Brindabella

Gijon was an interesting town with attractive back streets around the marina. The drink of the region is cider and the town had many siderias. It's a non-fizzy cider but poured from a height into the glass to make it frothy.

The trip from Gijon to Ribadeo was eventful for all the wrong reasons. We attempted to leave on Monday. There was some light mist in the marina and no wind, so we motored out of the port and out to sea. After about an hour, thick fog descended. We normally put the radar on and continue in fog, but visibility was less than a boat length. If we had seen a fishing buoy it would have been too late to avoid it. Reluctantly we turned around and motored the hour and a half back to the marina.

We stayed in port on Tuesday as there was still fog around and set off again on Wednesday.

The trip on Wednesday was equally eventful. Within 15 minutes of leaving the marina, while putting Bella's life jacket on we heard a banging noise under the boat. We stopped the engine and out popped a fishing buoy from the back of the boat. We think it had caught on the propeller, but stopping the engine caused the blades to fold and it came loose.

We continued on and had a very large pod of dolphins swim with us and play in the bow wave for around an hour. At one point, there were about 20 with us and 8 swimming at the front of the boat. Bella was going mad - she loves to bark at them from the bow.

The wind started to build after about 6 hours into the trip, but it was a westerly and right on the bow so we were motor sailing. Then, for some reason, the motor stopped! We tried starting it again but it was not going to run.

We altered course to come off the wind slightly and put the jib out to get sailing properly - all be it pointing much too far out to sea. We then contemplated what to do. Do we continue for a further 8 hours tacking into wind or return for a 6 hour sail to Gijon?

Simon thought it was a fuel problem. Generally, a diesel engine does not run because of something in the filters causing a lack of fuel or air in the fuel. Simon bled the engine and saw some air coming out, so that was obviously the problem. The engine started first time and we were on our way again!

During the next 6 hours the wind and sea continued to grow to a force 6 occasionally gusting force 7. The harbour we were going into has a large and safe entrance but still the waves were very large coming in.

We were planning to anchor in the river but this was not possible given the swell, so we went into the small marina just below the town of Ribadeo.

The photo above is of Ribadeo.

Time: 12:00 hours Miles: 67nm Total Time: 210:00 hours Total Miles: 1,222nm