Ribadeo to Ria de Arosa

10 May – end June 2009

For the remainder of May we made our way slowly along the north coast of Spain. The weather has been generally quite bad this year with a lot of rain, strong winds and high swell, interspersed with short periods of good weather when we took the opportunity to sail on to our next port of call. We had some excellent sails, but also some long periods of motoring due to a lack of wind.

The coast in this part of Spain is incredibly beautiful – tree covered mountains with flooded river valleys between (rias). It’s marvellous to be able to anchor in the rias as it is so beautiful and peaceful.

There are many English people sailing in this area – everyone is very friendly, we invite each other for coffee, drinks etc on each other’s boats, and we all help each other out with advice, jobs and passing on information.

We have also found that the Spanish people we meet are very friendly and helpful – even the woman in the bread shop tries to teach us the names of the different Spanish loaves!

Ports of call:

Ribadeo – a small town on a hill with some interesting buildings.

Viveiro – very attractive old town with many narrow streets where we first saw the enclosed balconies which were fashionable in the 18th-19th centuries and are very common in this region.

Cedeira – at the top of the ria, the old town built on the side of a hill.

Sada marina – from here we had an interesting visit to La Coruna on a grey day, and the historic town of Betanzos which also has an amazing garden, built by a Victorian philanthropist for education and entertainment with grottos, statues, winding flights of steps, and features such as historic scenes on painted panels, scenes from different countries in relief, clock faces with times from around the World, etc.

Corme – a convenient stop to break up a long journey where we anchored for a couple of nights.

Ria de Camerinas – particularly beautiful scenery where we had a lovely walk in the woods.

We rounded Finisterre in a flat calm on 1 July and arrived in the Rias Baixos; there are 4 main rias here with only very short distances between them – a marvellous cruising ground where we intend to stay until the end of August.

Ria de Muros – anchored off Muros then visited Portosin marina briefly to fill up with water, anchored off Punta Aguieria for lunch then returned to Muros for a few days which is a very charming small town with lots of old stone buildings arcaded streets and narrow alleys.

Ria de Arosa – the largest ria in Spain with large areas of mussel farms between which you sail. We caught up with most of our friends from La Rochelle here and have been enjoying their company again. We have been anchored off the beaches at Pobra de Caraminal and Rianxo and were delighted that our new anchor held firm even in a gale.

We’ve now spent a couple of weeks in the marina at Vilagarcia, initially to celebrate a friend’s birthday and our wedding anniversary with a meal out with our friends from La Rochelle. We then stayed for a fiesta; a group of us went out and had a marvellous evening which ended with a bonfire and fireworks. We also decided to take advantage of a friend’s welding skill to have a modification made to the solar panel fixing so that both panels could be permanently mounted above the bimini. This has now been done and we are about to sail around to the next ria for a week or so.

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Isle d’Oleron, Gijon

2 – 8 May

We finally left La Rochelle on the 2nd May for a short motor (no wind) over to St Denis on the Isle d’Oleron. On the trip over we tested out the steering, checked the compass and generally checked over the boat, ensuring everything was ready for the long trip to Spain the next day.

Departed from France on Sunday 3rd May and set sail for Spain. The first half of the trip was fairly windy and we had a good sail, although Anne especially was suffering from nausea and lack of sleep. We had to motor for around 9 hours when the wind dropped, but sailed for the last few hours, arriving in Gijon around 11.00 am on 5th May – a trip of 46 hours.

Gijon is a large town, mostly having been rebuilt having been destroyed in the Spanish civil war, much of it in the original early 20th century style, with only a small older area remaining from before that time.

First impressions - the Spanish are generally very friendly and helpful. We are only just beginning to learn the language, but many speak some English and those that don’t are tolerant of our lack of Spanish and help us with attempts at speaking it and the pronunciation. Also, Spanish women are generally dressed very stylishly – Anne definitely feels she needs new clothes!!

Whilst in Gijon we had a very enjoyable day out to Oviedo, the capital of Asturias. A lovely city with much early 20th century architecture in the new town and an old quarter full of historic and attractive buildings as well as a large and bustling market.

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La Rochelle - Winter 2008-09

25 September 2008 – 1 May 2009

We settled down and soon met a number of other liveaboards who were also staying in La Rochelle over the winter. We started swapping books, joining each other for tea/coffee and drinks, and helping each other with advice and assistance on a wide variety of problems and jobs on the boats.

We were encouraged by the others to make the repairs to our pedestal ourselves, with parts manufactured and welded by a local machine shop. With a great deal of assistance (by Frank on Shalini) we went ahead with the repair. The machine shop did a fantastic job on manufacturing new parts and welding; the pedestal has been reassembled by Frank & Jim, the paint system applied by Anne and allowed to harden for a couple of weeks, and the steering was reinstalled by Jim and is now in good working order.

In December we spent a couple of days in Paris with Frank & Judy – a day walking around enjoying Paris and the Christmas lights, and a day at the Paris Boat Show.

During the winter (November and January) we had a couple of visits to England to see family and friends – fortunately missing all the snow and ice.

At the end of March we visited Roger and Val (who we had met in South Brittany) at their home in Saintes. They made us very welcome and we had a lovely time. They showed us both Saintes and a nearby walled town called Brouage, both of which are very attractive and interesting places.

At the end of April we had a couple of days out – to Rochefort and St Martin on the Isle de Re. Both very enjoyable but quite different. Rochefort is a typical French town with a naval dockyard full of historic buildings; St Martin is a very picturesque walled island town with many tourists even this early in the year.

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La Roche-Bernard, La Turballe, Isle d'Yeu, Les Sables d'Olonnes, La Rochelle

10 - 24 September

We stayed in La Roche-Bernard for a week.  It's a very attractive small town, parts of it very old, built perched up on a rocky outcrop in the angle where two rivers join.

We then motored down to the barrage and lock to leave the Vilaine River.  The lock was less busy than when we entered the river, and therefore less chaotic, as we are now out of the French holiday season.  We then sailed across the bay to La Turballe where the space for visitor mooring is extremely tight, and in the cross wind that day we were not the only boat having some difficulty mooring.  Fortunately a very friendly harbourmaster gave us a hand with the lines.  La Turballe is a nice place for a short visit but nothing special - although the bakery had the longest queues of any we have seen in France!

After a couple of nights we headed back down to Port Joinville on the Isle d'Yeu once more for a few days, then on to Les Sables d'Olonnes where we took the chance to explore further than on our previous visits.  On a gloriously sunny afternoon we had a lovely cycle ride up through the marshes and salt pans at Isle d'Olonnes, returning via the villages.  On another afternoon wandering round Les Sables d'Olonnes we came across streets full of marvellous mosaics made of stones and shells by a local artist.

After a long motor we arrived back in La Rochelle and managed to immediately find a suitable berth for the winter.

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Return to South Brittany - Pornic, Vilaine River

20 August - 9 September

We left La Rochelle (as all visitors have to for the duration of the Boat Show) and headed north, stopping at Les Sables d'Olonne, a very lumpy night anchored off Isle d'Yeu, then into Port Joinville as Anne had a stomach bug. Weather was a mixture of lovely sunshine, cloudy and gray, rain at times, and fairly windy.

We then went into Pornic for a couple of nights as we had missed it on the way down - although overcast, it was a nice harbour town with a lot of very grand villas overlooking the sea.

Another night's stop in Piriac-sur-Mer left us within easy reach of the Vilaine River allowing us to arrive at the lock around high tide.

We were first to tie up in the lock and gradually other boats joined us - squeezing in wherever they could. Shortly before lock opening time the very harassed lock keeper opened the bridge over the lock and had everyone move right forward (we motored forward with another boat tied alongside and someone on the shore helping with our lines) and organised us even tighter together to get more boats in - we were packed in like sardines and have never seen such chaos in a lock. Unfortunately we have no photos - we were far too busy looking after the boat. But it did work!

Once safely through, we motored up the river and anchored for the night. The next day we continued up river, through the swing bridge to as far as masted yachts can go and moored in Redon as we needed provisions etc. A very historic place near the confluence of two rivers and where the Nantes-Brest Canal crosses the Vilaine River. A number of mediaeval half-timbered houses and wealthy shipowners' houses are still in use today.

We returned to the river and anchored for a night. Then, as we had a bad weather forecast, we tied up at Rieux - a tiny village by the river - and sat out the gales and rain for almost a week before motoring down river to La Roche-Bernard.

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Biscay - La Rochelle

29 June - 12 August

We had a few days getting settled and finding our way around La Rochelle. It's now the holiday season in France and the town is busy. In the evenings around the old port the place is bustling with people promenading along the quay, the bars and restaurants are full of people, there are street entertainers and stalls selling bits and pieces.

We started to sort out our couple of problems - we ordered a replacement windlass and chain, and contacted a couple of people (in England and France) about our corroding steering column.

We then flew back to England on 3 July for Amanda & Martyn's wedding (Jim's niece) on the 5th. A lovely wedding: the bride was beautiful, the groom handsome and, although very windy, the sun shone. In the week we were back we managed to see most of our family and some friends.

On our return to La Rochelle the windlass and chain were ready and Jim (with my assistance) installed them.

Just after our return from England an annual music festival started with a number of venues around the town - the main one being open air next to the entrance channel - many people listened for free on the grass across the water. There were also bands who set up around the port. The end of the festival coincided with Bastille Day, 14 July. We went into town to see the parade in the morning, and in the evening we went back to wander around and see a big fireworks display over the water. Everywhere was heaving with people and a great atmosphere.

Since then we've spent time on odd jobs around the boat, wandering around La Rochelle, and still trying to sort out the problem with our steering column.

At the end of July we flew back to England for a couple of weeks for another family wedding (Anne's cousin's daughter Pauline to Lee) in Leeds. Again a lovely wedding with a particularly thoughtful service in the local church. Pauline and Lee looked terrific and very happy. Although it rained earlier, the sun shone on them after the wedding. We again met up with lots of family and friends whilst we were back.

We returned to La Rochelle on 12 August.

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Biscay - Isle de Noirmoutiere, Isle d'Yeu, Les Sables d'Olonnes, La Rochelle

21 - 28 June

A lovely sunny day sailing to l'Herbaudiere on the Isle de Noirmoutiere. Mainly single-storey whitewashed buildings with red clay tiled roofs and painted shutters (predominantly blue) - definitely a change to a southern feel. The island is pretty flat so we went for a cycle ride to the main town, Noirmoutiere, where the Sunday market was on. Then cycled back along the coat - saw the salt pans, lots of lovely beaches and woods.

Sailed to Port Joinville on the Isle d'Yeu - cold initially, followed by a short shower, but the sun came out as we arrived and it was beautifully warm. We cycled around - again a very attractive island, mainly scrub with small villages, lots of rough footpaths and cycle paths. Prehistoric dolmen and standing stones dotted around, although many hidden in the vegetation.

After a couple of days we continued down to Les Sables d'Olonnes, home of the Vendee Globe round the world single-handed race - a very large marina with good facilities. The old part of the town is made up of narrow, winding roads and alleys. The long sandy beach is backed by a mixture of old villas and apartment blocks built at various periods. The other side of the river, La Chaume, seems mainly residential, but in the evening we went to the chapel on the point at La Chaume and enjoyed listening to a concert by a vocal harmony group - held as part of the Simenon Festival.

A long motor to La Rochelle as there was very little wind and we wanted to get here at a reasonable time to arrange a berth for two weeks to get a couple of problems sorted out.

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