Noahs Progress The pilgrims tale
Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Mon 13 Aug 2007 19:22
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30th July to 14th August
The Pilgrims Tale
After a few days sunning in Ria De Cedeira , trips
ashore to check out the local houses of refreshment , and scenic walks we
decided to move on to Sada which is about forty miles down the coast , we had
called the marina given them our details the day before we left and were looking
forward to a few days alongside to freshwater and fuel up , departed at the
crack of sparrows from the Ria , much nicer exit than our entry with a 15ft
following sea, it was flat calm with the wind just beginning to gain in strength
as the norm in these parts it will be blowing by three o/c till six o/c then dye
down , cleared the entrance set the sails off engine and sailed for the best
part of thirty miles into the Ria entrance to Sada past El Ferrol wind picked up
and so did our speed , we were clocking eight knots when a thought occurred to
me that I had better confirm our arrival to Sada marina , called only to be told
that they didn't accept boats of our draft at the marina 1.8m max !!!!! with
plan A gone to rats we called the other marinas number that Roger and Margaret
had given us , must have been our lucky day as they had an 18m slot left ,
looking at the chart it was situated in the old town of La Courinias port it
looked like one or two narrow entrances but we thought that this might be the
last time we would go alongside for a while so we would look see if we
didn't like it we would find an anchorage and re-plan our stop somewhere
else .
After sailing back up the Ria which we had
just come down we hung a left into La Courunia port approaches rounded the large
breakwater into complete calm and motored up to the entrance , saw two Spanish
gunboats parked across the entrance and thought this is going to be tight !
, a little harbour launch popped it head out of the entrance with a guy
jumping up and down and gesticulating with his arms " FOLLOW ME " , I
pointed to which side we should rig fenders ,he pointed to the Stb side Lyn was
franticly changing them all over as per usual plan for one side and sods law
says the other , we squeezed through into a maze of pontoons it was like little
Venice Lyn didn't have time to look a were we were and I was thinking how
the F*** am I going to turn around into one of these berths , anyway we carried
on around three lots of pontoon the harbour opened out and the guys were on a
long Hammerhead pontoon waiting for us , parked up in five mins flat ,
shookhands vigorously with many Gratis Signor , Gratis Signor .... the guy
look at the boat and pointed to Leprosy like varnish which doesn't
like the sun very much and ever since we have left has decided toself peel
Brazilian style much to Lyns horror as she has spent countless hrs keeping it
tip top , we mentioned the product used to
the guy and in broken English he said " French crap .... " Steve dont take the
boat to the sun " after that we both collapsed down below and had a beer and
promptly fell asleep .
Next day we awoke and had a look round , list
of thing to do , the main one was to find a new sump pump switch as the main
galley one had given up when we got to France and we have not been able to use
the galley sink properly , we had a list from the marine and went trolling La
Courunia found a ships store but it was all heavy gear nothing yachty , got a
new electric kettle as our old one had also passed away in France so we had half
of the gear we needed , went to look at what they call a fuel berth didn't like
the look of a short stone wall with 60m of black hose and no visible signs of
being able to tie up , asked again at the marina office , they said there was
another marina further down the Ria but had no details ... day one over in
La Courunia ..
Day two more success found a ships chandlers with a
really helpful girl who spoke good English , got the rest of the gear we
needed float switch , bought all two of the stock suspecting that if one
has gone the other two cant be far behind it !! found a dive store to top up my
air bottles for more bottom scrubbing .. jobs done had long lunch and siesta ...
Day three ... Sunday ... got jobs done around the
boat " Geoff I am keeping up my maintenance routines and repairs " repaired sump
pump serviced Gen set , and put new cleats to back of rear cabin tostow
dingy as it is a pain getting it out from under our bunk every stop ,, Lyn spent
most of the day scraping of the old varnish ready for the new ... sun shone
it hasn't stopped since we got to Spain so all was well with the world , come 8
o/c the fiesta started on the jetty and as darkness fell a really amazing fire
work display right over our heads , the Spanish like plenty a big bangs with
there fire works we thought Drake had come back to give the town another
shelling like he did four hundred years ago anyway that went on for
an hour , then the bands flashed up some of them sounded like south American
ones you see in the films, you know just before the firing squad senior
which includes dodge moustaches and the guy with the big belly with the bass
drum balanced on it ! No much sleep that night .
Day four , a trip to Santiago on the train , transport system here good to
trains every hour whistled us to Santiago , saw lots of people with sticks then
realised after refering to the guide book that this was shrine territory ... Oh
goody more sacred relics from the past , we had this experience some years ago
it was very Black Adderish holy relics for sale everywhere ... couldn't find JC
foot to match his toes I bought in Rockamaydor France some years ago though ,
anyway joking aside it was a really stunning sight and well worth the visit had
a great long lunch and got the train back to La Courunia ,, Lyn went back to
scratching her teak and varnish and I'm writing up the weekly ditty , moving on
in a few days further down the coast after the predicted blow goes through
tmrw ..
The Noah's
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