SV Songbird

La Coruna to Corme

13 June 2014
Stu & Shar
On Leaving Coruna we refuelled and set out into what was a light fog (vis >300M), It got thicker as we headed further offshore with vis down to < 50M....the Radar was set to high gain for anything inside 3nm, so it was almost picking up the seagulls, the sea was dead calm with a slight swell...then the blast of a ships fog horn sounded....on checking the AIS there was a small oil tanker bound for Algiers's following us out of port, our AIS was running so they could clearly see us....for the next hour and a half they sounded their fog horn every minute, while slowly moving past us on a parallel heading exactly 1.5nm off our starboard bow. When the fog lifted they increased their speed and soon disappeared over the horizon. The wind picked up and blew what was left of the fog away, we rolled out the headsail as we were travelling downwind and started to pick up pace. It was a nice sunny day and as it is with NW corner of Spain, it has its own weather patterns and when it blows it blows pretty hard....fortunately it was from behind but with half a headsail we were moving along at a steady 8-8.5kts. With the wind comes the wind waves and a bit of swell, so we moved around quite a bit had a few 'surfing' runs with the wave pattern that had formed, Jack thought this was fun, Shar on the other hand had a close relationship with the cockpit floor. Not ideal for a first day out, but the run to Corme was quick and we were tucked into the bay next to the town, firmly set on anchor by mid-afternoon. We had an early dinner, launched the dinghy and headed into town for tapas and a beer/wine...the tapas was for Jack as he has seriously hollow legs, which constantly need filling.......Corme was a sleepy little town, which I don't think had too many tourists as we were obviously checked out by the locals...people were coming out of doorways and looking out of windows as we wandered along the back streets...mind you we were in our wet weather jackets. We found a great little 'Tapas Bar' with a very helpful waiter, which overlooked the bay and washed out the salt from the day....this was a very pleasant setting on a nice sunny day...but there's a more sinister side to this section of coast....my original intention was to pick Shar and Jack up further south in the 'Ria de Muros', but as time and tide is against every man, it was not to be....this corner is known locally as the "Cost de Morte"...or "Coast of death"... very understandable why, it's a poorly charted region with quite a number of areas on the charts you just give a wide berth. This would be a nightmare on a cold wet miserable night in a bad storm trying to locate one of the few safe havens on this coast. You can see why so many lives have been lost here. The charts indicate numerous isolated rocks in 20+ metres of water, this smells of a poorly surveyed area....simply put...give these a wide berth and tread water here very carefully......Some froggies have anchored right next to us in a large bay with plenty of room, just enough swing room so we don't hit, why they do this I don't know, anywhere in the bay would have been fine...
Comments
Vessel Name: Songbird
Vessel Make/Model: Dufour 40E
Hailing Port: Fremantle - Australia
Crew: Stuart & Sharanne

Songbird

Who: Stuart & Sharanne
Port: Fremantle - Australia