| Datum: | 16-07-2016 Ria de Arousa | | | | Tuesday, 05-07-2016 to Saturday, 16-07-2016
Today we leave for the largest Ria in Galicia on the west coast of Spain, the Ria de Arousa.
This region is known for its mussel beds; these are large wooden rafts with beams from which hang long strings of rope. The mussels attach themselves to these ropes. This Ria is one whole nursery of mainly mussels and is divided in several different sectors; each village has a number of beds. Another thing that this Ria is known for, is for the tastiest white wines in Spain, unique views, beautiful pine woods and heavenly white beaches with stunning sunsets. It certainly is one of the most beautiful Ria’s up till now.
A strong wind, must be 21 knots (force 5), blows when we lift anchors. We put the 2nd reef in the mainsail and some moments later we also put the jib up, when we sail out of the Ria de Muros. Once at sea, the wind sinks, Fred takes out the reef and we sail with full sail. It is good sailing weather, pretty waves, fantastic! On request of my youngest son, I make a little video. We sail past the Cabo Corrubedo, direction Isla Sàlvora, which we have to round to get into the Ria de Arousa. Then suddenly the wind picks up to 25 knots and Fred puts the 2nd reef back in the mainsail. Oh well, it keeps us busy! As we sail further into the Ria, it gets warmer and the wind picks up even more.
The first stop we land at, lies in the north of the Ria, called Boiro. We pick this one on the recommendation of Peter, the guy we met in Cedeira. As soon as we near the bay, we see that the “Bojangles” lies anchored there. We drop our anchor in front of the large beach, at a proper distance. Again we use both anchors, so we know we will be fixed well. This time we also attach the yellow anchor buoy, to see where the anchor lies. Moments later, the “Freya” comes in and drops anchor, it is beginning to look like a Dutch colony!
The first time we take the dinghy to town, we secure it in the harbour. In retrospect not the smartest spot, because it is quite a walk to the centre of the town. The next time we navigated straight on to the large beach and fastened the dinghy there. It is a bit of a haul to get the boat on the beach, but the walking distance is much shorter. Due to the many, many feasts in Spain here also is a funfair and some stalls with mainly South-American and African sellers. Here there is a variety of café’s and eateries, plenty of choice. We are acquiring the ‘Art of Dining’ like the Spaniards do: a drink, tapas, another drink, tapas…etc. I’m nuts about gambas and the tortilla is not too bad either. The afternoons we spend reading and swimming, Fred checks his mail and does the urgent business, in short, we amuse ourselves. After a cosy dinner, we punt the dinghy back to the boat. We see some people walking along the waterline with flashlights and we ask what they are doing there. The answer comes moments later as the fish jump up from the water, in front of our dinghy, almost into the dinghy. That’s an easy way to fish, pity we didn’t bring our landing-net.
In the daytime, we see dozens of fishing boats laying on the beach and with long, flexible poles they poke in the ground. At the end of the poles is some sort of rake with a basket, with which they scrape shells from the ground. Sometime later we see the boats one by one putting overboard what they have caught earlier on. It seems to be a joint action to plant them out in a new area.
For our 2nd stop in this Ria, we navigate with great ease in between the mussel beads, something we wouldn’t do so lightly before. This time we drop anchor near the village of Rianxo, a small but beautifully green bay with a little beach. We don’t lie here on our own, during the day there are more boats anchoring here, of which the most leave at the end of the afternoon.
It is warm even at night and we sleep only covered by a sheet, also because Kit has confiscated our duvet! (see pic)
The first night is quiet - we eat pintail-squid in white wine and lemon juice and as a starter a “filete de Tenera” with tortilla – until the music explodes from ashore, yet another Spanish fiesta. English, Spanish and French music up to the wee small hours. The village itself is not much of anything, by the way.
Time for the third stop, the town of Vilagarcia de Aoursa. The moment we leave for the third spot, there are almost a hundred small boats crowding us. There is an average of two man per boat and they are really poking away with their sticks. This time they are harvesting for themselves. Cautiously we sail past the small boats and the mussel beds and the many little rocks that are there. I can’t even begin to think that you would have to sail through here at night without good instruments! Time to look for a real marina again, it is almost 11 days since we saw our last shower and it is high time for cleaning some laundry too. Maybe you ask yourself how it is with our personal hygiene on board, now that we don’t enter a port that much. We have two showers, interior and exterior, who give warm water, but only for just a short while and only if we have used the engine that whole day. Now, don’t jump to conclusions about our washing habits: it is not that we haven’t washed for 11 days! Every now and then, Fred puts a kettle on and then we have warm water to freshen up. Well,…you know….we have to make do. Just like in the old days, camping! Furthermore, whenever possible we swim to clean up. So don’t be afraid that we are looking like a couple of vagabonds by now. Pity, this marina has no washing machine, we have to go into town for that. It’s quite a walk, but worth the trouble. The self-service laundrette “Oso Blanco” is open from 9:00 to 22:30 and the washers/dryers are superfast. You can find the address on http://www.lavanderiasosoblanco.es.
It is a medium sized marina with a friendly harbour master, who even speaks Dutch, since he has lived in Amsterdam for a few years and he likes to talk Dutch once more. Pity we don’t get a discount. The town of Vilagarcia de Aoursa is a trading- and fishing port as well as a seaside resort with a boulevard, a modern city centre and shops. There are little churches and squares with beautiful old sycamores and benches in the shadows and some narrow streets, where you can find many small restaurants and bars. One night we fell upon a very good Taperia-Vinoteca, called “Xoxe’s “, on the Rua da Baldosa 10, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Taperia-Vinoteca-Xoxes/350873025023801. Here we are serviced by a very kind waiter. This man looked a lot like Ton van Duinhoven, some of you older people might remember this wonderful actor! Expressive face, very special eyebrows and large open eyes. We even get our wine in the proper glasses and I get to taste the wine beforehand! With every new drink, we get new, pretty little tapa and of course it is not just the one glass….
At a given moment we decide to eat something or we will never make it back to the boat and not much later we eat heartily of all the goodies. This Taperia is really a suggestion!
After we have done some shopping for the next few days, we are ready for take-off to the 4th landing.
There is a stiff wind and we sail only on the mainsail. We had the intention to anchor at San Xulian de Arousa, but this bay is strewn with rocks and there were already several boats. Furthermore there was this strong wind, so we decided to go on, to the town of Cambados. We read the wind would increase to 25 knots, so we throw both our anchors, to keep us firmly fixed. That same night the boat swings considerably, but we don’t let it bother us, only I am troubled by the sound of the clacking of the ropes and in the end put in my ear-plugs. Next day is Fred’s programming day and I do some website-maintenance by posting some of the English translations of our blogs. Courtesy of my dear friend Mila, these translations.
Since the power supply is well in order – the batteries load very well with the solar panels and the wind generator – we can easily watch a movie now and then, have both the pc’s on and bake a bread in the baking machine. Before, we used the bread machine only for kneading and proving and we baked the bread in the oven, on gas. But now we even can have the machine bake it and 3 hours later we have a nice fresh bread on the table. Let’s be honest, nothing tastes better than a warm slice of bread with butter! I also have, even although we are laying on anchor, taken out my sowing machine to sow new Velcro tape onto the sunscreen of the upper-hatch and also make an insect screen (against the flies and the mosquitos) for that same hatch. The batteries are almost 100% all of the time and that is why we don’t have to go into a marina to get shore power. That’s how we pass the time. Cambados is a nice pretty town, houses with red roof tiles, narrow streets, old buildings, churches (always have a look inside), squares with giant palm trees, a park (with beautiful trees) with a view on our boat and… a couple of bagpipers in the streets. We walk into a market hall where all the fresh fish is on display and I take pictures: some of these very special examples I really don’t want to run into while swimming!!
I have a little abnormality (some of you would now say “Only one?” *GRIN*): I like taking pictures of extraordinary doors (especially run-down ones), lanes with old trees, fish on display or other colourful goods.
At the end of a sunny day we prepare a couple of snacks, have a glass of wine and moments later lit the BBQ. In the cockpit Fred and I are enjoying immensely our new way of life! This is really what you call the “Rich Life”.
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| | | 22-07-2016, reactie van Carel | Bij die vissenkoppen denk ik dan maar: ....... en toch worden ze gegeten.
Ik hou het maar bij een harinkje of een scholletje.
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