Me and Spanish Wine

Having arrived in A Corunna, the next couple of days were spent just relaxing, swimming in the cold Atlantic water and enjoying the Spanish sun accelerated by the improved angle to the vertical creating a lot of heat compared to the French sun and certainly the watery English one.

After a day or so the wanderlust returned and I wanted to go and see the city of Corunna. So I hauled up the anchor and crossed the Ria towards the city.

5^th August

Into the harbour there were two marinas, the rather grand Royal Yacht Club and the standard commercial one the Port La Corunna Nautico which I selected and received another two free Passeporte Escales nights.

The fridge was failing again and so in desperation I returned to the Capitainerie to help me seek out a fridge technician. Much to my surprise I found out that an engineer could come that afternoon. Sure enough they arrived and after some pigeon discussion on my behalf they cu off the dryer/filter and brazed on a new one, they checked the pressure and fired up the fridge and much to my surprise it worked better than ever. The cost was reasonable too. Much better service than I have ever had in the UK.

I then spent a happy couple of days walking the town, its old walls and enjoying the musical culture of this pretty city. Keen to carry out more exploration before my return to France in September I decided to move on to see the other Rias as far as possible , the first destination being the Ria Camarinas a little way further South.

The forecasts in this area seem to be variable in their accuracy, the forecasted N/NW wind was absolutely on the nose with fog in the offing too.

On arrival in the Ria I was soon keen to avoid the fish factory and its associated smells and dropped anchor elsewhere further up to the head of the Ria.

MAYDAY RELAY

I was just preparing some dinner down below when I heard an enormous crunch outside of the boat and some crying and shouting. Popping my head out of the boat I could see nothing unusual around me anywhere.

Finally I realised that the noises were coming from the forest hill someway above me. I could just see the edges of a road and what appeared to be part of a car in the trees.

The shouting and the crying of children became more clear and I spotted a small outboard powered fishing boat and tried to attract their attention, however they refused to acknowledge me.

As the shouting became more insistent and the traffic was not stopping on the road above and without a pumped up tender to explore myself I decided to call in a Mayday Relay to the coastguard to see if a local police car could investigate.

Eventually I drummed up a helicopter a lifeboat and a lot of brouhaha and eventually an ambulance and a couple of police cars. After some time I received a call back from the coastguard to say that the family had been taken safely to hospital.

My first real Mayday and nothing at all to do with boats, at least it went reasonably.

8^th August

Decided to leave the mooring and head into Port de Camarinas and wander into the market. It rained in the afternoon and so I did a spot of logistics planning for Sept and Oct, my teaching commitments in France. Lets hear it for Rome2 Rio what a great app that is I wholly recommend it.

In the evening the Redonnites headed into town for Tapas and a great evening of laughter and joking about.

We agreed to plan a rafted up curry night for the following evening and rafted up in the Ria to have a very convivial evening. Three anchors were laid out and the boats rafted together. Unfortunately during the night the two boats with trip lines managed to wind them around their own keels and tripped the anchors with the result that in the morning when I slipped anchor to move off, the rest of the raft started drifting backwards.  Jittery John and Adam had to unwind the trip lines from the propellers and the rudder which they eventually did well done.

This story has given Adam something to dine out on for his CA talks since!

On the way out of the Ria I was met by a host of dolphins accompanying me or more likely on a fishing trip. Either way it was very special

10^th August

Ria de Muros – arrived at the port which was half full and moored up to be confronted by the Harbour Master asking me what on earth I was doing! He was animated and quite cross that I had not called in on approach and for mooring assistance.

I replied slightly tongue in cheek that it was I though lunch time and I didn’t want to interrupt his lunch. I told him smilingly that he was clearly grumpy enough already and we hit it off immediately.

This was my introduction to the port Marinero who was called Pedro and we became good acquaintances even taking coffee together in the local taverna. 

Muros

Pedro enjoyed cultivating his brusque persona and even more enjoyed the humour of some of us Brits with his excellent English. He would get particularly het up when talking understandably of the sailors rowing into the marina from their moorings outside and demanding to be let out of the locked gates. Most of these visitors expected to be accommodated for free which I agree with him, is entirely unreasonable.

12^th August to Portosin

I travelled to Portosin in the fog which was only 6 miles and spent a couple of days in the town and enjoyed the very fine yacht club at the Real Club Nautico where John and Debs and I enjoyed a very fine lunch in the dining room. The team at the RCNC are the most welcoming of any club I have ever visited and could not do enough to help us all in perfect English with a CA discount too

14^th August into the Ria de Xufre off the island beach

15^th August to Camarinal Marina for the festival de Carmen

This was an interesting event with the intimation of something happening as every few minutes a fishermen was letting off rocket bangers every few minutes. Never have I heard such continuously loud percussions it was extraordinary.

In the evening and in the rain the fishing boats formed up for their procession out of the harbour, on the lead boat was the clergy in full get up and with a statue of Carmen on board along with tens of happy supporters burdening the boat heavily and way beyond her designed water line.

16^th August to Vila Garcia (Temporarily)

I wanted to get myself a local Sim card for my phone as the UK supplier had caught up with my extended absence and was willing to charge me for roaming from this point on. So I went to the biggest local town and discovered Armageddon. There were thousands of young people who shared the benefit of being trashed by drink, perhaps heavier substances and all sharing the common trait of being soaked through. Welcome to the water festival said the marineiro.

I tried to navigate the hordes into the town centre, bought myself a Sim card and within 50 minutes I was back at the marina giving my apologies to the marineiro and as quick as I can departing for somewhere more sane. And certainly more quiet.

I decided to head for Rianxo on the charts marked as a marina and just across the bay. I should have taken the time to check the CA Captain’s Mate APP which described Rianxo as a functioning fishing port with a few local resident pontoons for local boats.  The Marineiro was surprised to be called in my poor Spanish and wandered out eventually and directed me to a pontoon which was heavily downwind on approach standing ready to take my lines.

Rianxo

Warning – when someone wants to take your lines be very careful

I stupidly not only followed his instruction but let him take a line onto the pontoon which he did but his line tying was so poor that my bow again hit the pontoon walkway. Not only that the stern was being blown out and I had to leave the wheel and throw an emergency line around the pontoon cleat to wind the stern in.

NOTE TO SELF – TWO BOW IMPACTS IN TWO DIFFERENT COUNTRIES CAUSED BY HELP NOT HELPING! - FOR GODS SAKE MAN – LEARN YOUR LESSON!

I wandered into town which was shut as it was a bank holiday and so just staying overnight I resolved to write an update on CA and not to return again.

I needed to attend a teleconference with my solicitor and my Sim had worked only for 24 hours so I returned to Vila Garcia a town now incredibly entirely cleaned and hoovered after the purgatory of the previous debauchery. I stayed long enough for a quick call and then headed back out.

17^th August

To Combarro Marina which is a very well established marina located next to a picturesque town with many very pretty fishing cottages situated on narrow winding streets.

On the Saturday I went to visit Bruce and Deirdre in Sanxenxo town via taxi which cost Eu20 each way and managed a lovely day helping out Bruce in fixing his windlass and lunching in the town which made my eyes water seeing the density of sun bathing people on the beach. It looked like an Emperor penguin farm in the sunshine.

I managed to buy a replacement shower sump and pump in the local chandlery for a reasonable price and when I got back to the boat I fitted it quickly so showers on board again for me!

Now I began to like Combarro very much but what I had not bargained for was the holiday spirit of the tourists. I had been allocated a spot near the harbour office and the showers which seemed very convenient. What I found out was that the mooring was also 10 feet away from the night life.

Now I don’t mind a good party, but this feature was one which I am never going to forget. The music started -  I kid you not at 15 minutes after midnight and continued until almost 5 am. My ear plugs worked a little but with the hull vibrating with the amplification it was pretty hard to sleep. The first night was a complete shock and the second I was slightly more prepared I even stayed up until 2 am to watch the band and drink late night Gin and tonics by the bucket. Either because or despite of the gin still could not stay up until the end of the set though – what a light weight I turned out to be.

Of course the counter side to this late night shenanigans is that nobody in the holiday industry gets up until after midday.

Ole!