Wednesday – 25 July 2018

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 him choose to keep some squid and a number of small fish.  He then hauled up the anchor and repeated the whole procedure a little further from where we were anchored.  Another of the boats managed to buy some fish straight from him, but although we had been close enough to converse, his English was about as no existent as our Spanish, so we were unsuccessful.

When all this excitement was over, we picked up out anchor and headed off.  We had requested permission to spend the night off the Isle de Cies, but discovered while en route that this had been declined, all of the available permits having been allocated for the day.  As we went along, the visibility closed in and we found ourselves in the dense fog that is notorious in this area.  We could see only about 100 metres and spent about 4 hours relying on our fantastic new radar, AIS and diligent look outs.  The radar in particular was able to tell us where we should be looking for other boats and giving an accurate distance that they were away.  It is very disconcerting when you know that there is a vessel of some sort coming towards you about a quarter of a mile away, and you can’t see it. Eventually it ghosts out of the gloom and validates the avoiding actions that you have already taken.  On one of these occasions the boat was Jibe, a J109 like our previous boats.  We have raced against this one many times and they would usually beat us.  It has now been sold and is operating under a Dutch flag now.

As we were unable to anchor on the Isle de Cies, we had to re-plan and decided to go straight to our next planned stopping point at Baiona, about another 12 miles away.  As we passed the Isle de Cies the fog lifted a little, and we got an impression of what a beautiful place it is. Shame we couldn’t stop!

As we entered the ria in which Baiona lies the fog lifted, and we had glorious weather for the rest of the day.  We skirted a racing fleet preparing for the start and made our way into one of the marinas.  We were tired on arrival. Even though the distance covered today had been short, the concentration required to make our way through the fog was considerable. 

We were treated to glorious views across the ria, and the guy in the marina told us that it was the local saints day, all the shops were shut and there would be partying all night.  Can't wait!

Distance covered today	25.9	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	827.6	nautical miles
Distance covered 2018	1548	nautical miles

Steve (and Tricia)