2024 Sailing Galicia

 We left you as we headed from Sada to Ares at the north of the Ria de Betanzos.  The weather was calm and hot, we swam in the sea, dried in the sun, and on Thursday, we took our dinghy ashore.  We found the small fishing town of Ares celebrating the feast of the Assumption of Mary.  The seafront was decked with market stalls, the beach heaving with sun bathers, and every restaurant seat reserved.  We ate well back on board.    We returned on Saturday to Club Nautico de Sada, our arrival hailed with the greeting “Welcome back, this is your home now”. Our ignorance of local holidays also led us to accidentally observe the feast of San Roque, a 13 th Century Majorcan priest, whilst visiting Betanzos on Sunday.    The celebrating crowds filled the narrow streets, and party boats decorated with flowers and greenery, heavily laden with food and drink, offered trips up the river.   Betanzos has many well preserved medieval streets and bu...

Shortly after 8am we said farewell to Muros, rounded Lauro and headed into the open sea, sailing sufficiently far west to miss off lying rocks and then gybing north to round Finisterre and the famously treacherous Cote de Morte with the wind behind us. The forecast was S F4 and good visibility, but as we headed north, the wind increased to F5/6 gusting F8 and the visibility dropped to 300 metres, not pleasant.   We reefed the sails and were reassured when we tracked another vessel by radar alone.   It had no AIS signal, and we identified it as a fishing boat as it appeared briefly from the mist, crossing our stern. We noted eight other sailing boats on AIS taking this opportunity to head north, and saw many of them again in the coming days. As we approached the Ria de Camarinas and Muxia, the mist lifted, and the strong southerly winds made Muxia, in the south of the Ria, the obvious choice for the night.   However, we first had to furl our sails, and discovered tha...

 We left you with a promise to say more about Muros. The resident population of ten thousand swells in summer.   Many restaurants and cafes along the sea-front, under the arches of the 14 th century hospital, and among the narrow stone alleys behind, flow out onto the pavements and town square.   This is still, however, a small fishing community   and in common with much of the coast from here northwards to Coruna, displays little wealth and some hardship.   We explored the town on foot, but we also have bikes on board, and enjoyed three little excursions. Our first outing took us south past Monte Louro to the lighthouse at Punta Quiexal.   At less than 250 metres, the hill isn’t high, but its flat slopes and twin peaks are distinctive and easily recognised, appearing, perhaps from a distance, like a couple of granite pyramids pushed into each other.   The southern tip of the peninsula, Punta Quiexal is flat and home to a lighthouse, which, in c...

 We left Cabo de Cruz via the quayside fuel station, which at Euro1.40 per litre, was popular with cars and boats alike.   We aimed to leave the Ria de Amoura and head north to Ria de Muros. Pinger to deter Orcas We’ve been watching out for Orcas, commonly mis-named “killer whales”, whilst actually the largest member of the oceanic Dolphin family, and recognisable by their black and white patterned bodies.   The males grow to 8 tons, and during the last five years there have been many reports of Orcas attacking boats around the Iberian peninsula. The typical annual pattern is they start in the spring near the straits of Gibraltar and migrate north with the blue-fin Tuna.   They frequently attack the rudders of vessels around our size, have disabled several boats, and have sunk two already this year.   No fatalities so far. There is much speculation about why they behave this way, and a lot of advice, some helpful, on how best to stay safe.   Advice...

  Cabo de Cruz is another friendly well-cared-for marina, further into ria de Arousa.    As this is set on a peninsula, we cycled around the headland and across the centre to discover an excellent restaurant in a rustic stone farm building set in gardens with a wedding marquee and vineyard.   We had a great lunch, sharing the largest plate of ribs imaginable, and a lot of fun identifying the horticultural implements, many of which I recognised from my childhood, market gardening with my grandfather.   The coastline cycle ride revealed many interesting rock formations, looking like smooth pebbles, but often several metres in diameter, weighing many tons and often balanced in piles.

  Having noticed on Friday that Combarro was preparing for a rock concert, we took Eas Mhor out into the bay and spent the night at anchor, to enjoy the music from a distance. On Saturday we headed down the ria and, and with yet another permit, anchored for lunch off the island of Ons, at the head of the ria de Pontevedra, before heading north and anchoring off Ribiera in the Ria de Arousa. We spent Sunday and Monday in the marina at Ribiera, friendly, well maintained, and just a 30 minute walk from an ancient hilltop settlement that has been re-imagined and reconstructed with a Roman amphitheatre plus buildings and structures from a much earlier age.   Set in a pine forest, the settlement has been contemporised with an extensive zip-wire route through the trees and a covered area with built in BBQs.