Ria de Arousa (Isla de Arousa) to Ria de Pontoverda (Aguete)
20 June 2014
Stu & Shar

The following morning we walked over the hill to the fishing village on the other side of the island, this was a typical fishing village with the usual sights and smells of a Spanish town...some of these are not pleasant...took a tour of the local 'fish factory' that had been closed for many years and was now a museum, from what we could tell it was mostly sardines and mussels that were canned here, unfortunately our Spanish let us down when trying to translate the information provided.....we wandered through the back streets of the town and were not surprised to see that many people were living a very basic lifestyle, still fetching water from a well and walking to and from town....a large majority of houses didn't have cars, to contrast this .....TV aerials and satellite dishes were everywhere.....back at the boat we pulled up anchor and motored past mussel rafts, set main and heady and beat westward towards the passage between the headland at the southern end of the Ria de Arousa and Isla de Onz, which brought us around into the Ria de Pontoverda. Yesterday and today were very hazy and humid days but today a nice consistent wind around 8-10kts was blowing and we had a great sail beating into it. We pulled on the pontoon in Aguete after doing a 'man overboard drill' with a fender that wasn't quite tied on right, to be hosted by the local yacht club, which was quite a plush building inside, that was built in the shape of a ship bridge deck, nice touch as it worked well with the location on the side of the hill. The club was run by friendly and helpful people and was a good stopover.....Jack had been rabbiting on about a 'BB Gun' (air powered pistol) since he arrived and was determined to get one. He was told by 'Santa' who ran the small hotel we stayed at in Santiago, that he could buy one in Ponteverda....So we hopped on the local bus to Pontoverda in search of the BB Gun. I must add these are legal in Spain, but not many other places, so Jack was warned it was going to be a disposable item and probably go for a swim or be confiscated when we had passed Spain and Portugal, this didn't deter Jack and after talking to the Tourist office, who in turn phoned the Police to check where these could be bought, Jack found the pistol he wanted.....Then it was a quick look around the old town and back to the boat. We arrived just in time to see one of the local boats being relaunched on the swing lift after being antifouled....no thought of safety.....just hold your breath and hope something doesn't snap......there were kids, dogs and a number of people walking around and under the boat as this was happening, people yelling instructions even though the habour master was running the show, even the police turned up to have a look. Eventually it went in the water and the owner motored it off to his mooring without mishap....just another day in Spain :o)....all good.