Martini sailing at last...
A year afloat: to the Caribbean and back
Sam and Alex Fortescue
Tue 12 Oct 2010 18:25
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42:29.157N
008:50.586W In our tour of the world along the Galician coast,
we've now reached Greece, or maybe Turkey. It's warm - hot even - and there's a
bit more of a laid back feel to things. Our anchorage last night turned out to
be a good one, although gusts up to 15knots kept us swinging all night long. Of
course, the wind deserted us once the sun came up and we found ourselves
struggling to do 5 knots with the spinnaker up. Eventually the wind dropped so
low that the spinnaker wouldn't fly any more (4 knots or less, as it
happens).
We spent the afternoon hopping from rock to rock
along the north side of the ria de Arosa. The pilot book which gives
instructions on getting from a to b glibly advised us to skim one set of rocks
in order to pass a few metres south of another set. It's all pretty exciting
stuff.
We're now anchored up off the Isla de Toxe
(pronounced Toger), which the same pilot book lazily asserts is the place where
the 'smart set' go. Naturally we had to find out for ourselves what this meant.
It appears to be the set that like going to large white hotels and picnicking on
manicured lawns. There's not another boat in sight - perhaps because you have to
navigate in through phalanxes of floating fish farms. It's very quiet, although
there are rocky islands all around us.
Tomorrow, on to the Islas Cies then to Porto the
day afterwards. We're planning the journey so that we don;t arrive in Porto with
matchsticks propping up our eyelids after a 24 hour sail, to greet Alexis and
Rita by pitching face first into our tapas. Not quite sure how to do it yet
without the long hop, but looking forward to our first 'visitors' since Belle
Ile.
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