Equinox2018

We had a leisurely breakfast of simple bread, jam and fruit, using the bread someone had kindly left for us last night, we suspect as a gift for picking up an advert from the local chandlery. As we have to buy a new shackle tomorrow that all ties in nicely. We set off into Porto centre mid morning and headed for the church on the hill, whose name escapes me, but from where you can get a panoramic view of the city from on high. It means climbing up the stone steps to the tower but was well worth that and the 45 minute queue. This was the main thing we wanted to do today. After that we walked down to the water front, via different streets to the route we took yesterday and decided on a riverside restaurant, with a good view across the Douro, for lunch. Chris had roast kid goat, the Sunday special. Steve and I had Francesinha, a Portuguese speciality. The latter is a sandwich, filled with steak and some sort of chorizo type sausage, topped with cheese and cooked in...

This was our major sightseeing day in Porto, and I can thoroughly recommend it. It is a beautiful city, alive with tourists and today, Newcastle United supporters in town to see their team play a pre-season friendly against Porto. We headed into town on the metro having walked from the marina and across a bridge over the industrial port here.   The metro system is somewhere between a tram and the Docklands Light Railway.   The rails are laid on dedicated tracks, but sometimes run very close to the roads.   The traffic lights are controlled to give the metro trains priority as it winds its way into town.   There are about 6 different lines crossing the city. Not the metro, we also found San Francisco style streetcars. We alighted at one of the main interchanges and started to walk towards the river that is the focal point of the city.   There are charming narrow cobbled streets, typical of a hot country, and many churches. We investigated going up ...

As we came out of the marina, after slipping lines at a relaxed 08.15, the entrance to the bay was full of little fishing boats, with one man in each. Most had the rakes on long poles to rake the bottom for muscles. We speculated that, maybe, they were out there before going to work, or, perhaps, they were out there early while it’s cool. It made a lovely scene. The mussels growing on the pontoons in the marina were enormous, the biggest I ever seen. The shell fish seems super sized here. We had seen some giant lobsters in a restaurant tank in the town last night. The forecast was little wind in the morning, but, as we got out to sea, from the Ria, there was a nice sailing breeze. We couldn’t sail the exact course we needed so tacked down the coast, making only slow progress towards our destination. However, we were treated to another fabulous dolphin show for about an hour. At lunchtime, we crossed the border into Portugal so changed the courtesy flag. The time c...

We decided to spend the day in Baiona, as there was plenty to do and see. It started with an early morning run for Tricia and I, while Chris slept. We headed towards the castle that stands on the headland protecting the bay from the seaward side.   The guy in the marina had said that there was a nice walk around the outside, relatively on the flat, but we managed to take a wrong turn and headed up a hill, before running around the ramparts.   The views were spectacular, but the route was far from flat, with stairs in places and a very uneven surface.   Still all very good training. During our lap we saw where the path that we should have been on was, and so at the end of the lap we found our way to the path and made a second circumnavigation of the castle, this time slightly easier. Later in the day we returned to walk the ramparts with Chris and saw a couple of things we had missed while we were running. In the harbour there is a replica of the Pinta...

We didn’t rush out of bed this morning, we knew that we only had a short distance to go. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed sitting on deck eating breakfast and looking at the empty beach just inshore of us. Our peace was soon rudely disturbed. A fishing boat came up to us, reasonably fast and passed within about 5 metres of our stern. He headed further into the anchorage and then started laying out line attached to his nets.  We were concerned at how close he was to the position of our anchor, so we watched events with interest.  He then went back out of the anchorage area, continuing to lay out line and then his nets.  He then came back and chucked out an anchor before starting to haul in the line  and subsequently the net.  All this time he was coming closer and closer to us, so we had a grandstand view of the net when it was brought back on board.  His catch was meagre, and he threw some of it straight back, including 2 or 3 octopus. We same ...

I woke at 7.00, first light. All was peaceful and calm with no wind but the sky was grey. I walked up to the marina block, while very few people were about. At 8.15, I woke Steve: "Are we going for a run before breakfast?" Despite being woken from a deep sleep, he was up and awake sharpish, so we ran along the beach side promenade. The tide was out and, as in Ria Muros, there was bunch of locals, with their rakes, collecting shellfish from the sand. Although Vilagarcia has an industrial port, the atmosphere was relaxed, with others doing their morning walk or jog. We left the marina mid morning, in little wind, but five miles on, and still well inside the Ria, the wind picked up and we had a cracking few hours of sailing, off the wind, trucking along at around 8.5 knots. When we exited the Ria we were dead down wind but managed to goose wing. This is when the main sail and foresail are on opposite sides and requires a lot of concentration by the helm to hol...

Now that Chris has arrived, it’s time to move on.   He has been very unlucky in his efforts to sail with us so far this year, for example, coming to Germany when it turned out that snow was delaying our start to the year. As a result of this and then loosing another day to the travel problems over the weekend, we are keen to get as much time on the water as possible for him.   The objective is to be in Porto by next weekend. Weather permitting, this will mean a number of shorter days sailing and then a long day to arrive at Porto. We let Chris sleep while Tricia and I made the preparations to depart, last minute shopping, and saying goodbye and thank you to Claus and Pedro at the marina. I will be sad to leave Muros, I have enjoyed being here, and the people are friendly, helpful and laid back. As we pulled out of the harbour we could see mist rolling down the valley sides and before long we were in dense fog in the ria. We could see about 100 metres. Optimistic that...

We knew that we would have to spend the day in port waiting for Chris to in the evening, so we used the time to do some maintenance activities. We have brought several things with us from the UK, and we spent useful time installing them.  Some were easy jobs, like the replacement for a mug that had decided to go for a swim, somewhere during the trip from Lymington, while others were more complicated. I fitted a new cleat to the lifelines, and generally did other maintenance to ensure that they are correctly tensioned around the boat.  I also fitted a new interior to one of the jammers that had been allowing its rope to slip. We had bought the replacement interior and fitting it was not too much of a problem.  Getting the line that ran through it to fit was a bigger issue.  The line was almost exactly the same diameter as the hole, and so it was impossible to run the line and a mousing line to pull the larger line through, simultaneously.  Eventually we found a ...

We had thought we had set the alarm with enough time to get ready, have breakfast and be on the 9am train to Santiago. We can’t have saved it, so we over slept and woke at 9.00, somewhat surprised we hadn’t woken naturally earlier. It was probably due to extreme fatigue after travelling and the hour difference from BST. It wasn’t the end of the world, though. The hotel was excellent and, refreshed from a brilliant shower, the staff allowed us to take our breakfast with us, as a picnic. The station was only 5 mins walk from the hotel, so we were in good time to buy our tickets and be on the train. The trains are superb in Spain: spotlessly clean and not overcrowded. So far, on our journeys, they have run on time. The bus station in Santiago was a five minute taxi ride from the railway station. Again the bus station was pleasant, with marble floors and clean. However there was no board indicating which bay our bus would depart from. After asking three bus drivers, who didn’t always...

Our work at home is done, so we are ready to return to Spain and continue our journey. Today, however it was a bit of a challenge. The alarm went off at 5:20, (deliberate but not welcome), and we were up and ready to be taken to the airport at 06:30, with our home prepared for a period of absence.  Initially all went well, safe arrival at Heathrow in good time, and an on-time departure for Madrid. When we arrived in Madrid, we had several hours to kill but managed to find a comfortable cafe to sit in. We went to the gate and despite a bit of a scrum, everyone was soon on board, strapped in and ready to take off. At this point there was an announcement that there was a problem with the brakes on the plane and we would all have to disembark while they were fixed, which would take 1.5 - 2 hours. By this time it was well after the planned departure time and it was clear to us that we would not make our onward connections and would need overnight accommodation in La Coruna. We...