FALMOUTH TO CAMERET

Our week in Falmouth was a very social one. Mark had left on Tuesday, after we had all enjoyed a huge evening meal and full English breakfast at wonderful but bijou vegetarian café called Pea Souk, run by the slightly intimidating Nicola, we were invited aboard a Dutch yacht by Mart a young single hander who anchored next to us.

Once again we were reminded of how small the world of people sailing on a budget is. Mart remarked that he had spent some time in Maine, North America and we told him we had friends there who owned a Gaff Rigged ferro long keeler, Mart said he became very friendly with a couple there who had a similar yacht and it turned out to be our friends Mick and Bee on Hanna who we first met in 2007 at Cascais, Portugal, and at various places and times since then. We had a pleasant couple of hours exchanging experiences with Mart.

On checking the forecast the next day the wind had changed yet again and we rescheduled our crossing to France for the Sunday. We telephoned Paul's daughter Michelle who wanted to come to Falmouth but because of her workload couldn't make it until Friday. She joined us and we had an enjoyable few hours (including another visit to vegie Pea Souk) before she left to play another concert in the evening.

On the Saturday we were joined by Avril and Vernon, Paul's sister and brother-in-law who treated us to dinner at the Green Bank Hotel, where they were staying, and we enjoyed another superb vegetarian meal in the beautiful restaurant overlooking Falmouth harbour.

The next morning we weighed anchor and left Falmouth at 11am with Avril and Vernon waving us off on the quay and again at the headland where they took photos of us sailing - we are hoping to upload these to show you.

Our 31hour passage from Falmouth to Camaret wasn't as planned. After the first few hours I found that whenever I stood up I became sea-sick, it became worse as the hours passed and by night time, when the strong winds were becoming very contrary, I was quite poorly. Consequently, I was unable to complete a full four hour watch so Paul sailed virtually single handed with as little as four hours sleep in the 31 hours of sailing.
However, the new AIS transponder we had installed warned us of any big ship that was in our sights and it was comforting to know that they were also aware of us, and Paul said he had never sailed through the shipping lanes with such ease. We discovered that many yachts had also installed an AIS, in fact we only saw one yacht during the whole passage that didn't show up on our screen.

We arrived in Camaret approx. 6pm on Monday and have had an enjoyable week of mainly sunshine with the occasional shower although on Thursday it rained all day and we didn't leave Sareda who is at anchor off the beach.
On our return to Sareda from the town yesterday we spotted another yacht flying the Ocean Cruising Club flag. We stopped to say hello and were immediately invited on board for a drink. Michael and Caroline of Free the Spirit, were very welcoming and were on their way back to the UK for a re-fit after spending five years near the Gironde in France.
The winds look good for crossing Biscay tomorrow. We will probably head for Viveiro in Galicia where we stopped on our last passage across Biscay as we would like to visit again. The passage will take approx. three days so I hope I've now found my sea-legs and will be a more helpful crew!!

CAMARET TO NORTHERN SPAIN

We had intended leaving Camaret, by Brest, on Sunday 15th July but the winds changed yet again.
However, all was not lost. We had two more pleasant social encounters, one with Charlie and Mary who were on a beautiful 76 year old Harrison Butler. We thought she was lovely, but the maintenance would be too time consuming for us. However, Charlie had completed the boat building course at Lyme Regis and will enjoy the challenge. They were cruising France for a few weeks and returning to England in September where they were hoping to relocate to the West Country and start up a boat renovation/building business.

We also spent time with Allan & Claire who had spent 3 years renovating their Victory 40 in preparation for long distance sailing next year when they retire. Paul was proudly telling them that we were comparative newlyweds having only married in October 2010 when they announced that they were on honeymoon having only married the previous week. Celebrations were forthcoming!

We also received a visit from five burly men in black in a black rib who were from a high speed customs boat anchored just off Camaret. I thought it was quite exciting, knowing that we hadn't done anything wrong, but Paul was quite apprehensive. They only wanted to check our papers and were very friendly but refused a glass of wine whilst on duty!!

However, we knew we needed to cross Biscay soon, so re-scheduled to Wednesday 18th, again cancelled due to contrary winds and then again to Friday 20th. The winds still weren't perfect being very light, but they were in the right direction. We left Camaret at 10am and motored out into the seas from the Rade de Brest and were able to switch off the engine and turn for Viveiro at 5pm.

Our speed was slow 2-3 knots per hour during the night. A huge cargo ship changed course to pass behind us, we feel very humble when that happens. I did have to wake Paul at 1am as we were on a collision course with a fishing boat and as we are supposed to give way to them I always prefer company. While he was up a pod of dolphins visited shining like sparkling jewels in the water whilst playing around the boat, the phosphorescence showing clearly where they were.

We were visited again the next afternoon by the dolphins and shortly afterwards I panicked as a trawler was heading straight for us. They were concerned as our 1-2knots seemed like floating aimlessly to them and they wanted to know if we were okay. They spoke little English so a thumbs up sign from us and big smiles were all we could do to re-assure them and they turned around and headed back in the direction from whence they came with a wave goodbye

At the end of the second day we had completed 118 nautical miles and our GPS told us that at the present speed we had 88 hours to go. The sea was almost flat calm and at 10am the next morning I counted 6/7 pods of dolphins, N, S, E & W of us, jumping right out of the water and cavorting in elegant displays - we didn't mind the very calm seas and light winds to be able to witness such amazing performances. We were also able to take some wonderful photographs of them under the water following and playing around the boat - we must have seen hundreds of them altogether.

At 5pm we were visited by a dove who rested on the guard rail, Paul had to go on deck to change the sails as we had decided to head for Cedeira and he flew off returning to sit on our preventer line for a rest. We wondered how he managed to sleep as it was jerking up and down, but sleep he did for the next four hours Paul finally noticing he had flown at 9pm.
At the end of day 3 the wind had picked up a little and we had completed a further 80 miles and day 4 another 107 miles. We finally anchored at Cedeira at 3pm of day five having completed a total of 332 miles.

CEDEIRA TO LA CORUNA AND THE NORTHERN SPANISH RIAS

We spent a pleasant three full days in Cedeira having arrived in the afternoon of 24th July. We invited a single hander, Nick, on board for a meal the next night, after he told us he hated cooking; he did know we were vegetarian but was glad to accept regardless. We enjoyed his company, wishing the next day that we had drawn further on his vast store of knowledge as he had been delivering boats for many years and had covered some 200,000 sea miles. After having heard of some of the problems he had with inexperienced crew, it makes me wonder if I should be more pro-active in the sailing and not leave so much of it to Paul!
We visited Cedeira when we first crossed Biscay and found it as charming this time as before.

On the 28th July we weighed anchor at 9am and headed for La Coruna. There was a heavy swell out at sea and it was crossing broadside on to 'Sareda', unfortunately this made the passage very uncomfortable and although I tried hard to avoid it the inevitable sea-sickness took its toll. However, it could have been a lot worse and the passage was a relatively short one and we dropped anchor at 5.05pm in Ensada de Mera, a small bay just across the ria from La Coruna.

The next morning we motored across the ria and entered the marina at La Coruna - last time we anchored in exactly the same place but the new marina was opened in 2009 and unfortunately there is now no anchorage. However, we arrived early in the morning and two nights in the marina gave us three full days use of their facilities including laundry and showers.
We loved La Coruna in 2007 and arrived in time for the festival, but we were a little earlier this time and so have missed the celebrations. We were also disappointed that the trams that we enjoyed so much in 2007 stopped running last year. However, on the positive side we enjoyed exploring the town again and discovered two vegetarian restaurants and a health food store selling vegetarian food. We had an enjoyable lunch in one of the restaurants and were a little surprised when the owner delivered a firm smack to his daughter who was misbehaving - this in full public view - probably an arrestable offence in the UK

We were saddened to see the high number of closed and for sale shops in La Caruna - obviously an effect of the current economic climate!
In the next marina berth to us were a very pleasant couple, Carmen and Maurice from Switzerland. Their recently purchased boat was a 'Feeling', the same make as our friends Linda and Hans on Baros whom we have spoken of many times before. Carmen and Maurice were aware of Baros and her mast breakage and subsequent repair in Jamaica - again, what a small world!

On the evening of the 31st July we left the marina and re-anchored in Ensada de Mera for the night. We intended going ashore the next morning but the wind was blowing us on to the lee shore and so we weighed anchor and crossed the ria to Playa del Burgo where there was an anchorage sheltered by the Isla Sta Cristina. We went ashore the first day pulling the dinghy up to the beach but a huge breaker hit the dinghy just as I was stepping out and the dinghy knocked me over leaving me sitting in the water, shorts and tea shirt soaking. We were able to laugh about it but I did feel conspicuous walking around the town and supermarket.
Being a little more wary the next day we landed at a more sheltered position behind the breakwater and were able to explore the town. We found a beautifully kept park with two lakes with both fish and turtles swimming around. I have photographed some of the turtles and we hope to upload these to the blog

On the 4th August the winds were still southerly so we went to Ria Betanzos around the next headland - however it was a tougher passage than we envisaged with a big swell coming in from the sea. I coped well at the beginning, not feeling ill at all, but later had to take a tablet and lie down for half an hour, however, I felt well again once we reached more sheltered waters and we dropped anchor at Betanzos in the early evening.
The next day, Sunday, we went ashore and explored the town. The big supermarkets and most shops were closed, but we managed to get bread and milk from a small store that was open. Before we returned to the boat we stopped at one of the bars for a drink and I was thrilled that they had a television and was able to watch Murray playing Federa for the Olympic gold medal.

We stayed at Betanzos a further day and on the 7th August the winds, although slight, were in the right direction and we weighed anchor at 0900 and headed for Corme, another place we missed last time we were here, anchoring in Corme harbour at 6.40 that evening. We stayed in Corme for a full day and explored this lovely, small and very quiet Spanish village. We had a drink at a café/bar on the harbour wall and did a small amount of shopping. Back on Sareda, a young Spanish lad, about 12 years of age, visited us in a canoe and held a reasonable conversation with Paul in schoolboy English. He said he lived in Seville and was on holiday in Corme - we wondered how many British children would have the confidence to approach a Spanish boat and make conversation with the people aboard!!

On the 9th we again moved on. We didn't weigh anchor until 10am as there was a heavy mist first thing and we didn't want to go out on this coast with poor visibility, it's not called the Coast de Morte for nothing! The wind was so light we motored again until 3.50pm when Paul poled out the jib and we were soon making between 4-6 knots, goose winged, and by 6pm we rounded the dreaded Cape Finisterre and dropped anchor in Corcubion at 8pm. We made two trips into Corcubion. The first time we took my computer and realised we had managed to switch off my WI-FI. We returned to the boat and rang our computer expert in Dawlish who said we must deleted the driver inadvertently when attempting to create more disc space We then took Paul's computer ashore to check the weather. After doing so we walked the short distance to Cee at the end of the Corcubion Ria and were very pleased we did. It was a delightful Spanish town, very modern with the nicest mall we have seen since leaving Trinidad. We bought more groceries than we intended at the Carrefour supermarket underneath the mall and then had to trek back to Corcubion, 'Sareda' and an early night.

We intended moving on to Portosin in Ria de Muros today. Unfortunately, we again awoke to a very heavy mist and strong southerly winds - we sometimes couldn't see the shore 100 yards away so we have spent a lazy day on the boat - Paul reading and doing some maintenance jobs and me catching up with this blog. It is now 6pm the mist has almost cleared and the sun is beginning to shine through, maybe we will set sail for Portosin tomorrow?

PORTOSIN (Paul)

The cruise from Corcubion to Ria Muros was interesting and there was enough wind for us to sail most of the way, but we sailed down the Canal de los Meixidos which shortened the journey considerably although the swell accentuated the dangers by crashing on the rocks both sides of us, which was rather scary at times. Lin slept through most of this as she again, unfortunately, was suffering from Mal de Mer

We arrived at Portosin on Sunday and anchored off, moving into the marina on Monday to top up water tanks, use the washing machines and have hot showers. In fact the weather deteriorated and on Tuesday we sat out a gale 8 - I was up at various times in the night checking lines and putting on more ropes to steady us.

We met a lovely couple, Debbie and Martin on their 56 your old wooden boat, Solon of Toorak and spent 2 evenings with them, sampling the local Vino Tinto et al. They are from Ivybridge and purchased their boat recently from Dartmouth so we had much to talk about.

The weather continued to be poor and so we ended up staying in the Marina (at a reduced price) for a full week - the winds being forecast to turn our way on the following Monday. However we were fortunate that the week coincided with the Portosin Fiesta and so we enjoyed music, dancing and general celebrations, many of which went on until 3.00 in the morning. But we were asleep by then!

The weather is still looking good for our cruise to Lisbon tomorrow - an early start and about 3 days and nights at sea.