2019 Season The Spanish Ria's

30/04/19

Ribadeo is the first of the Ria's we will be visiting on route to A Coruna.  The forecast was for very slight swell, 7-12knts easterlies with coastal fog. 

As we left the marina entrance at 07.30am it had the makings of a bright sunny day.  We have a passage plan to sail to Aviles about 20KM from Gijon or go onto Ribadeo 65KM.

By 8.30am the sea state was slight with winds of less than 10knts certainly not enough to sail although we decided to put up the inner foresail, main and mizzen (self tacking) and motor sail for now.   Our average speed was 6knts.

At around 10.00am we had a chat with some friends in Eastbourne who were tracking our passage, they commented on the wind that their forecast was showing them, they were seeing 13knts easterlies good sailing weather.   I took a picture of our sea state - no movement on the water al all except the movement we were making ourselves.

At 12.00 we took the decision to carry onto Ribadeo as the conditions were good, although not enough wind to sail we knew we would have to motor sail the rest of the way.   Our average wind speed as F1/2.

Alan was feeling good today and we both settled into the passage which we hoped would take around 11/12 hours.   The weather was cloudy and the sea fog around the coast has not lifted. We have 37KM to run and we were averaging 6.3knts.

By 18.00 we took the decision to take all the sails down as they were not giving us any help, we have 5.8KM to run and we could see the bridge at the entrance in the distance.

We arrived in the Ria at 19.30 and as we wanted to anchor in the bay we motored towards the anchorage but were seeing depths of less than 1m at high tide, 

Alan was not comfortable to anchor so we decided to go into the Marina.   It was a nice passage compared to the passage into Gijon, and after a chat with our friend the Admiral we settled down to a chicken curry I had prepared earlier in my Mr D's.

We are going to explore Ribadeo and Castropol over the next couple of days.

Miles covered 65, 197Km covered since Bilbao 

03/05/19

This stopover was recommended to us by Bernard, you may remember from previous logs that Bernard joined us for the passage from Falmouth to Bilbao.

We departed Ribadeo rather quickly due to the silting up of the marina causing a lack of water at around 9.00am.

 It is a beautiful sunny day so far and the sea state is slight. The wind forecast is around 6knts so I doubt we will get much sailing done today.

We left Ribadero at the same time as another British Sailor in his boat Firefly, he choose to go inland and was not finding much wind there either so we settled down into the passage.

At 11.30 we had 14NM to run, the conditions were much the same although the wind had dropped to less than 2knts but we were making progress with the engine running at 12,000 RPM.

We arrived in the entrance to the bay of Viveiro at 15.00, there is an anchorage by the beach as you enter but as we knew a storm was expected to blow through on Saturday we decided that it was better to secure a good berth due to the length of OW sooner rather than later.

We tied up on the long finger pontoon, we have a great view of the Eucalyptus forests, its a very quiet pretty place, well worth the visit.

Our average speed was 5knts under engine, and we travelled 30Nm in 6 hours. 

11/05/19

Our time in Viveiro was lovely, it was a very beautiful place surrounded by Eucalyptus trees. When the wind blew across the bay the air was filled with the smell of Eucalyptus.

We moved from the Marina into the bay for our last night which gave us a chance to use the anchor, we were very surprised to see how well it held.    Bringing our anchor up is no easy feat however, we have remote controlled hydraulic winch but this does not stop the chain from locking in the gypsy from time to time. 

When this happens we have to go into the anchor locker move the chain around and then pull the link through allowing the gypsy to move freely again.   Its a long and slow procedure but it works.    

The anchor pulled up thick black gloopy mud which found its way into the anchor locker, the deck the gypsy.   It smelled horrible as well.   I enjoy anchoring but prefer sandy beds to muddy   beds any day.

We finally departed Viveiro at 8.50 local time, it was already turning into a beautiful day, the forecast is for 15 MPH winds decreasing by mid afternoon,    We knew we would have to motor/motor sail for much of the 32NM which we hoped would take around 8 hours.

By 10.00 we were able to sail with the main, mizzen and Genoa up,  we were getting slight swell of around 1.8m which is comfortable and it was a lovely  sunny day which made us both happy sailors.

We rounded the Cabo Ortega at 12.30, we were having to motor sail as wind had completely died, the Cabo Ortega is the most northerly tip of Spain and marks the exit of the Bay of Biscay!

By 15.00 the wind had returned giving us 6.5KNTs of Speed Over the Ground and we were able to sail again and with 14NM left to run we hoped it would remain that way for a few hours at least. 

Alas no so by 16.00 we had put all but the inner stay sail away and were motoring the rest of the way.   

Whilst on the way into A Coruna we were racing against another sailor, this was being tracked by the Admiral who contacted us via text which read as follows:

Admiral - I hope you win the race against Balthazar

OW - We're trying, but they are much lighter and faster than us

Admiral - What oh, Admiral Farqufart here Captain Nelson. Damn it man, British honour is at stake. 

You chase down that Balzar chappie. Send your crew up the nest and have them report directly to me on progress. Now get to it man

OW - We will catch him at the gate sir, he will tire soon he's having to tack like a goodun 

Admiral - That's the ticket Captain, Be ruthless, when you get alongside him and make sure you leave him a canon. That will slow down the portly blighter. I have a command for you put that wayward crew member up the mast without any food and drink for their insubordination. That's an order!

This is the type of conversation that goes on from time to time with the Admiral, it keeps us on our toes, but alas on this occasion Balthazar won. Penance was paid.

We arrived in A Coruna at 18.30, on a beautifully sunny evening exactly one year to the day that we should have arrived (I had a berth booked for the 11/05/18 our expected arrival date after leaving Cork). 

We were very excited to have finally made it, a real achievement for us and Ocean Waves.

31.3 NM covered in 8 hours under sail and motor sail, not too bad under the conditions we had, a very enjoyable cruise.

We are staying in A Coruna for a few days so that I can finish my Comino walk to Santiago.

14/05/19

Alan is perfecting the art of departing,   we were on a hammer head with a tight turn and shallow bank to deal with but under Alan's management OW came round and turned beautifully. 

We exited A Coruna at 08.00 expecting slight swell of around 1m and winds of 6-7 knts Easterlies.

By 10.00 we were still motoring and it was not worth putting anything up as the wind was down to less than 3knts.   We settled down to a day of motoring. The wind wasn't consistent in direction either which would have made setting a sail problematic too.

By midday we were experiencing swells of 2m every 8 seconds, there was hardly any wind, but it was sunny and the coastline was superb. Galatia has been a real treat.

By 14.00 we still had 11NM still to run, the swell had calmed down and the wind started to pick up on our beam, not enough to sail but enough to help lift the speed over the ground so we put up the main sail which increased our speed by almost a knot which was appreciated.

As we approached the bay of Cabo Villano we decided that we would go into Muxia marina instead of Camarinas.   No reason other than the Cruising Association had an discount arrangement with them. 

The swell had started to increase as we rounded the headland, we checked the area around us, noticed that there was a fishing boat going away from the bay but nothing else around so we turned head to wind and started to take the main sail down.

As we were starting to pull the last bit in I looked across the bay to check our position and noticed that the fishing boat was charging down on us. 

They were heading straight for us. I shouted whilst Alan ran for the wheel house, as I had shouted it had alerted a crew member on the fishing boat who also rushed for their wheelhouse. 

They however were not altering course, instead they blew their horn at us!

Alan managed to move OW and they passed us Starboard to  Port.  I was left clinging to the mast in a very choppy swell.   Both of us were shaken up by the encounter, the fishing vessel was on autopilot and the crew were all busy on deck with little or no regard for anyone. 

We were in neutral, head to wind and taking down a sail, I am very pleased I looked up when I did.

Muxia is a very small but pretty marina with basic facilities but very helpful friendly staff.

15/05/19

This will be our last passage in Northern Span, another milestone reached on our journey south.

We departed Muxia at 08.00, and as we rounded the breakwater we noted that the visibility was down to less than 5 Miles, which was ok but we hoped it would burn off throughout the morning. 

The forecast was for steady 10Knts gusting to 15/18 Knts. 

We had hoped to be sailing more today, but by 10.00 we were still motoring, hardly any wind to speak of and what we did have did not know which direction to blow in.   This made the sea equally confused.

We had at least a 9 hour passage so we settled down for a long motor, by midday we had rounded the cape of Finistere, another milestone for me as this is the last point on my Camino journey, it was very choppy but not uncomfortable.

The wind started to increase around 14.00, so up went the mizzen and inner stay sail, this gave us an additional 1.5knts, a very welcome lift as the journey had been relatively slow so far. 

Thankfully the wind stayed with us until about 18.00 when it seemed to forget itself.   It spun around the boat, whipping up the sea and generally making a nuisance of itself. 

We still had 10NM to run, so we left the sails up for the time being hoping that the wind would settle again but by 19.00 they were all away and Baiona was 4NM away.

We entered the marina at 20.45 and we were both very grateful to the Angle the marinaro  who helped us berth,   

We were tired, it had been a long slow day but then I guess  that's what cruising can be like at times. 

We are going  to stay here for a few days to avoid a bad weather pattern and to celebrate our 33rd wedding anniversary on dry land.

We are also looking forward to seeing Portugal next week.

18/05/19

We had been waiting for the right weather window to leave Baiona for Leixoes our first port on the Atlantic side of Portugal. 

As we left at 08.30 the sun had bathed the Spanish National Park like a spot light would on a stage.   Stunning.

We knew we would have to motor for the first part of the passage as light winds were forecast but stronger winds were expected by about 11.00am, the sea state was slight and expected to stay that way for the whole of the passage.

As we exited the bay a pod of dolphins decided to play, they stayed for about 20 mins they seemed to like the wake of the dinghy too.

By 10.30 the sea state had become a little choppy and the wind had started to increase, inner stay sail and main were up and with the additional push of the tide we were making a steady 6.3knts.    At this point we were 10km away from the Portuguese boarder.

12.15 and we cross the border, flag raising ceremony completed, wind died to nothing.   Main sail came down but we decided to keep the stay up to give us a little lift.   Sea state was flat and it was turning into a very sunny afternoon. Under motor we were maintaining 6knts.

It was at this point that we realised that we had also switched to Portuguese time, which is the same as BST, we had gained an hour.

By 13.15 Portuguese time we had 29NM to run to Leixoes, we had rung ahead to ensure that we had a berth as other sailors had informed us that it can be difficult to get a berth for the larger boats. 

We had chosen Leixoes rather than Porto due to cost of berth and it was closer to the sea, thankfully they were able to reserve us a berth and would have someone there to help us too.

The forecasted wind started to make an appearance at around 15.30 which was very welcome, it boosted our speed to an average of 7.3knts with the Genoa and mizzen sails.   We could see Leixoes in the distance.

As we entered the breakwater as 18.00 the wind and current within the port area was very strong and for those of you who read this regularly you will know that OW does not like tight spaces and has a vicious prop walk with no bow thruster, not easy when trying to berth in strong winds and current.

We decided to go for the first berth we thought we could get onto, there was a hammer head just to the port side so Alan manoeuvred towards it,  we managed to secure OW without any damage and were just about to relax when the Marinaro came down the pontoon and asked if we could move to our reserved berth.   A finger berth in the middle of the visitors pontoon.

There was no way that was happening whilst the wind was as strong, we agreed to move the next morning, apparently we had berthed on the customs pontoon, which was ok for that night as they were away for the night.

Leixoes is a commercial port that has a very sheltered marina, not pretty by any means and a little noisy at times but it is cheaper than Porto and for just 2 euros you can get a bus right outside the marina that takes you into Porto (a bus ride of 20 Mins). 

We also think that the marina staff are one of the friendliest bunch we have come across since leaving Bilbao. 

We were able to put OW onto her reserved berth the next day and as Porto was a must see place for me we settled down for a few days R&R.

Passage time 9 hours 

Miles covered 62NM

Average Motoring/Sailing - 6.3knts