The Spanish Rias continued.......

Our sunnniest sail yet leaving Muros and heading for Ria De Arousa, we are finally gaining patience with the wind and were happy moving along for 3knots for at least part of the day whilst the wind was building. The scenery entering the Ria was stunning, there is a small nature reserve island at the entrance which meant there were a whole variety of seabirds, not that we are experts but just nice to see. As it was the weekend there were actually other sailing boats in the Ria, navigation was a bit trickier than normal but nice to have something to challenge us and only because of the amazing scenery.

The Ria is much larger than the others we have visited so there are a various ports which we can visit so almost 10nm up the river to Pobra Du Caraminal (41nm total) and we anchored opposite a lively beach, it was after 6pm and absolutely baking hot.  Even though the Ria had been reasonably busy with boats we were the only ones anchored and obviously most were local boats and heading back the marinas. 

When we set off to explore on Sunday morning we were a bit early for the Spanish and the town (almost a large village) was very quiet but we did stumble across a passing cycling race obviously quite a big event as lots of police closing the roads and all fully branded Spanish teams with support cars, etc, Mark was cheering them on!  By lunch time there were lovely old squares and parks filled with people, the Spanish know how to lunch.  Magnum was still all on here lonesome in the anchorage even though we were right next to the marina.

We were so lucky that the weather was settled and we had two peaceful nights at anchor and a couple of days to explore by which time we had seen the town twice!

As the wind picked up in the afternoon we headed off across the river to anchor close to the largest town in the Ria, Vilagarcia.  We managed to sneak in close to a nature reserve island – Isla Cortegada. After dinner we decided to explore the island (we have now found out you need a permit and should not have been on the island!), well I (Amanda) was happily sat in her PJs but Mark decided I needed to get up, The Island had huge variety of trees, pines, firs and eucalyptus it was all very pretty and we had it all to ourselves – surprising since we were not supposed to have been there! We had about an hour walking around and felt like real adventurers! Very privileged and lucky to miss the thunderstorms which were happening the other side of the Ria.

Your taxi awaits Madam

Amanda amazed by trees

Our beautiful boat from the Island

Leaving our beautiful Island

Next day we were into marina at Vilagarcia, more really lovely locals, the marina guy spoke great English so he helped us sort out our permits for sailing around Islas Cies which is nature reserve we are hoping to get to within the week, he copied, faxed and emailed everything that was needed – what a star! He even gave us his card and told us to get in contact if we needed anything at all whilst still in Rias.   Marina not too pricey since it was the largest town in the Ria, good news!  Had really pretty old town and lovely beach with big long promenade so at least it was nice to get some exercise. Shame we were only there for the 1 night and then off we went.

Next stop Vilanova actually only about 6 miles away down the Ria, small local marina, worth mentioning that not seen any English boats since La Coruna and still no other visiting yachts!  Again fantastic people, we are constantly amazed by how helpful people have been and made such a huge effort to speak English when we can’t speak Spanish.  I thought Estelle the woman at the laundry place was going to ask us to dinner but she just wanted to give us a hug and a kiss!  We had 3 relaxing nights tied up in the marina with the wind howling around us, it gave us our first opportunity to get the bikes out and both our bums suffered!  Couple of miles outside the village and across a 2Km bridge was Isla De Arousa, absolutely stunning little island with beautiful sandy beaches and quaint little fishing villages.  We were treated to 2 sunny days so we made the most of beaches although the sea was freezing!

Beach for lunch on day 1 

Fishing village 

Beach for lunch day 2 

I was desperate to stay for another day but we knew we had to move on.

Next Ria for us to visit was Ria Pontevedra, sail was short only 18 miles, Mark used the time to polish some bits and pieces on the boat, I tried to do some exercise but gave up and took up “twitching” instead. Out with the binoculars and the bird book ! Saw   Weather was baking again! Anchored between two tourist resorts Sanxenxo and Porto Nova beach was absolutely packed as Saturday afternoon.  Sea looked really inviting, Mark dived in only to find it was still freezing!  Popped over to see the sights on Sunday, hugely busy resort lots of people making the most of the beach.  It was also a big day yesterday as Amanda went in the sea, absolutely freezing!!! Nearly died!!  The other big incidence was that we were boarded by customs, not at the best time as Amanda was standing naked washing her hair downstairs! The customs guys were mortified when Mark told them to hang on a sec because his wife was just showering so much so that they took a lot of cajoling to even sit in the cockpit. They calmed down once Amanda popped here head out to say Hola, but they still never ventured below to search for drugs !! They were very pleasant and they made the visit as painless as possible, what was also quiet interesting was they told us that we had been very lucky as the weather was the best they had in last 50 years!! They also recommended the next stop in the Ria.