Monday - 23 July 2018

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 would pass through the fog as we left the ria, we pressed on and this is what proved to happen. The weather was still overcast at this time, but improved as then day went on. The breeze was a pleasant 15 knots and we were soon racing along in initially flat water. Once we were clear of the mouth of the ria it became a bit more choppy as we were in a wind against tide situation, which always whips up the water. We had to sail a few uncomfortable angles as we started to turn in to the next ria, Ria Arouca, but we were racing along.

Only a couple of fleeting dolphin sightings today, nothing to get too excited about. Chris commented that we were getting a bit blasé about this, but I hope this is not the case.


We had planned to anchor off an island in the ria, but when we got there, the place was full of viveros (rafts for mussel farming), and we couldn’t see a clear route through to the anchorage. So we changed the plan and went to the marina in Vilagarcia, where they had one remaining space big enough for us. We inched our way in, with the depth below us reading less than half a metre, but all was well and we were able to tie up and the relax for the evening. Other than the fog and choppy sea, a thoroughly enjoyable day.

Distance covered today 48  nautical miles
Trip distance covered  779  nautical miles
Distance covered 2018  1499  nautical miles

Steve (and Tricia)

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