Friday - 22 June 2018

The wind that had been forecast howled all night and we were glad that we had found a safe spot in the marina to sit it out. In reality it was not as severe as some of the blows we experienced last year, but it could have been unpleasant if we had been somewhere exposed. The day dawned brighter than yesterday, and the wind died considerably as we breakfasted on deck.  While we ate, we were entertained by a local fisherman standing on the back of his boat in the marina, using a rod to fish. He tried a couple of other places and returned to try his luck from his boat again. He had just cast his line out beyond the end of the pontoons, when another boat came past, close in, and I think, cut his line with its propeller. He reeled in the line and was then seen tying new hooks etc on the end. The local boats are quite shameless about passing close to the moored boats in the marina, and making them rock about in their wash.

We continued our exploration of Camarinas after breakfast, and were delighted to locate  a fish market. It was inevitable that there would be one here, but we had not spotted it before. It was smallish, but the various local fishermen seemed to have a stall to sell to the public, so we lashed out about £1.20 on sardines that we destined to be our lunch. We have been struggling to find a bakery, but having resorted to the small supermarket, found that the bread was still warm, so we concluded that the bakery must just supply them and the cafes, rather than having a shopfront to sell direct.

The town has a flourishing lace making history, although it is not a tourist orientated place, there were I think 3 lace shops and a lace-making museum. We were able to watch women actually making the lace in one of the shops, it looks like a labour of love. They chat away without seeming to pay attention to what they are doing, in much the same way as folks used to knit at home. I seem to recall that knitting has become trendy, so perhaps I should remove the past tense from that.

The weather forecast had indicated that it would rain today, but the sky was cloudless, and so we went for a run along the Costa da Morte coastal path, that we walked yesterday. The scenery was staggering, and the vegetation must be the result of a local micro climate. There are ferns and brackens, not dissimilar to those you would find in Scotland. In fact we see great similarities with Scotland and Cornwall, both also Atlantic facing coasts. This one is just a good deal warmer.

I have come to realise just how large and diverse Spain is. We have friends who are sailing on the Mediterranean coast, and I looked up where they are. Google maps informed me that they are about 660 miles away, further than our indirect journey from the UK, and yet in the same country as we are. On a related note, I find it strange that although we are much further west than Britain, the clocks conform to Central European Time, and so it is an hour earlier than at home. This means that the sunrise is relatively late, but it stays light until after 10:30 at night.

The final excitement of the day was to discover that they had put on a boat show in the marina car park. Bigger than next years London Boat Show (that has been cancelled!), it was an exhibition of various marine themed activities. You could buy a rib or an outboard, a reel to wind in your fishing nets, book hotel rooms, try local food, buy lace, or look at a large collection of model ships of all shapes and sizes. These seemed to have mostly been made by 2 people of the same family. They must have spent hours working away at them, they were beautiful. It was not very big, but we spent an enjoyable 20 minutes looking around, and uniquely for a boat show, we came away without having bought anything.

Distance covered today	0	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	661	nautical miles
Distance covered 2018	1381	nautical miles

Steve (and Tricia)