Taking Advantage of the Calm
25 September 2009 | Islas de Cies - Ria de Vigo
We moved on a bit further south in the afternoon with Bayona, on the southern mouth of the Ria de Vigo as the chosen goal. We want to get internet for weather forecast of several days ahead and also bunker diesel and water before leaving for the 80 miles sail to Leixoes in Portugal. Leixoes is the harbour just west of the city of Porto in the river Duro.
Yes,Porto means harbour/port of course (even if they don't seem to have a proper one) but what's more interesting for us a tleast is the fact that it's the home of 'the Port' the sweet, strong wine that has gotten it's name from this city. The fact that it is a convenient stop en route to Lisbon doesn't make it less attractive at all. Roughly 150 miles more to Lisbon, a leg we certainly would like to negotiate in favourable weather. The Portuguese coast is not a nice one to be cought out in heavy weather. Better to be at least 50 miles to seaward then. We are really looking orward to our stay in Lisbon though, so we will tke the coastal route.
Anyway,while we slowly motored towards Bayona trailing a fishing line, we passed the lovely islands 'Cies' in the very mouth of the Ria. We then got an impulse to anchor off them for the night, just because the weather allows it. We were not alone, some ten or so other boats were anchored in the bay already, among them a Dutch, a couple of British and a Swedish!.
I hope the pictures to some degree can show how nice it was here. The only downside, was that the wind pciked up to Force 3-4 during the night, from NE, making the anchorage quite choppy. It was worth it though