Ria de Arousa Chapter 2
01 August 2013
After another couple of days we upped anchor and headed to another part of the Ria, Rianxo was our destination. We arrived to find the anchorage was pocked marked on the chart with little stars which indicate rocks that cover and uncover with the tide. I eased gingerly into the marked anchorage hoping to anchor close to a rusting French boat which was in residence. The depth went from an indicated 2.9 to 2 meters which meant that we had a mere 30 centimetres under our keel. This made me squeak a bit and I turned round as slowly as possible and followed our track on the plotter so that we left the same way that we had entered. After a quick discussion we went round the anchorage and came in from a different direction. Finally dropping the anchor about 50 yards away from Monsieur rust bucket. It was fortuitous that we anchored in plenty of water as the next day we were only 20cm off the seabed, I had got the tides wrong, or rather I had the tides right but did not realise that the plotter was giving me the information in local time and not GMT. And so the tide fell for another 2 hours as we watched glued to the depth sounder. We had already slept though a low tide so it could not be that bad, could it? If it had been a rocky bottom I would have moved but the bottom was soft mud and we would just sink into it a little, so it was better to stay where we were then go bouncing off rocks trying to find a way out.
Being on a budget we have not eaten out much, but decided tonight was the night! Galacia day arrived and we picked the restaurant , starting off with vino tinto, shortly we were asked if we would like some" blah blah peskies" we looked dumb, which I find is often the best policy, the waiter repeated "little fishes". Well it would have been churlish to refuse after he had made such a valiant attempt at communication, so I replied "Si". A while later the little fishes arrived and were not quite what I had expected, these were either whitebait on steroids or juvenile sardines, very tasty!
After the little fishes we managed to stop the waiter taking the wine bottle away from the table and ordered some "chiperons"( small deep fried squid) and some "polpo" (octopus). When the chiperons arrived I apologised to Karen and said that I must have ,in the melee that passes for my attempt at Spanish just ordered double Chiperons, either that or he has offended by my "Merci " and was taking revenge. We shrugged and tucked into the tasty plateful (wish though I had bought the Tabasco) , the waiter glided up and with a flourish presented the Polpo, which was not a kiddies portion. We struggled gamely on and I finished the squid, Karen struggled with the octopus in oil valiantly, though could not finish. The waiter took the empty plate but would not remove the plate with the octopus on, we each forced down a few mouthfuls and Karen skilfully hid the rest under her bread roll, sneaky eh!!!
The next day the rain hit and we had allot of wind, the anchorage being open to the southwest made it a bit uncomfortable. Not only does the boat move but getting ashore in the dinghy is a wet affair, I now know what the term 'dinghy butt' means. The seat of your trousers is always wet when you get ashore in anything other than flat calm, this I can just about cope with but when the wind pipes up you can get a slop of sea water right down the crack which is somewhat disturbing. It was decided on the next high tide, that we would move to somewhere more sheltered as we had 25 knots regularly. We fancied Vilagarcia though the bottom was supposed to be stone, I did not want to anchor in stone at this point in time and we did not see any point in paying to go in to the marina in this weather, we can just as easily hunker down in the boat and amuse ourselves. So the decision was made to go back to Pobra as it was protected from the expected winds. We anchored securely in sand and went shopping for the evening meal grimacing at the soaking we were getting in the dinghy. That evening we had seafood risotto which was great. I then amused myself by watching the battery monitor for the next couple of hours. As I have explained, we spend allot of or time off grid and power in is always welcome, the monitor gives you a figure, this is either discharge or charge. It is probably because I have installed the systems aboard and it is immensely cathartic when we have power going in. Karen has said that she can tell when we are charging as I simile when watching the monitor and scowl when the fridge comes on and the monitor goes into discharge. We do not have to worry now; we have over 25 knots of wind and are putting in close to 17 amps. The anchorage is comfortable as there is little fetch and although windy the sea is quite flat. We turn in, wondering throughout the night whether we have moved or not!
30th July
We upped anchor and headed to Vilagarcia Marina, berthed without drama and went to sign in with the marina. Not only did we have a marinero helping us to tie up, but the lady in the office spoke English! This is rare in these parts and made the paperwork easy without sign language. It was also very cheap, only 18 Euros a night! This I think is because they work out the charge on length multiplied by the beam, as Pampero is quite slim it,worked in our favour.
Compared to what we are used to in these parts Vilagarcia seems like a city, there is even a Mc Donald's. So we headed straight to the golden arches and found that the fast food ethos has not quite filtered through as yet ,fast being absent from my order of a Big Mac meal ! Anticipating its arrival I felt like some crack addict waiting for a fix, once presented it did not last long! We ferreted out the local Super Mercado, which I did not like so we had to find another supermarket that sold corn fed chicken, it did not, however sell coleslaw! So we bought the ingredients to make a passable slaw.
The chandlery at the marina is very good and we managed to locate an LED tricolour bulb so it was up the mast for me that afternoon, to turn the light so the red sector was facing port etc. I also fitted the LED bulb which takes 0.4 of an amp not 2.5 which is what the incandescent bulb takes. Going up the mast is always a trial as I have to do it. Being the wrong side of 17 stone Karen cannot winch me up and I have to climb, either up the rigging or one of the halyards collecting skinned shins and bruising as I go. Once the jobs at the masthead have been completed it is time to descend back to the deck, this is the worst part as it is never smooth and the most important tackle of all usually gets alot of grief. We have tried to get Karen up the mast to do these tasks but her fear of heights kicks in and you cannot winch her past the spreaders, once attached limpet like to the mast. Indeed it is then hard to get her back down without some careful coaxing or a well aimed brick.
Our first night in a marina is quite nice as we do not have any of the anxieties associated with anchoring; I fell into a deep contented sleep. I awoke with a start as Karen slams the fore hatch closed, what's going on I politely exclaim? Apparently Mac the Knife or is that Pedro the blade has been wandering up and down the pontoon in the dark. Why does the imagination always have to think the worst possible scenario? It could be the security guard or 1000 innocent possibilities rather than a Spanish fredriko krugger.
I manage to get back to sleep and wake at 10am, damn! I wanted to wake earlier as today is washing day. It is hard work doing the washing by hand and hot in the searing heat of the day. I wring out the washing and beads of sweat drip all over the place, if I am not careful and Karen notices I will have to wash it again, I move round so I am not in her line of sight, job done!
31st July
Today was a special day as we got up early and took the train to Santiago de Compostela. I was very impressed with the train, it was clean and quiet a real pleasure to ride in. Why does it seem that every other country in the EU has better trains than us brits, surely there must be an EU grant available for this type of thing.
Santiago is huge and we spent over an hour looking for the tourist information kiosk,there were signs for it but when we followed them we found another sign promising it will be down the next street. In the end we headed uphill and found the church at the top. Very impressive and this seems to be a place where pilgrims come from miles around and gather in the square, timeless you would think,but now they seem to do it on Giant mountain bikes. We went in during mass and it was nice to see the place full up and a bit of action going on. I could not really understand the mass but it was comforting and when the old Nun got up and sang solo I was really impressed, she sang like an angel and would give Catherine Jenkins a run for her money in the singing dept.
The old part of Santiago is very pretty and we had a coffee before mooching around a bit then we stopped for a beer and I mooched in a better frame of mind.
We took the Train back to the marina and did some shopping as we are hoping to head out and anchor in a new part of the Ria tomorrow. The weather has been so hot I just want to swim!