Spain: Combarro in the Ria de Pontevedra

11. September 2012 · Comments Off on Spain: Combarro in the Ria de Pontevedra · Categories: Posts

We have nick named this bay ‘The Bay of Barking Dogs’. It was a still night, with out the strong winds forecast, and the neighborhood dogs were up barking most of it. I was not used to hearing dogs barking warnings and I got in trouble from my humans for barking back at them. They are still at it today, but with the noise of the wind and the fact I am really really stoned on flea drops, I have not bothered to start barking back at them.

My humans were in search of ‘Internet’ today and we all had coffee at a cafe in the East end of town. They got a few pictures added to the blog for me, and will try tomorrow to add some more. The connection was so slow they ran out of battery power before they were done. There was a grocery shop up there too. The Spanish grocery shops seem to have lots of cheese, meat, yogurt, salad and fruit, but not a big vegetable selection. Aubergines (egg plant), peppers (green and red, but no chillies), onions, broad beans and mushrooms. Otherwise you buy canned vegetables. Most of the food is similar or cheaper in price. Sliced tinned loafed bread and female hair care products are more expensive. My humans have gotten used to the uncut rough loaves and the female just does not smell as sweet. Paprika and saffron are cheaper, but other spices are hard to find. We ran out of bay leaves before La Coruna.

The humans treated themselves to expensive pastries at a beautiful little shop in the centre of town. The window displays of Galacian delicacies is enough to make even those with out a sweet tooth drool. They had seen old local ladies come out of the shop last night with huge pastries in hand. How could they indulge in such naughty food. The size of the pastries is deceiving as they are as light and airy as spun sugar.

 

Local mussels for lunch. Then we are going to try and get the new WiFi amplifying antenna up and running(after they broke the last one when they tried to put it up). SSB is slow in the afternoon, so tonight we will get a winds forecast and see how long we are stuck here. We are starting to think we might skip the last of Spain and jump to Portugal. We love Spain and can not say enough about the friendly and helpful Spanish people. They go out of their way to make us comfortable and relaxed. We had hoped to visit the Islas Cies and Bayona, but the weather is not on our side. Neither anchorages are suitable in strong Northerlies. We have had a little chance to enjoy Spanish culture and do not wish to rush through Portugal and miss it’s culture. We have until the end of the month, then we really should be heading to Madiera and the Canary Islands.

We think from here we may do a jump to the historic town of Viana do Castelo, Portugal. Then to the new marina in the centre of Porto, then maybe anchor up at Aveiro, but definitely leave time to enjoy the city of Lisboa. Lisboa is not only the capitol of Portugal, but it is famed to be one of Europe’s cultural capitals. It does mean staying in a Marina, but now that we are ‘out of season’ places can be found in the centre of town for reduced prices.

Sorry if we appear to be rushing and missing a few things. We did need the start of the summer to get the boat ready, like that helped, and make the last bit of money. Perhaps we will see these things the next time we sail around by here again. end:

Spain: Combarro in the Ria de Pontevedra

10. September 2012 · 1 comment · Categories: Posts

The day did not start well. RAIN. Yes, we have had great weather since arriving in Spain, but it had to end. They do call this the ‘Green Coast’ because it does get more rain then the south. And that rain arrived shortly after we got back to the boat last night. And it rained all night.

All our weather forecasts come in as strength and direction of winds. We do not get a general weather synopsis. So if the forecast says the winds will be favourable we go, even if it is raining. Now I love the water, and now swimming thanks to my Uncle Steve, but I hate the rain. Leave the humans out in the cockpit in the rain, I am going below where I have a nice dry bed under the galley table.

The winds were meant to build through the day, so we left it to the afternoon to leave. Nothing to do with being lazy! But the winds were late and we motored out of the Ria in a deep misty haze. We followed the mussel beds along the shoreline until we reached the open Atlantic, where the sun broke through and we finally got some wind. Good sailing until we entered the next Ria and the winds died again. At least we know all the engine trouble is fixed.

Approaching Combarro by rounding the deeper south side of the Island

Entering the shallow waters at the end of the Ria was ‘paw biting’. The water here was very shallow with lots of buoys scattered about the anchorage. The winds were SW but were meant to change in the day to strong NE so we needed to make sure we had plenty of swinging room through the buoys for the night. We also wanted to leave out extra chain to combat the strong winds predicted for the next few days. We think we found the right spot!

Combarro from the boat on anchor

The town does not look like anything special from sea, but we were impressed when we went ashore. Don’t worry we moored our dingy on a wall instead of letting ourselves be locked out again. A long section of the sea front has been preserved as examples of traditional Galician architecture. The narrow streets are lined with pillars supporting the family homes above. The lower floors were traditionally storage for fishing nets and gear. The sea front is lined with small storage houses set on ‘Mushroom’ shaped legs that are corn and grain storage houses. All of this is preserved for the tourists. As a result there are ‘tat’ houses set every 5m as you go along. Lower levels have been converted into Tapas bars and restaurants. If you can see through all the tourist ‘rubbish’ it is quite beautiful. All the flowers hanging down from the balconies and the views through the narrow streets to the sea are wonderful.

The corn and grain storage houses

Close up of the grain houses from the boat on anchor

Note the mushroom shaped feet to deter rodents

 

We found an information centre that told us where to find an internet cafe and the best tapas are meant to be in the central square. Of course we had to check the tapas out first. The winds are meant to keep us here a few days so hopefully we will be able to down load pictures and video to the blog emails.

Spain: San Martin del Grove in the Ria de Arosa

09. September 2012 · Comments Off on Spain: San Martin del Grove in the Ria de Arosa · Categories: Posts

I know we are not where we said we were going to be, but you have to be able to change plans to suit the weather and wind on a sail boat. We have really enjoyed sailing in the Ria. The winds have been much stronger then predicted, but in the Ria, little or no waves.

We tacked our way back up the Ria and around the Isla de Arosa, hoping to anchor off the town of Cambados. But it was not to be. The town is silted in and we would have had to anchor a ways off it. Not a problem. The problem was going to be the strong winds and wavelets it was licking up. It was going to be a long very very wet ride in the dingy to get into town. We had a good look and decided to seek a more sheltered anchorage near by.

Our guide book suggested the Eastern side of the Isla Toja (Illa da Toxa) but warned it was very very shallow. That was 10 years ago the book was written and our more recent charts did not suggest that there was a safe passage in. The tide was also going down. So we decided we liked the Western side of the Island instead to do some more ‘make your own anchorage’.

Why not, it worked great last night. A few yachts swung by us last night, to have a look, but they all carried onto the Marinas at the end of the Ria. We had a pleasant and isolated anchorage off the beach to our selves. Tonight we have anchored between the main land fishing port of San Martin del Grove and the Western side of the Isla Toja just before the bridge across and after the mussel platforms. The shallows and the bridge ahead cut down on the wind and we have the lovely view of the holiday homes of the rich and famous of Spain including the private golf course on the island.

The port here is full of fishing boats, but the pier is the biggest tourist trap we have seen yet. They take coach load after coach load out into the mussel beds in glass bottomed boats. ‘And here is were all the mussels you buy come from’. All very strange. But the town is full of restaurants and cafes to cater to the tourists. We had a great walk around with lots of running on the beaches.

I have to tell you about my ‘human’s’ climbing skills. They have had a lot of practice lately. It seems that it is not always easy to find out where to tie up your dingy safely. If there are other ‘English speaking’ yachts around you, you can ask them. Other wise you have to guess. Most port have a public ramp where everyone is free to put their boats in and out of the water. Unfortunately our dingy is very large and the 15hp engine is fun, but also very heavy. It takes both my humans to lift and slide the dingy forward and backward. You have to guess how long you will be gone and how much the tide will go up or down. You also want to tie it to ‘some thing’ just in case you are wrong. Plus you do not want to be in the way.

It is better if we can find a floating pontoon(one that goes up and down with the tide) to tie onto, especially if we want to be away for a couple of hours. When we find one, we are never sure if we are aloud to moor there. If some one is around we have learned how to ask in Spanish, but unless they say si or no anything else is beyond us. We have since learned that just because a door is open when you moor up, it may well be locked when you get back. The Spanish are so lovely, they help you climb fences or barriers to try and get at your locked up dingy.

The winds are meant to shift and grow very strong tomorrow. We are going to hop to the next Ria and get trapped there for a few days. It means missing Cambados, but the next Ria, Ria de Pontevedra and the town of Combarro sound like a nice place to anchor up and get trapped at for a few days. There is always something to fix on the boat and we never get sick of tapas.

Hopefully we can find some internet and add pictures and video soon.

end:

Spain: Isla de Arosa in the Ria de Arosa

08. September 2012 · 4 comments · Categories: Posts

Well our luck is still holding, and we made it here with out incident. No fish though. We steered right into medleys of dolphins and diving birds, but still came up skunked. We have had two rods out, either side, but no luck. We have not caught anything since the Bay of Biscay.

 

 

The Ria de Arosa is very similar to ‘Up North’ in Canada. A mixture of rock and sandy shoreline. Lots of rocky islands popping up everywhere. Forested hills are set back a little further. That is where the similarity ends. 100-200m off shore are extensive wooden rafts with rope hanging from them (mussel rafts) Each raft is about 20 x20m square topped with collection equipment and boxes. The shoreline is also heavily populated all along the edge with villages, holiday resorts and fishing ports.

Being typical Brits, our cruising guide is purchased used and 10 years out of date so we found that a sea wall had been built where the anchorage on the North side of the Island used to be. That is ok. We made our own anchorage off the beach on the North East side of the new wall. Lets see if we suffer from the ‘Lemming Effect’ (see former blog if you are unfamiliar with the definition of this term). I doubt it very much. The winds are meant to be gentle and from the South West, so we should be very comfortable nestled between the beach and the mussel platforms.

We have not been to the fishing village yet. The highlight of the Ria is meant to be the village we plan to see tomorrow, Cambados. Apparently you can only anchor off a ways from the town, as it’s harbour has silted up. We are going to anchor off and explore the old town and its history. If the weather remains fair we may stay there for the night. If the winds pick up we will return to the safety of the North End of the Island again. end:

Spain: Muros in the Ria de Muros

07. September 2012 · 1 comment · Categories: Posts

Thought I better start titling my blogs after the place I am at. Last time I had some internet service I wanted to look at other peoples blogs locally and find out if there was any good places to visit. Everyone just talks about themselves and nothing about the place they are visiting. We have decided to do a synopsis of each country we visit at the end. What places we liked the best, worst and why.

So far Muros is loosing badly. The town has the Spanish balconies and multiple tiny windows with the addition of stone arches under the first floor, second floor for North Americans (The British call the first floor the ground floor and the second floor then becomes the first floor and so on). It has cafes, bakers and fruit and vegetable stands, but everything is so much more expensive. It is a touristy town, but the streets and beaches are not very clean and a bit rocky.

The Ria itself is beautiful with tree lined hills descending steeply into the sea. The anchorage is well protected and good holding even though it is the deepest we have stayed at yet at 15m. The town just does not have the laid back friendly feel of Cediera or the happy energy of La Coruna. And worst of all….it has no cheap local tapas bars.

So we will be off on a long leg out of the Ria de Muros onto the next Ria, Ria de Arosa. The pilot book offers us some better sites and historic places there. We are going to try anchoring off the Isla de Arosa for the night when we arrive. We want to sail over to the historic town of Cambados for a day visit and then try anchoring up off the holiday resort Island Isla Toja.

The weather is favorable Northerly for the next week, so we can’t hang around too much and miss the weather window to work our way South. As for me, I prefer this day sailing thing so I can run about ashore. Having the dingy hanging off the davit’s is a god send.

Calm weather sailing

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