The Spanish Rias

We left La Coruna on Tuesday after a week in what we felt was a lovely city. We met an English couple (Trevor and Leslie) cruising the same way as us on the Monday night so set off with them early on Tuesday for Camarinas. There was not a breath of wind for the whole 45 miles until we were within 30 mins of the marina!

Camarinas was very nice with lots of foreign boats cruising down the coast stopping off here. The landscape was fantastic and it was our first taste of the Spanish Ria's. Unfortunately Kate ate something that disagreed with her so we spent the following day on the boat lazing around, but it was nice to be in the sunshine doing not a lot. We planned to leave after 2 nights, but the following morning the sky was as black as thunder over the notorious Cape Finisterre so we stayed put. The following morning we again black clouds but decided to set off anyway as it didn't look as bad. We left with blue sky and sunshine, no wind. We soon got a little rain, then head winds, then thunder and lightning, then beam winds upto 30 knots, then stern winds, then no wind, and then fog so thick we couldn't see Kishorn (Trevor and Leslie's boat) even though on the radar it was only 0.15 miles away! We rounded into Muros and finally saw the land when we got within 0.2 miles of the coast.

We anchored off the town in Muros which was nice, went ashore in the dinghy to explore in the evening (no where to land really and ended up on a horrid slipway covered in creepy crawlies - Kate and Leslie not impressed!). We wondered around the tiny streets and found a bar just before it started to rain - then the thunder came - the loudest thunder I have ever heard! We darted back to the boat in between rain showers, but the thunder and lightning lasted 10 hours into the early hours of the morning! The next day we had calm weather but horrid muggy clouds and whilst not cold it wasn't warm either. We went over to Kishorn in the evening for card games and drinks.

We set off early the following morning despite more fog, both determined to get back to the sunshine. No wind again, we motored round to Ria De Arosa and found a beautiful island to anchor off for lunch. We went ashore but unfortunately it was a national park and got asked for a permit or to leave! So we motored on up the Ria to the Island in the centre and anchored off the beach. White sand, blue waters, perfect. Had a BBQ tea on Kishorn last night which was amazing, and awoke this morning to more sunshine anchored off the beach!

A day of exploring today and hoping to find an internet terminal to get more info on the national park permit - the next island we hope to visit is also in the park and we need a sailing permit, anchoring permit and landing permit apparently!