Part three of this years sailing drivel, when I left you before I was in Muros in the Spanish Ria's, from there I sailed south to the Ria de Vigo, anchoring firstly off the beach at Praia de Barra.


Ria de Viga.


Anchored off Praia de Barra.

Turns out, there are three beaches in this bay, and as I was to find out, different rules for clothing in each one, on the right hand side, you must wear clothing covering your bits, on the middle beach this rule is optional, and on the left beach, the one I was anchored off of, no bits are covered, I never realised this till the next morning, I paddled in early doors when the beach was empty and went for a run, but realised soon enough when I got back mind you!


On the beach.

That night and Irish boat came in and anchored to close in front of me and was right on top of my anchor, the old and very rotund bloke skippering the boat was, of course, in the buff, it was super windy so my worry was that he would drag on my boat or snag my anchor, I asked him very nicely to move which fair play, he did, then reminded him to be careful when weighing his anchor not to get his tackle caught up in the anchor tackle, I thought this was dead funny, him, not so much I think. 😊


Anchored off the beach at Limens.

Next stop was the next bay along and a village called Limens as this was a walkable distance to a supermarket to stock up the fridge.

More anchor nonsense was to ensue here, two wee sailboats anchored right in front of me, but I just let them crack on as they were already on the beers when they sailed in and jumped in a dinghy straight away and went into the beech bar to carry on with the fun, In the west of Spain and Portugal in summertime, the northly winds blow strong almost every day, they are called the "Portuguese trade winds" and usually kick in about lunchtime and will blow strongly until the late evening so you need to make sure your anchor is set correctly, although not everyone does.

Anyway, I was lying in the cockpit reading when one of the boats drifted right past me, it was too late to try and grab it but the boy at the bar had obviously seen it and was frantically paddling out, he had the wind behind him and caught up with it way out at the edge of the bay, by which time his mates boat was also dragging his anchor, this one I managed to grab on the way past, thank goodness it was wee and light.


I've caught more yachts than fish!

After all this excitement, I moved up to the top of the Ria, which is just like a big lake, very quiet up here, not many boats at anchor, very quiet.


Ria de Vigo from the east.


The top of the Ria, from a lookout point I ran up to, it was steep, I thought I was going to have a wee stroke.

Vigo was next, and the Marina Punta Lagoa there I was going to leave the boat for a week and go and visit one of my brothers in Gaucin, Andalucía in the south of Spain.


The marina at Vigo.

I got the train down, the train system here is worlds apart from Scotland, they are cheap (ish) super comfy and fast.
I had a stop in Ronda on the way there, I used to visit here when I worked in Gibraltar in a past life, it's a stunning place.


Ronda, pretty nice eh.....


Ronda again, lots of hills to run up here too.

Then it was off to Gaucin, a wee whitewashed village in the Andalusian mountains, stunning place, wee windy streets, it was the fair that weekend so there was music, dancing, free paella, late nights and maybe just a few alcoholic beverages. Great times.


Gaucin.


Gaucin, I took this running around the village at sunrise trying to clear a fuzzy head, must have been dodgy wine?


More morning running views.


Vigo.

Juked back to Vigo on the train after the weekend and headed down to Baiona for a quick visit and an overnight stop as it is a good jump of point for the sail to Portugal.


Baiona


Sunrise leaving Spain.

First stop in Portugal was the Marina at Povoa de Varzim, this is a good place to leave the boat to visit Porto as its only an hour away on the metro train and more importantly, its cheap as chips.


The marina at Povoa de Varzim.


Povoa de Varzim, wee streets, long beaches, noisy church bells.

Porto, wow! let me tell you, is the dogs bollocks! Its friendly, is blow your socks of beautiful, and if you like Port? Well, enough said.


Porto.

So, as a bit of useless information that you don't need to know but I'm going to tell you anyway, way back when, when the English were at was with the French, they couldn't get their wine from there so went searching in Portugal instead, it was fortified, which means it was mixed with brandy so it would survive the journey onboard ships back to England, you notice that heaps of the port lodges have English, or in the case of Grahams, started by Scottish brothers who liked to drink(who would have thought), Scottish names.


Grahams Port Lodge.

I went to Churchills (no relation to the man, I asked of course) the only British owned Port lodge left, and started by the grandson of one of the aforementioned Graham brothers, I had a wee tour of the place and then got down to the serious stuff of tasting, which was immense, but be warned, this is not like visiting a whisky distillery in Scotland and having one wee nip at the end, the fill you full of the stuff, get everything you need to do for the day sorted out before you go tasting as you'll get nothing done after, except perhaps a wee nap!


Lunch of dreams.


Barrels of goodness.


Churchills Port Lodge.

So now I write this anchored in the bay at Cascais which is at the mouth of the River Tagus, Lisbon, I came in here last night after an overnight sail down from Povoa de Varzim, It was going to be an overnight stop as I have been here and Lisbon a few times before, but it was blowing a hoolie this morning so I binned the sailing for the day.


Cascais.

Tomorrow I'll head south, no more overnighters needed, just day hopping down and round the corner to the Algarve and start thinking about wrapping up for the year, the boat is booked to come out of the water in Lagos in mid-September, then I'll be heading back off down under a few weeks after to start earning beer tokens for next year's sailing sojourn.
So that gives me four more weeks of sailing and generally laying around on my fat arse reading books in the sun, so I'd better get to it eh.........