1st September - The Joys of anchoring

We arrived in Portosin a few days ago in the Ria de Muros. We spent the first night in the marina which cost €33. The marina was ok , but quite a walk from the small town which did not have very good shops for the yachtsman. We got the bike out and I set off in search of shops. Luckily as I left the marina someone had kindly painted arrows on the road, so I knew which side to ride on. The streets are eerily empty. Having managed to buy some chicken breasts, fish and some milk (more UHT – what is wrong with fresh milk?)  and bread I headed back to the boat on my little bike. The boys were waiting patiently for sliced bread so they could have toast. This is a marina treat when plugged into electric. The bread is called Bimbo which obviously gets a laugh. The boys are relieved that you can still buy nutella but we have not found the syrup for pancakes.

We then set about the washing ritual. It was sunny and breezy so the washing dried nice and quickly. I think the wonderwash (despite being imported from America) has paid for itself. At €5 a wash and we probably do 4 per week. I am hoping this will decrease soon as we dispense with jeans and socks. Yesterday we had the first really hot day. The wind is currently out of the North East and has a real nip to it.

We were told the Tour de Spain was coming through the town, so we walked down but were in the wrong street so missed it. Apparently an English man was in the lead. We did see a couple of helicopters and heard some sirens. I guess as they pass through so quickly no one bothers to do much about promoting it.

We decided that given the wind was coming straight in the Marina we may find better shelter at anchor on the opposite side of the Ria. This turned out to be true and we anchored off a lovely beach. We got the anchor down but the switch to bring it up would not spring into life. Russell tracked it down to the wiring between the switch and the button failing and rummaged in one of his numerous spares lockers and found a new piece of wire. Whilst I played suduko with the boys, Russell replaced the faulty wire and we could get the anchor up again.

We bbq’d the fish onboard and then as it was still hot we went for a swim off the boat before enjoying a hot shower. We had a bit of an unsettled night as we would get sustained gusts finding their way through the valley. By the morning it seemed to have calmed again and we enjoyed a morning of school work followed by an afternoon on the beach. The boys enjoyed snorkelling amongst the rocks and loved chasing the fish. The water is getting warmer, but still chilly for sustained swimming so the boys have been making use of their shorty wetsuits still. I was tempted by a wetsuit swim suit, but I am hopeful that the water will keep getting warmer.  Ethan has lovely brown legs from just above the knee down.

We went ashore in the evening to bbq the chicken and played ball games on the beach. All was still and quitet. A perfect day in a lovely location, this is what sailing is all about…. However, as soon as we got into bed the gentle lapping of the water turned to more of a slap, the gentle flutter of the courtesy flag became an annoying flog. The wind had decided to come out to play. Again it came in big gusts spaced just far enough apart to jolt you awake just as you were nodding off. By the early hours of the morning the gusts were becoming more violent and the boat was swinging unervingly on the anchor. A few trips on deck sugeested we were staying where we should. At 3.30am it was evident that we were not quite where we had started the evening and were not sure if this was just because we had taken up the slack on the chain or we had dragged and reset. Russell sat up for a couple of hours to keep watch and having had gusts of 32 knots and still remained in the same place felt it was safe to return to bed. It doesn’t seem to get light until 7.30am and we decided that when it was light we would move to the next ria down which has a variety of Marinas and boasts supermarkets.

When we lifted the anchor we found we had hooked a lobster pot. The first night we had been circled by a pot boat which seemed to chuck out pots just before dark and not mark them. We can only assume that it was one of these that we had become hooked up on. Luckily for the fisherman we were able to unhook it from the anchor so we didn’t have to cut it free. Unluckily it was empty so no lobster for tea tonight.

With 20 knots of breeze from behind we just pulled out the genoa and set off at 6 knots. With the wind blowing off the land the huge swells we had been enduring had gone. 2 hours later and the wind has typically died and we find ourselves motoring again.