La Coruna to Ria de Camarinas

We set off around lunchtime, after saying goodbye to Miles’ father (thank you once again for all of your help, it was hugely appreciated), with an objective of heading south.

Our original destination was the anchorage at either Corme or Lage, however, a north-westerly swell combined with seemingly being the biggest boat in the bay by about 40ft, resulted in a change of plan, and a motor towards Camarinas.

A steady 8 knots took us the remainder of the 70 mile passage to Camarinas by about 9pm and negotiating the tricky entrance at night.  The leading lights, however, were very clear, and a rather small pontoon was our home for the night.

No time to explore what looked like a pretty fishing village, as the revered Cape Finisterre beckoned.

21^st September 09

Ria de Camerinas - Baiona

Rather sanguine conditions meant rounding the Cape under engine in a rather pleasant (if slightly anti-climatic) glassy sea.

No wind again, so we motored the 80 miles or so towards Vigo.  We had hoped to anchor by the Islas Cies in the Ria de Vigo – a stunning island with a beautiful bay, however, a recent listing as a nature reserve now forbids anchoring without a permit.  Not fancying reporting in person to pay a large fine, we motored on by to Baiona, arriving in time for  Tapas and Sangria.

22^nd September – 28^th September 09

Baiona

After having left Falmouth in somewhat of a hurry, Miles jumped on a plane back to London to catch up on the work that he had left behind, whilst I realised that a) Spain is bigger than I thought, and b) the French and Spanish clearly don’t like each other.  In the time that Miles had researched how to get to London, booked a flight, and arrived at Heathrow, I still hadn’t worked out how to get to Perpignan in less that 18 hours. Thankfully mum and dad rescued me from Barcelona airport and drove me the remainder of the way for a brief visit to Perpignan.  It was great to see them, albeit for a short time, before they kindly drove me all the way back again to Barcelona for the flight back to Vigo a couple of days later.

We stayed in Baiona for another couple of days stocking up on supplies, and trying hard to do the sorting that we never quite managed to do in Falmouth whilst our kicker was repaired by a very nice chap from the RCC, before heading off to do some Port sampling in Portgual.

28^th September 09

Baiona to Lexios (Porto)

We had a couple of hours of fantastic sailing, reminding us quite why putting up with the discomfort of living on a racing boat rather than a cruising boat is well worth it, before the wind started to die down, and the engine was back on.

Admittedly, the engine initially came on as (perhaps due to our slightly over active imaginations and a few too many films), after we convinced ourselves that not only was the boat behind following us, but that they were drugs runners intending to board our boat and hijack it (…they were acting very strangely).  Out came our stash of explosives, Falmouth coastguard was ready on speed dial, and the boat set to full steam ahead.  Luckily for us, our boat (with full sail up, and the engine going) was too fast for them, and they went off in search of another boat to hijack (or maybe just to head home for their tea).  The phone was put back down, explosives put back in the flare box, and those calls to loved ones put on hold…

We arrived at Lexios marina around 6pm, and were greeted by some very enthusiastic marina attendants, informing us that the lovely large, wide space that we had chosen was too short, and that we were to follow them.  What we hadn’t realised was that they were leading us to the narrowest, smallest part of the marina, and wanted us moor in between two of the largest boats in the marina.  Never before have I seen a marina where all of the small boats moor in the nice wide spaces by the entrance, whilst the large boats moor opposite each other in the narrowest, hardest part to get in.  We had little choice but to carry on, however, as by the time we could see where they intended us to go, we had gone too far down this narrow channel to be able to reverse out again.  Somehow, I’m still not quite sure how, Miles managed to rotate the boat in an area smaller than the boat itself (less than an inch from both the boat in front and boat behind), and moored in the smallest space physically possible (he used to do this with his car too, hmmm), to the helpful shouts of the marina attendants of – “you’re fine, straight, straight”.  Helpful tip for anyone coming to stay here - if your boat is bigger than the length of a small dinghy – anchor outside, or at the very least, moor up on the reception pontoon, and ask where they intend putting you before going in!!!

Lexios was a strange place.  It was dominated by the commercial docks, (and smell of rotting fish from the fishing fleet) and very much a satellite of Porto.  Easy though to get to Porto, and all was worth it once we made it there.