainland harbours from Cies every day
but it was never a problem on the Island.
  Fog rolling into
Baiona
A barely visible Pinta.
Islas Ons
Again we chose a beach to anchor where there were no
other yachts, strange because it was offering more shelter and was away from the
tourist ferry wash. Perhaps because it was the nudist beach - again.
Oh well, we settled in and the beach was pretty empty so went ashore, had a bit
of a walk around the mostly barren looking island (grasshoppers, butterflies,
lizards, birds, gorse, thistles, seagulls and ocean views) that sums it
up. Back on the beach the girls played
with their dolls in the sand at the more deserted end of the beach. 30
minutes later around 10 women were parading around us with matching
no-kinis. The kids mentioned it in passing but it was no big deal to them
really.
  10 naked ladies beside
us.
Another Moxie at anchor shot
Another blue 473 pulled in briefly to the anchorage
it was cutter rigged, something we had considered doing too. We watched
from the beach as they set their anchor and noticed well before they
did that it was dragging. Later the blitzed past us on a close haul using
their jib versus our heavily reefed genoa. The Spanish flag indicates that
they are probably 3 tonnes lighter than us too. Did I mention the beard we
have growing underneath, um yeah OK we lost.
Combarro
Wow, we are glad we stayed around rather than
rushing off to Portugal, Combarro is a real gem and should not be missed.
The old town area is really pretty and there are even English translations on
the tourist information signs.
  Our dinghy tied up with the fishing boats and a local guy rescuing his
neglected boat
Fishermen use these cages on long poles to dredge up shellfish from below by
hand, hard work!
  The old town
  So those grain stores we saw back at Sardinero, there are loads of them
here and the are called horreos, used for storing grain, corn, potatoes and
occasionally dry cured ham and fish.
  There are several of these Crucerios around the old town. A crucifix
with Jesus facing inland and Mary facing the sea. They were placed where
witches gathered in order to Cristianise Pagan cultures. Most of the shops
in the old town sell witch dolls, broomsticks and the like.
Curiously everyone also seems to sell tropical sea shells, and loads of
things made from shells. We were sorely tempted to buy a sea shell light
shade, yeah right, but it did make us giggle.
Combarro old town is crammed with seafood restaurants so we tried our luck
after taking a quick shot of a menu down the road with English
translation.
We tried baby cuttlefish in Salsa and pimentos which are fried green
peppers. Local tradition is to slip in a chilli to catch the
unweary. It seems that I was having a very unweary day as the first two I
tried were indeed chillies. Luckily we had a plentiful supply of wine, the
bottle we had ordered turned out to be a two litre pitcher of white wine and
this came with a couple of shallow ceramic bowls. At first we were
not sure if this was finger bowls and lemon water so we sat for a while and
watched what the 'Romans' did. If I was slurring when we left I assure you
that it was because my mouth was numb from the chillies.
  Aranya trying her luck with the
peppers.
Our cheeky menu translation book Sanxenxo
We have come up to see Adam and Suzie whom we know
from Gosport. We asked about dolphins mentioning our disappointment,
Stargazer left a week after us and have seen 2 pilot whales, 2 sunfish and
dolphins twice too, we'll see something soon I hope. After several bottles
of wine enjoyed on Moxie last night Adam and Suzie returned to their boat hopped
aboard safely and were adjusting the painter length when the attachment strong
point came undone setting the dinghy adrift. Adam sobered up very quickly
I'm sure during his midnight swim in 14 degree water. A lucky escape
it was much better than finding the eye on the rope in the
morning.
  Adam and Suzie on
Stargazer
Very impressive bronze sculpture
The music blares out from the beach here all day and
all night, it is dead calm today and foggy so we are staying put. This is
a really busy tourist town the beach gets really packed, we have been to the
supermarket and picked up (and paid for this time) wifi from the marina which we
are anchored next to.
Thanks those of you that are keeping in touch, it's
nice to know these archives of ours are not disappearing into a black hole and
to allow others to join our adventure.
Spares, well all that could be dried has been stowed
away again now we just need to find a bin for 12 brand new but slightly damp and
a little sandy now too filters. Fortunately I had stowed one of each filter in a
different place so not quite all is lost. Now we just have the hassle and
expense of replacing them at some stage, mice and men is it?
Power. The good news is that it does get
in! After our visit to the marina and shore power we were fully
juiced up but reading minus 120 amp hours. I'll need to find time to move
some cables around at the shunt, it is rather shocking to see how much power we
get through though.
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