La Coruna
NORDLYS
David and Annette Ridout
Mon 8 Jun 2009 17:36
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La Coruna
43:22N 008:23W
La Coruna, Galicia.
8th June 2009
Last night at 2130hrs local time we rounded the
breakwater into the harbour of La Coruna. There to meet us was the RIB of
the magnificent marina that has been built here. In fact is still being
built as all the facilities are far from complete and the grand opening is they
hope in a few days time. The staff are delightful and determined to be
helpful. We had covered 908 miles in an hour short of five and a half
days. It had to be frank been one of the hardest passages both mentally
and physically we had ever done. This sounds strange as we never had a
sustained gale and at no time had the boat been in any danger. She had
however been more thrown around and more strained than we can ever remember her
being.
As we had our 'anchor dram' we wondered if we were
becoming wimps and if we were no longer able to stand up to low temperatures and
rain plus a bit of wind. The former had been about 15 during the day and
10 to 12 during the night. The latter had been in the form of icy heavy
showers with the odd few hours of drizzle.
I always try and be truthful in this story of
our adventure and it is for this reason that I do not try to shrug off with a
stiff upper lip the last five days. All I will say is that five hours
after we got here there was apparently the father and mother of a thunderstorm
with lightening, rain and wind of over forty knots. I slept through it and
I only know of it because Annette told me in the morning. Today as we
lunched in the most delightful, family run small restaurant/pub the news on
television showed pictures of the Galician coast by Cabo Villano as I quote
'100km per hour' winds lashed the waves against the rocks. We passed just
to the north of this famous cape on our last day's run into La Coruna. It
was faintly visible through the rain. Yet again I thank the good ship
Nordlys because if it were not for her performance we would have still been out
there.
 Enjoying some lovely sailing before the next onslaught
 The wimp enjoys his breakfast this morning after a good
night's sleep.
I have the equivalent of Annette but am not allowed to put it
in.
Enough of tales of strife. Our diversion to
this Spanish city is having its good points. It is quite simply a
delightful place. The old town that is. This morning as we strolled
around we discovered a rabbit warren of lovely narrow streets, magnificent
squares and all in a well restored and clean state. We are looking forward
to more exploration tomorrow and then we hope to get on our way. It is
only just over two days sail to Camaret and another day or so on.
Thus all being well and with a bit of help from the weather gods we will be
in Lymington by the 21st June as we aimed to be.
Happy times
David
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