Before I start a reminder
that my diary is my perspective of our travels, it includes very little techy
talk (John does enough of that for the both of us J) but aims to tell the
story of our travels onboard Freya Frey, our 26ft Heavenly Twins catamaran.
Last time I wrote up my
diary I was in France with 22 staples holding together my scar from having the
plate removed from my ankle. The nurse removed them with only one not wanting
to part company with my leg and took more time to remove than all the others
put together. With the exception of that one it was not as painful as I had
thought. I was pleasantly surprised at how soon I was able to walk again, but
decided that a couple of weeks in Cyprus staying with my brother and family
would be the perfect recuperation before heading back to the boat. I was right,
it was lovely and my scar healed nicely whilst I was there.
Towards the end of April I
returned to Spain, where John had finished most of the jobs on the list that
were marked as “to do before we sail”. He had of course saved the scrubbing the
bottom task for my return and we ran Freya Frey up the beach in Ortigueira
(with permission) and pressure washed down her hulls. The benefit of the type
of antifouling we have (something called Coppercoat) means a pressure was all
that was needed and it doesn’t cause pollution like normal antifouling. Neither
does it need replying annually, although after 9 years John thinks it has
finally reached the stage of needing replacing so we have already put that on
the list of tasks for next winter.
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| The beach BBQ |
John had made many friends
during his winter in the town and they were all keen to meet up and share some
time with us before we left. This meant that our social life for the last week
we were there was pretty hectic, with plenty of visitors to the boat, a final
saunter up the ria with some of them, with excellent pasties for lunch provided
by local Cornishman Tony. Another day Tony and his wife organised a BBQ for us
by the beach at Espasante, where about 10 of us gathered and John entertained
all with a borrowed guitar.
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| The pipers came out on our last day in town |
On Sunday 5th we
finally said goodbye to the town and headed down the Ria to an anchorage just
inside the entrance so we could get an early start the next morning on the
falling tide. Unfortunately the boat swung during the night and we went aground
just before we woke up so had to wait for the tide to come back in before
leaving. We aborted our first attempt as the waves were too big on the sand bar
(John got rather wet when one crashed in over the side) so we went back to the
shelter of the anchorage before trying again when the tide was higher. A couple
of hours later we had no problem leaving the ria, although this did demonstrate
why the port of Carino just up the coast made a much more convenient fishing
port being accessible at all states of tide.
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| Our anchorage at Barquiero |
Our route around to the
next Ria to the East (we are heading back to Audierne for La Route De L’Amitie)
took us in the following directions: North West, West, South West finally
South. For almost the entire journey the
wind was on the nose and we were not able to pull the sails out, very
frustrating that it followed us round the headland as it did. It was only a
short cruise of 4.5 hours, so not too much fuel used and we arrived safely in
Barquiero. We had visited this port by car and it reminded us of a little
Cornish Fishing Village, nestled in on a hillside. We were surprised to see
another yacht anchored in the river and shared a couple of cups of coffee with
the French owner. His ability to flip between English, French and Spanish was
incredible and he would use all 3 in the same sentence. We decided a new word
was called for that expands on the existing Espanglish and Franglais.
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| The view of Barquiero from our walk. |
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| Some graffitti that made me smile on a shaped stone |
We set off for a dinghy
trip under the bridges to visit up stream as recommended by the pilot book, but
the Ria was quite wide and the wind had picked up so we gave in and went ashore
for a walk and a beer instead (not a bad alternative J). Early on Wednesday
morning we headed out of Barquiero on the tide to our next destination of Foz.
This time we had a gentle swell heading in the same direction as ourselves and
a south westerly wind so we hauled the sail and enjoyed the journey. There was
only a couple of hours when the wind was strong enough to sail only, with the
rest of the time a bit of motor was needed to keep the speed reasonable.
Foz was somewhere we had
considered visiting on our way westward last summer but could not do so as the
swell was too great on the sand bar. It was a little on the shallow side half
way up the tide as we entered, but we had been overtaken by a fishing boat at
the entrance so we had a guide up the river to the old fishing quay. Now in
summer spending mode marinas are for emergency use only, so we bypassed the
tiny visitors’ basin in search of an anchorage. John dropped me and my bike on
the quayside and I cycled off for fresh provisions whilst he guarded the boat
from his deckchair on the foredeck. Later in the afternoon the wind picked up
again and we took advantage of the high tide to head a little up the river and
hide under the shelter of a hillside out of the wind, in a very peaceful
anchorage. It is in this anchorage that I am writing my diary and hopefully it
won’t be too long before we get to a wifi bar to put it on the blog.
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