Javascript staat uit. Voor een optimale werking moet Javascript worden ingeschakeld.

SailingPegasus.nl - Zeilen met de Pegasus - Blogdetails
Datum: 26-06-2016    Islas Sisargas en Corme
 Wednesday 22-06-2016 to Sunday 26-06-2016
We want to see as much as possible of the North-Spanish coast, that is why we move on little by little.
In between Cabo San Adrian (after the town of Malpica) and Muros, there are three Rias: Corcubiòn, Camariñas and Corme Y Laxe. A rough coastline, the so called “Costa Da Muerte”, the Coast of Death. It got its name from the innumerable shipwrecks that occurred here at the Atlantic Coast and from its roaring storms. According to an old legend, the inhabitants of the coast deliberately put out all the light, so the passing ships shipwrecked on the deadly rocks. After that, they helped themselves to everything that washed ashore. On nice days the landscape looks really beautiful, but with the suddenly emerging mist, which often appears here, it can be dangerous. The many wrecked ships are the silent witnesses. The landscape has a rough beauty and is still untouched, along the coast there are narrow, sloping roads with breathtakingly steep cliffs, abandoned beaches and quiet Rias with numerous sleepy fishing-villages.
 
We leave La Coruña to sail on to the little island of Islas Sisargas, via Cabo San Adrian; about 25 miles. This island is a nature reserve and is only inhabited by birds; it has a little bay in which you can anchor very well at north wind. We sail out of the harbour, past the peninsula where the “torre de Hercules” is built on and make some nice pictures. The weather is fine, but little wind, so another day on main sail and engine. When we come in the neighbourhood of Islas Sisargas, a mist suddenly rises, that encloses us not much later. Luckily we have fine equipment and instruments to measure any shallow and we can move on, feeling safe. Of course you still have to pay attention, because of all the rocks. We have calculated our arrival at low tide, so that we can get a better idea of the situation near the island. As quickly as the mist has come up, it goes away (a little). Sailing into the bay, we notice we’re not the only boat, there already is a French one.
Well now, the first 1000 sea miles are finished.
In this bay, you’ll find a beach and a slope where you can go ashore; on top of the island is a lighthouse. We are not finished yet with the mist, there are moments when you even can’t see the shore and that gives you a very spooky feeling. Because we want to be absolutely sure we are safely fixed to the anchor, we stay on board for at least one night, before we take the dinghy to the shore. We set the anchor alert at 50 metres, so that we are warned when the anchor crabs (moves away). We do this with the WatchDog of OpenCPN. Despite the gusts of mist it is very warm. A fishing boat comes alongside with two smiling fishermen who hand over a plastic bag with fish. Fred wants to know how much they are, but no, they are really really free. One of the fishermen throws a last little fish at us, that lands in the cockpit. We thank them very much and then they are gone. So we are having fish for dinner tonight! They turn out to be about 6 mackerels, more than enough. They have to be filleted and at last the course we followed in Katwijk pays off. I do what I can, but the fish are very slippery and I don’t have that much experience, but anyway, sometime later they are simmering away in the pan. With some leftover bread we have a very nice meal, thanks to the fishermen!
In the beginning there is a bit of rolling, but it increases that much during the night, that we get the sensation of being inside a washing machine. We are NOT going to stay here another night! The next day we leave the bay, which is submerged in sea mist again. How happy we are with our tools! As soon as we are past the island, we catch enough wind to sail. We sail nicely, although not too fast, 5 knots. We have all the time in the world, it is only 16 miles to Corme. We only tack once to reach the Corme bay. The sun has come out too and in no time we are in shorts in the cockpit relishing the fine weather.
On the way we encounter a group of sailing boats from OceanPeople who want to go from Holland to the Azores and back again in three months. So they are in a hurry, noticeable by the fact that they race by, all on the engine, some with sails up. So this group sails between 5th of June and 27th of August there and back again and when you want to join in, it is gonna cost you a tidy amount of € 4500! Not what we would call relaxed sailing…
 
We are nearing Laxe y Corme, we go to Corme because this bay is sheltered at north wind. When we sail on to the jetty, we have to be alert again: here there are also the so called mussel beds. Dutchman Peter (from Cedeira) told us they are no longer in use and that is quite clear; some of them are lying completely bagged in the water. There is one English boat in the bay, so we have enough room to find us a nice spot.
Corme is a fishing-village, built on an offshoot of a mountain, with steep streets and 3 pretty beaches. It is a bit of a desolate village, hardly any tourists and merely 2 of 3 shops. There is a small supermarket, which has not much fresh wares, a mini-butchery with quality meat and a baker, who recognises us after only two visits, can you imagine! We have a meal once at the “Miramar-bar”, a restaurant where the locals eat, so it must be good! Another time we eat at “A Brinca”, where a friendly Spaniard explains to us in rather good English about the food we are having and there we have tasty tapas, accompanied by the music of …Johnny Cash. They are frantically building a number of apartments, especially for the tourists, but we figure that it will take some time before they are habitable.
On the boulevard, with beautiful green palm trees, we see mural paintings with the words “Costa De Morte”. Furthermore we see some dolphins in the bay. In the harbour there is only one big fishing boat and some smaller ones. The bay is nice and quiet, so it’s perfect for us.

During the day we see youths on the beach, piling up everything that is flammable onto one big heap. This is to be in honour of the “Night of San Juan”, to celebrate the beginning of summer; the fire is to be lit at 12 o’clock in the night. In the next couple of days there are more and more boats coming in, but they only stay for one night. Finally, we are the only boat left. That should have warned us a little, don’t you think? Because not long after that, the wind starts to blow more and more with the bigger waves and we see/feel the anchor slowly moving. At the given moment where we almost hit a mussel bed, it is high time to berth the boat elsewhere. We hoist the anchor, sail in a circle and try to drop anchor once more. The wind is still north-north-east, so theoretically we are pretty sheltered. We try a number of times to anchor, but the anchor doesn’t get any grip and each time we float back to the mussel beds. Leaving the bay in this weather is not an option, especially since the forecast is that the wind is going to increase even more in the days to come. It is also late in the afternoon and we never ever want to arrive at an unknown place after dark. So we make the breakthrough and sail onto the quay, despite the fact that you are not allowed to berth there, but necessity knows no law. The wind blows us to the high end of the quay, so all the fenders are on that side and a few moments later we are fixed against the quay.
Because there is a 2 metres difference in height between high and low tide, we have to adjust the lines to the shore every two hours, so we have a pretty broken night. But we are so glad that we can put the garden hose around the rope to good use now, that saves us a lot of squeaking! The wind rises to 26 knots (wind force 6) and the waves beat against the boat. Obviously not the most ideal spot, but the best for now; in about two days the wind will die down and then we will leave for the next stop.  In the morning Fred gets us a fresh bread from the baker, that we nibble with a boiled egg, which makes up for a lot. The weather looks sunnier, but the wind is still quite strong. In the afternoon we walk to the village for lunch, the rest of the time we sit out to the end for now, tomorrow we move on!
----------
 
 
1-07-2016, reactie van Aad
Oei, een vismaaltijd....
Je weet toch hoe Fred denkt over graten? :-)
 
4-07-2016, reactie van Rene Schwab
Als ik het goed zie, zitten jullie weer op zee. Wanneer volgt 'de grote oversteek' of is de route nog via via? Andere vraag die me bezighoudt: Komen jullie behalve het nuttigen van tapasjes en vismaaltijden alsook het inslaan van voldoende gas, nog aan werken toe, of is het een en al luilekkerland?
Groet, René
 
4-07-2016, reactie van Fred
René, is wel grappig dat je dat zegt.
Juist in Corme crashte één van de internetservers. Het hele weekend ben ik bezig geweest om iedereen over te zetten op de reserve internetserver.
Het eerste weekend in juli zijn de klanten weer teruggezet naar een gloednieuwe server.
Al met al heel veel uren werk!!
 ----------
     << Terug >>