Sundowner II log – 2004 update 6- Santander to La Coruna

Sunday 29th August
With a good weather report of North East 10 knot winds and completely rested we headed out of Santander as the sun went down and nearly got run down by 2 large ships at anchor in the dark! With no moonlight due to the heavy skies and large seas we were totally scared witless by a school of porpoises which came leaping out of the pitch darkness and played around a while before slipping away.
There is something about the sea in Biscay, more than just reputation, something menacing even on a calm day a slight bit of wind and the dark water sort of pinnacles a bit like the top of a meringue would be an appropriate description if it was black and made of lead. It increases with the wind into a molten monster determined to jostle you from the inside out and as much as you try to ignore him you can’t because he has surrounded you and is coming at you from all angles. I’m sure if you asked to be his friend he’d tell you to go forth and multiply.
The entrance to Ribadesella is another one to be timed right with 1 hour before high tide a must. Sandra translated our pilot book, our gift from our French friends, which also said how Ribadesella is well worth a visit but if there is any north in the wind or a sign of a slight wave turn away and make sure that you visit another day. Well, after a bad night of total crap we were 5 hours early and as the sea was calm and there was no wind we started our turn up the transit and this is when the wind came as predicted - 20 hours late. Decision made we carried on and had the fortune to have a fishing boat arrive and show us the way at the last minute. With most of the quay reserved for fishing vessels we approached a long stretch of wall with 2 locals leaning over the rail. We gestured was it was alright to come alongside, they ok’d it and with a couple of metres to go we slowly bumped the rocks just below the surface. The two, what we now presume to be holidaymakers, skulked off heads bowed. After motoring up and down for ages an English couple shouted from the quay for us to go alongside their boat as they were leaving in an hour, which they did after a good chat. – they being only the second English we have met since Paimpol. The next day with spring tides, full moon and wind the entrance showed us it’s full glory with waves breaking across the bay bringing the surfers out by the dozen. The local fishing boats also joined in as they returned home. So it was time for some maintenance on the boat. Poor Perkins is so upset after the previous trip he’s started to cry a little tear of oil every time he is switched on. - it’ll be alright Uncle Colin in Thornham is sorting out a remedy. We have sussed his rusty skin problem though, as every time we hit a large wave the seawater surges up the drain outlet spraying him all wet. An amusing visit to the local hardware store supplied the necessary plumbing parts. We now have a new member to the bob club – Valentin from Mexico – who’s dream is to live on a boat from which the bob burgee will fly proudly. He wasn’t confused with the rules – as we all know there aren’t any, they don’t exist, not in this dimension anyway. The following day we tried to see the caves but it was fully booked so we went to the dinosaur walk that we couldn’t find. Even though we knew the caves were fully booked we thought we would try anyway and we set off early and waited. Later two young American women arrived and promptly ran through the doors as they opened and on being told it was fully booked, in front of dozens of people, went into one of those loud it’s not fair foot stomping attacks that you have when you come from a perfect world – must be in the jeans. Not that they were wearing jeans – rather fectchy half-mast tracksuit bottoms and brilliant white long socks. Mind you we can’t say much as in the bar on our first night Sandra said look in the mirror and shock horror – who the hell’s that, looked like two characters from Dr Who and with no settee to jump behind we had another beer.
We visited a local Sideria establishment being as we were in cider country and witnessed the local custom of the unique way of pouring which consists of holding the bottle above the head and pouring it into the glass which is held at the hip, and also onto the surrounding floor, bucket or special barrel shaped altar. You then bolt the small volume of cider from the glass and sit and wait and amuse yourself until the bartender deems fit that you are ready for another gulp. This carries on until the bottle is not quite empty but is finished so as you are still thirsty you order another bottle and go through the whole process again except that you don’t order another but go home and drink some of the bottles you bought earlier. By then it’s 3 o’clock in the morning so you sleep because there’s some entertainment at the caves tomorrow.
Thursday 2nd September
Well, that was one of our most bizarre trips. We left then arrived, not even hoisting a sail, just a phone call from Colin to check on Perkins but he sounded ok to him over the phone. He may have to fly in on his way to Florida if he gets any worse. We also replied to a text from Nats and Jason in Maui. A welcome shower and shave after tidying and cleaning Sundowner we strolled into Gijon – it’s big! On the way back we fell upon the Roman baths that were very good and so well presented. Unreal to think that we are only just installing under floor heating now and old big nose was doing it a couple of thousand years ago. I don’t know, it will be wine by the barrel and public orgies next. I wonder how things are going at Beaucette…..
Friday 3rd September
We awoke early all set to head west but a look over the harbour wall cast some doubt. We checked with the marina manager if the swell would be alright and not too much for the entrance to Cudillero and got the ok. There must have been some translation problem because when we made a final check over the wall a dozen or more small fishing boats were fighting their way up and down the swell – all returning home and it wasn’t even 10 o’clock. So we went for a walk. There is a lovely big sea front in Gijon and today the surfers were out in force making the most of the onshore breakers. Time for coffee and tapas – we wouldn’t be going anywhere today. After a stroll along the long front we spotted a football ground and on the way to it passed through a beautiful park with hundreds of birds – flocks of a wide variety, strange ducks, peacocks, swans and geese, not to mention the parrots and rabbits in the large aviary. The grounds man let us in to tour the football stadium and after a bit of shopping in the large city centre we found a bar selling Guinness. Well, good intentions and all that, one pint led to several and a few mandatory free ones. Being a bit of a bikers bar there was plenty of loud music in the Rivendel Café especially from Guns and Roses. The two happy friendly locals even presented us with a parting gift of a leather mask depicting one of the local mythological forest dwellers – Busgosu. Even though we couldn’t speak each other’s language we managed to have some interesting conversations involving Stonehenge, Glastonbury and King Arthur – a book about which Jesus (a bizarre name for a cultist but not as bizarre as his nickname Chucho – which means a dog in the street) was reading a the time.
Saturday 4th September
All ready to go again, a quick look over the wall and fog. So we walked up to the top of the headland with it’s panoramic view of, well, not much really, even more fog and mist. So it was time for coffee and tapas again at the friendly little bar on the front, so friendly we were offered pure freshly squeezed orange juice, which was nice but at 2 euros each double the price of the meal. Even though it was still foggy with visibility of about 2 miles it was time to go. We are not quite sure where but the GPS had registered a maximum speed of 10 knots somewhere, we can only assume it was going down one of the large swells as we rounded the headland when leaving Gijon. Another day of motoring into the wind and sea – a nice short journey to Cudillero to make up for the terrifying entry into it’s harbour. It was just a case of controlled surfing into and around the narrow rock strewn gaps. It looked a lot wider coming out on high tide but that just covered the mess underneath we also had the obligatory increase in wind and swell as we approached. There was nowhere to berth and anchoring looked too risky with no space and mooring lines and chains everywhere so we tied up to an old rickety small boat pontoon which managed to hold us all night even through one of the most spectacular thunder storms we have ever seen. The lightening was continuous – flashing across the sky like a faulty fluorescent tube - from before midnight until 5 in the morning.
Sunday 5th September
Up early in the morning and the large Norwegian boat that had tied alongside the wall was now anchored and the British yacht, having dragged it’s anchor, was nudging against a large motor boat. We judged the time to leave at thigh tide when the whirlpools forming behind the rudders decreased. These were caused by the sea surging through the gaps under the sea wall up and into the harbour. This is when Dennis lost the plot, we reversed away from the pontoon and carried on through the harbour, for some reason Dennis just kept going not putting the controls into neutral and then waved to the lad on the Norwegian boat who was having his morning cuppa, having let go of the wheel it proceeded to lock hard to port towards said boat. It later showed on our GPS our speed as 6.9 knots but the garb in the spec for the new props boasts how when travelling you can stop the boat in one and a half times it’s length by throttling straight into the opposite direction, well this is not true – it is one boat length!
The trips are now becoming a bit of a slog with the sails hardly ever hoisted and Perkins crying more tears. It had to happen sometime and it was no surprise when a couple of miles out of Ribadeo we got hit by a squall, luckily we had already taken in the genoa and double reefed the main but it was only up along with the storm sail to aid Perkins or if we had to sail away from the shore. Fortunately we were already on our track towards the entrance to the ria and whooped with glee and raised our hands as we enjoyed the ride – not! With the wind now behind us we were relieved to see the bridge inside the entrance knowing the harbour lay behind it. The next problem was the large bulk carrier escorted by a pilot boat reversing out in front of the bridge and soon to block the whole seaway with the wind and the waves pushing us in we couldn’t stop safely let alone take in the sails. It was then that we noticed that the huge ship wasn’t moving at all but aground on the rocks so we passed and entered the calm and tranquil harbour. We were so glad to arrive and got a nice surprise as we received a warm welcome from one of the staff and we tied up to the new pontoons - we wouldn’t have to tie up to the wall as expected. It was good to see the Norwegian boat there also, they had passed us earlier in the morning, even better when they came by as we were tying up to invite us for a beer. The spring ropes were too short for the long pontoon so with a thank you to Sundowner she was left on just two ropes as we headed to the bar. Sat overlooking the harbour the last hours seemed to belong to another time and space as we enjoyed their company. They had come all the way from Norway via the Caledonian Canal, Ireland, Scillies, Falmouth and France in a great boat called Balder a converted 70 year old fishing boat. We had actually seen them arrive in Gijon after their long trip from Brest and Santander which goes a long way to explain why Johnny hadn’t noticed my expert reverse, stop and go manoeuvre that morning - especially as they had been up all night after their ropes started breaking when they were swinging against the wall in Cudillero. The next day was spent chilling out and another evening spent with Johnny and Anna looking at some great video footage of dolphins alongside their boat and Norwegian Fjords. We waved to them as they left and hope to see them again further on.
Tuesday 7th September
We followed shortly after heading for Viviero. Another slog into the swell and wind and on the lookout for a navigation hazard disguised as a dead whale. It gets a bit like a pantomime as you sail along with either a big sea or heavy weather coming from behind you as you fix your gaze ahead a voice in your head says ‘it’s behind you’ you say ‘oh no it’s not’ the voice then says ‘yes it is’ and all of a sudden it is. We had another visit from dolphins again today – that’s two days running. Viviero was another welcome refuge, more new pontoons, nice town and very reasonably priced especially if you want to winter your boat and only £60 for a lift in and out, also the cheapest San Miguel yet at 80 cents. Dieselled and watered up it was time to move on.
Wednesday 8th September
What we have found is that when we were trying to shorten the journeys we were crossing the shallower ground which does tend to chop up a bit so now we head for deeper water. So we were in the comfort zone 3 miles off land when along with an exclamation from Sandra of ‘where did he come from?’ a large bulk carrier burst through the sudden fog. When the radar was turned on he passed a half a mile away taking most of the fog with him. It was so unexpected as the visibility had been ok just low cloud inland and a front approaching from behind. With thunderstorms forecast we were ready for a drenching not a close encounter of the foggy kind. Just goes to show you can’t relax for a minute. Another carrier crossed our path a couple of miles ahead and again passed a half mile away on the other side - all this after not having seen hardly any boats of any kind for days. Just to calm our nerves a long length of 22mm rope drifted past followed by a piece of netting but no blow up donkey. Wind farms on the land along the coast can give an indication as to the local climate. Without getting too boring about the sea conditions, we are in the Bay after all, but this afternoon was particularly shall we say up and down in sets of threes. As we rounded the cape riding up and down the rather large swells Sandra mentioned how Cape Ortegal was renowned, and when I asked for what she just mentioned weather or something so renowned it is, nice wind farms though. It wasn’t until later we sat down and read an old article from a magazine that said ‘ before getting to La Coruna Ria Cideria is particularly pleasant and well sheltered, the main hazard the rounding of Cabo Ortegal in the extreme North West of Spain, winds can often be strong here’.
After entering the Ria Cideria the anchor was brought out for the first time since Arcachon. It was set using the slack chain method as we still haven’t been able to fit our new depth sounder transducer. So basically we don’t know exactly how deep it is except for the depth given in the chart and the tide times so when the chain, which is marked every 5 metres, goes slack that’s how deep it is. A nice night was spent floating at anchor but not before the plastic debris and weed that had been picked up en route was cleared from the props and the GPS reset to the correct datum as it has been out by 100 metres for the last few weeks.
Thursday 9th September
The sun has got has hat on and the world is flat. A truly good day today, we had a pod of dolphins playing at the bows for a while before they met up with another pod and went off to play elsewhere, plenty of sea birds including a gannet that reminded Dennis of the picture he drew in infant school (not very long ago) which had a similar sort of landscape, and a visit from another robin. The sea flollopped like a big soft mattress undulating gently in a very lazy manner. With the sails only being hoisted to dry Perkins took us past La Coruna down into the Ria De Betanzos and we found the nice harbour of Port Sada and there was Balder anchored just outside. After showering we took a walk and ended up sampling the local Galician beer that is incredibly strong forcing you to drink far more than you normally would. After a couple of hours we returned to the boat leaving a note on Johnny and Anna’s dinghy as we passed. They soon arrived and a nice evening was had with pizza and wine. Dennis rudely failed to say goodnight as he was sound asleep leaving Sandra to check the lines and crash the hatch onto her hand which is the sort of thing you do when feeling sleepy.
Friday 10th September
Spent all day typing this out but we did nip out for bread and were excited to find fresh milk!!! This may sound odd but fresh milk has been unavailable in Spain so far. Johnny and Anna are going to the internet café between 5 and 7 so if we hurry they will read this and just to be sociable we are going to meet them in the fisherman’s bar at 7.