Now we are in Portugal

We have travelled a fair distance since the last post. We were on a bit of a mission because we had set a date to meet our daughter Miranda in Porto, so there was a long way to go in not a huge amount of time. After our traumatic 200 mile passage through the lightning we arrived in Laredo on the northern coast of Spain and from there we went to Gijon, a distance of around 80 miles. The following day we went on to Ribadeo which was another 60 miles.

To be honest, these passages weren't enjoyable. The wind was consistently from the West so we had to motor all the way which was bad enough, but to cap it all the weather was awful! Having experienced some sunny warm weather as we went further south along the French coast, we had expected it to be even warmer in Spain but in fact all along this Galician coast it was cold at sea and the visibility was dreadful with long periods of thick fog. Jan dug out the hats and gloves that we had stowed thinking now in Spain in mid June we wouldn't need them for a while; and we consoled ourselves with hot chocolate, Cup-a-Soup and switched on the radar.

The last Cup-a-Soup!

Thank God for the radar! Sailing in 20m visibility is terrifying but you can set an alarm on the radar which alerts you if anything enters the guard zone in front of the boat. It was still terrifying but a lot less  scary than it would have been without it.

From Ribadeo we went to La Coruna, and now the wind was from the East so we could sail. There is a saying, "be careful what you wish for". The wind picked up; the wave height increased; and before we knew it there was 25 knots of wind and 3m seas. At the start of the passage I had considered getting out the spinnaker - I was very grateful that I hadn't! Even without the spinnaker we were surfing down waves at over 9 knots and we did at one point go the fastest the boat has ever been at 10.5 knots. Jan said 'thank goodness my mum can't see me!' We were pleased to arrive in one piece.

Entering La Coruna

La Coruna was nice and the weather improved a bit so we decided to give ourselves a rest and stayed there for a couple of days before braving the next stage, which was to include rounding Cape Finisterre and the most westerly point of Europe.

From La Coruna it was on to Ria de Muros and we chose a fairly benign day for this passage so there were no issues en route, but there are a lot of nasty rocks offshore on this coast so we gave them a very wide berth.

From Muros we went on to Bayona. 

On the rough, craggy Atlantic coast in the fog we hadn't dared risk anchoring and the marina berthing fees were starting to add up so when we arrived at the comparatively sheltered spot in Muros we decided to anchor for the first time. That went well so we decided to anchor again in Bayona. The weather was good and we found it such a nice spot we decided to stay for 3 days - a saving of over €150!

Our anchorage in Bayona

From Bayona it was 60 miles to Porto and although sunny and benign when we set off the most horrendous fog descended again.  Nothing we had read in preparation for our journey mentioned this level of fog or the chill on this coast so we are not sure whether it is the norm or we have just been a bit unlucky.

So now we are in Porto for a few days, reunited with our daughter. what a lovely and exciting city this is turning out to be. We will post more details about Porto itself on our next blog