Tuesday 24th July

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 hold the sails and not crash gybe. After only half an hour, we made the next turn and had a more comfortable sailing angle.

We were heading for Isla Ons, a national park opposite Ria Pontevedra. Fortunately, the permit we needed in order to anchor, came through, by email, just as we were approaching the bay we wanted to stay the night in. It was mid afternoon and the golden sandy beach was full of the day trippers, who come to the island by ferry.

Just at the time we arrived, fog rolled in and for an hour or so we had no view of the island or the mainland on the opposite side of the channel.

The evening was glorious with sunshine, peace. The view of the island and mainland are rugged Atlantic coastline: beautiful. We are relaxing into feeling on holiday, along with those on the three other boats anchored in the bay with us, who were swimming and kayaking in the bay. Chris had gone for a brief dip in the sea. I stuck my foot in to find it freezing cold water. I’ll wait until we get to Med before I swim in the sea.

Distance covered today	22.7	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	801.7	nautical miles
Distance covered 2018	1522	nautical miles

Tricia (and Steve)