Saturday July 13th to Friday July 19th Cies Islands and a week in Baiona

 


On Saturday morning we left Moana, a little bleary-eyed after “enjoying” the local music festival which had penetrated our hull until 4am.  The locals love to party! 


We sailed East towards the head off the Ria de Vigo, just to take a closer look at the mussel rafts, before sailing West to the entrance and anchoring off the northernmost of the three Cies islands that protect the ria from the Atlantic.  


The islands are part of the National park of the Atlantic islands of Galicia, and thankfully, we’d been granted a special anchoring licence by the regional government the day before. 


We dinghied ashore, tied up on the end of the ferry pontoon, and just avoided a collision.  The walk to the lighthouse crosses a bridge that joins Illa de Monteagudo with Illa de Faro.  The two are also connected by a beach and lagoon.


  The walk continues through pine woods before opening out to heathland with panoramic views from the lighthouse west into the Ria de Vigo and north to the next Rias. 


We left the islands early evening, had a cracking sail in gusty winds, and followed several local boats through a short-cut to Baiona, the “Canal de la Porta” between the mainland and a couple more small islands.  The pilot book says to only use the Canal with a large scale Spanish chart, which we didn’t have, and in retrospect, we were lucky to avoid the rocks.  

Baiona anchorage is well protected from Atlantic swell


We planned to only stay a couple of days and once again, fell in love with Baiona, which we’ve named the “St Tropez of Galicia”, or, if you prefer Salcombe, “Chelsea on the Rias.”

A quick glance at the charts will show that the two marinas and the anchorage are protected 360 degrees from Atlantic swell, and that this is historically the gateway guarding Ria de Vigo.  We spent three nights at anchor and four in the Puerto Deportivo de Baiona.


On Monday we needed a couple of routine prescription meds, and despite first visiting the wrong medical centre, and then waiting in the wrong queue, the errand from start to having meds in our hands, took under 2 hours.  The health service here works, and is covered by GHIC.  


We celebrated with an excellent seafood paella and a local dry white.  Street hawkers tried heroically to offload football shirts emblazoned Bellingham and Foden, now past their sell-by date.

On Tuesday we visited the castle of Monterreal, now a luxury Parrador hotel.  Dating from the 11th Century, this fortress came into it’s own after the discovery of the New World, when Baiona and Coruna were the only two international trading ports.  Covering 18 hectares and with 3km of walls, the Fortaleza offers views over the wild Atlantic and also the protected bay.


On Wednesday I cycled north along the coastline in the direction of Vigo, a route that takes in some of the most picturesque headlands and beaches imaginable. 


Wednesday night was music night again, and our hull rhythmically vibrated until 2.30am.  Fiesta season!

On Thursday we climbed aboard the Pinta, a replica of the first of three caravels sailed by Christopher Columbus to explore a westward route to the spice lands of the east, only to discover the Americas. 


The original landed back here on March 1st 1493, making Baiona the first place in Europe to learn of the discovery of the New World.  This replica was built to celebrate the 500th anniversary, and is kitted out as a museum.  Our impression was of the bravery of the two dozen crew, cooks and carpenters, setting off in this small ungainly vessel into uncharted seas.

Today, Friday, we plan a quiet day on the beach as tomorrow we head off early for the island of Ons that guards the entrance to the next Ria northwards, named after the city at its head, Pontevedra.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Crossing Biscay. Day 2 Sunday June 9th -> Monday.

Image
  Sunday was a day of continuing good progress, seas still lumpy, but we felt we wanted to eat as normally as possible, albeit out of bowls rather than plates, which we held onto whilst eating.     We passed Lands End at noon and Wolf Rock an hour later.   Liz was now getting into the passage, and had overcome earlier feelings of seasickness, and prepared a wonderful lunch.   Rice salad, salmon, tomatoes, and beans remaining from the previous evening’s Ox cheek casserole.  All washed down with the finest mineral water on board. As we saw Lands End disappear behind us, we studied the several alternative weather forecasts we’d downloaded before losing mobile coverage.  The forecasts all pointed the same way, that in the early hours of Monday morning we could expect stronger winds again. During my sunset watch, 9pm to midnight, the wind strengthened from 3 /4 to 5/6 , always from the direction WNW.   We gradually reefed until we had two reefs ...
Read more

A week in Coruna. Wednesday 12th to Wednesday 19th June.

Image
Having enjoyed our second breakfast on arrival, courtesy of Sam and Rose, our first day in Coruna turned out to be quite busy. Our first formality was to say hello to Lorena at the marina office.   We’d been in contact by email for several weeks, and Lorena is the lady who makes dealing with Coruna marina a simple pleasure.   She’s efficient, communicates well, and seems always to be looking for the best option for the visiting sailor.   We booked in and paid in advance for a week, and Lorena took more interest in our papers than any marina we’ve visited.   She also directed us to the police station to get our passports stamped. After showering (and skipping lunch) Sam took us on a brief tour of downtown Coruna to the police station.     We were asked to return an hour later and as sailors do, we found a bar.   The passport process couldn’t have been more straightforward, we completed one form for all four crew, an officer checked it and stamped ou...
Read more

Crossing Biscay. Farewell Portishead, Saturday June 8th.

Image
Biscay has a somewhat fearful reputation, and as the crossing from Portishead to La Coruna is almost twice the longest non-stop voyage we’ve achieved with Eas Mhor, and nearly three times the distance we’ve ever sailed as just a couple , we were glad to have Anna and Bones on board, a decade younger, and with some five times our experience, including many Atlantic crossings.  A strong, well-maintained boat, and an experienced crew were important.  And so also was the weather.  A ridge of high pressure was extending from the Azores to near Ireland and a low pressure zone sitting over Norway, which together promised settled favourable winds in the arc from West through to North for up to five days, our planned minimum journey time.    To our surprise and delight, Martin and Lyn met us as we locked out of Portishead.   It was great to be waved off by friends, and as we packed away fenders and mooring lines, not expected to be needed until Thursday, our frien...
Read more