Santander marina is adjacent to the airport, around which there is a running and cycle track with a tunnel under the runway. I simply had to walk round to meet Laura and James off their Ryanair flight from Edinburgh late morning. Laura had not slept the previous night, finishing off writing 21reviews for fringe shows for Broadway Baby that needed posted urgently, so they caught up on sleep before we joined the evening entertainment at the marina.
The following afternoon we made our way out the Marina to anchor off the beach in downtown Santander. On the way, I managed to put Malibu aground on a muddy bank just yards off the narrow deep channel used by the vast container ships. The problem was short lived as we used the wake from a passing motor boat to lift us off. No harm done other than to my pride!
We went ashore for shopping and evening meal and a brief look at Santander. The anchorage gave us an uncomfortable night so we set off in the morning for the sail along the coast to Ribadesella about 60 miles. As we came out the Santander estuary we were surprised by the huge swell running. The wind and weather had been fairly calm for days so it was surprising to see such seas. The pilot books do say that the swell in Biscay is unpredictable and can often be the result of some far distant weather. The effect here was, I suspect, magnified by the steep underwater contours. We therefore headed offshore to get into the deep. About 8 miles offshore the bottom drops to over 1000 metres! Although this made for an easier sea it was still a long slog.
Ribadesella, pictured above, turned out to be a gem. We passed close by a busy sandy beach to motor into a protected harbour and tied against the wall right in the middle of town. There were only two other visiting boats, both French. The town however was alive with Spanish holiday makers and we did the evening tour before eating in a bar alongside the boat.
The one downside of this sort of mooring is that the lines need adjusted as the boat drops and rises with the tide relative to the harbour wall. So I was up playing with ropes every couple of hours overnight.