Monday - 25 June 2018

The fantastic weather of the last few days seems to have ended. There has been rain forecast although we have not seen any yet, it appears to be quite localised. In any event, the sky has been overcast with clouds sitting on the hills surrounding the ria, and the visibility has been hazy. It has been much cooler as a result, and we were able to run in our favoured late morning spot for the first time in a while. On the other days we have gone either early in the morning or late afternoon to escape the worst of the heat. It was apparently 38 degrees at one of the towns inland yesterday. At the end of our run we stopped to buy bread at a tiny bakery. The loaf was 1 Euro and we had only taken a 20 Euro note with us, which the lady was reluctant to take, as it would have wiped out her float of change. Even though she spoke as little English and we spoke no Spanish, we agreed that we would owe her the money and return to pay. I can’t imagine too many places at home where foreign visitor would get this treatment.

We have decided that we will leave Equinox here when we return home. The choices were Muros or Portocin on the other side of the ria. There seems little to choose in terms of the journey necessary to and from the airport. There is a bus from here direct to La Coruna, so it seems easy enough. We met Pedro, who is the marina boss to agree the cost. He lectured us on our inability to speak Spanish, telling us that we could speak English in England, but should speak Spanish in Spain. It was all done in a cheerful, friendly, slightly teasing way. Later in the day I wished him good afternoon in Spanish, and he launched into a long reply. I said that I had only managed to learn the first 2 words, so far. He laughed!

We set to replacing the jib furling line, having found a chandlers and bought hopefully an adequate length of line. Getting the furling drum opened and the old line removed was relatively straightforward.  We then had 2 challenges, first to get a knot on the end of the line small enough to fit inside the furling drum, and second to rethread the line through the under deck conduits. The former was difficult and so we re-examined the end that had previously been there to see how it had been done. This after siesta time was over, then necessitated another trip to the chandlers, fortunately close by, to get an additional component. That element will be finished off tomorrow. We were very careful with the threading of the line under the decks. We pulled a small chord through as we removed the old line, but when we tried to pull it through attached to the new line it was too thick. In the end Tricia sewed the temporary line into the new line, and we gently pull it through with fingers crossed that the temporary line would not break. All was well.

Several times yesterday the customs boat came into the port and dropped off a couple of uniformed officials. They visited a Swiss boat, and then went away again on the customs launch. When they came back they came to us and examined our passports and papers. As ever, I think they decide whether you are hiding something in the first few moments. Anyway, they carefully noted down all our details, give us a copy, and departed. We are legal, and all is in order.

As we are returning home at the end of the week, we are trying to run down the food stocks, as well as working out where are the best places to go to restock on our return. We decided that we would eat out last night, and headed off into town but diverted to the fish quay en route.  We had concluded earlier in the day that Monday was not a good day to be buying fish, as the boats don’t go out on a Sunday.  However, there had been a steady stream coming in, and there was now a shop open. As we never knowingly pass a fresh fish shop, we went in and there was some of the freshest fish I have ever seen. They were bringing in boxes direct from the boats while we were standing there. Our plans to eat out were dropped on the spot, and we headed back to the boat with a couple of mackerel that had been swimming earlier in the day.

Distance covered today	0	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	731	nautical miles
Distance covered 2018	1451	nautical miles

Steve (and Tricia)