Getting very lazy more pics and not much content!

 

Sorry pics all over place ,software is terrible. Not me!

Ceis

Isle of Ceis

Anchorage 

Porto

Porto rail station.

Tram

                                                              Port houses 

Sandeman's. Cask

 

A coruna.

This place is first port of call for those crossing Biscay , nice little marina. Interesting town with a lovely church and squares. Slight run in with the priest who William to distract attention from himself suggested he take a photo of said priest and me. Don't think it was quite right to put his hand on my arse or to give me a kiss on each cheek then one on the lips. Still what do I know about catholicism.  He was a really friendly guy and pleased to talk to non sinners I think.

Pulled out of there and headed towards a fishing port called Camerinas 50 miles away .Saw a sei whale on the way pretty close. Anchored up next to our English boater friends walked to a church and swam on tiny beach with very noisy Spaniards. Beautiful countryside round here rocky to the coast hills behind pine and eucalyptus trees everywhere. Not interacting with the locals much though.

Short 30 mile hop to today's anchorage on a deserted (bar the sea gulls) sandy bay,swam ashore. All is good salad and sardines for supps.

Fish nets

 Any one thinking of anything other than fishing nets is misguided! Bilbao to Gijon was a long schlep,130 miles ,bit of night time sailing which makes a change from engine thump. People don't realise that unlike in Nelsons time when one just wallowed now switching on the engine to counter foul or non existent winds is standard practice to get from A to B .A figure bandied around for long distance cruising is 48% sailing to 52%  motoring when cruising UK waters. A very reasonable 38 Euros for night in Gijon which was a lovely little city .Yes industrial but great character around the back streets and sea front..

Oldest transporting bridge in world Bilbao marina                                           Large crab in Gijon        

  Thence on to Ribadeo a river based marina actually Ria is an estuary really. Again a lovely little town on the boarders of Galicia not action packed but great colonial architecture. The journey on the way here was easy ,too much motor and about an hour out the engine ,at night burped badly causing a spurt of frenetic activity based around what was that. Pulling into an unknown tidal river marina at night with an unreliable engine is not desirable. Any how all went well but I did notice a residual vibration  which we looked at the  next morning. This involved getting the go pro out and discovering some netting around the prop. A quick swim got that clear but the prop anode is missing that to be sorted this afternoon with another swim. It's either that or get the boat lifted for 300 euros to fit an 18 euro item in less than 5 mins .Ain't going to happen.

                                                               Will with offending item

We've met three lads in 32 ft 55 yr old boat who just came from Falmouth in one hop ,Quite an achievement ,we've decided to race them down to A Coruna tomorrow!

Ribadeo

Ribadeo marina

San Sebastián to Bibao.

New crew member arrives.

William a friend from Chichester marina has arrived and away on the beer somewhere .He's got his own boat and knows the sea so already has proved useful and fun at sea. We did a night run from San Sebastian to Bilbao ,arriving at 4.30 in the morning. Fortunately no ferries to contend with but always interesting arriving at a new berth at night following directions from a book .Only real event on the way was a targeted radio call to us for being within a 1 mike zone of a work platform at sea . having been woken to deal with it I assumed we were about to be boarded by a patrol vessel but obviously not. Still very hot .This is the most expensive stop thus far at 54 euros and scruffy pontoons but Spain is great loads cheaper than France generally and nice to be here.

Off to Gijon tomorrow.

Bilbao marina not city

Katie Me Alan and Olivier in the back streets of Bilbao.What great timing to be there when we could all meet up .Great day

                                                        Baldies at San Sebastián beach

               Goose barnacles ,Percebes a delicacy that can be by passed but lovely looking.

                                                                  Fine cigar shop

Hendaye.

     

                                          

What a lovely place after the last marina .The people were really nice but there was a concrete factory opposite with an oil storage facility beside it all night a boat was loading ballast or something very heavy and noisy. 

This place by comparison is idyllic apart from the Spanish across the water holding some kind of drum festival with what sounded like bagpipes in the evening. Fortunately I could only hear the strains of cacophony. This is the view across the river Bidassoa to Spain the border between French and Spanish Basque regions.

More mundane tasks afoot -laundry day hopefully my neighbours don't mind my jocks hanging around. They might have minded my bottomless sailing trip on the way here yesterday, well if you can why not? the only observers would have been residents of Biarritz with telescopes and the big flat fish jumping out of the water, no idea what they were.

Today a friend from UK is arriving and hopefully up for a few longer trips along the Spanish north coast. Meeting up with a previous flat mate from London in San Sebastian tomorrow which was a plan from long ago. Only issue there is I think its a mooring buoy not a pontoon so dinghy trips ashore. 

An incident from Arcachon the other day .I dropped my

paddles in the water and one sank before I could recover it .Much effort to retrieve it failed but my decision was to return to the spot at low tide at 3AM and dive for it. My neighbour had offered me his bicycle to get round the other side .Torch in mouth with boat hook and face mask, off I go. Unfortunately the pontoon security gate was locked at that time so I climbed over with boat hook and snorkel to be be met by a jack booted security women. What the hell was she doing on the one of 45 pontoons at that time? Pigeon french explanation ensued in sheepish fashion .'I'm going swimming for my perdu paddle !' Amazingly it was just below the surface no swim required! Job done and she let me out with out return climb!

                               

 

Life goes on .Now in Cap Breton

Oysters fresh from the sea Arcachon.                                                   Cap Breton at peace.            

 Leaving Arcachon was sad but the bay was beautiful and timings for the tide were perfect so on to Cap Breton 65 miles south .12 hours later ; well this was a most interesting port to enter. I came in under acceptable conditions but not straight forward if you want to see what a bad day is like, click this  PORT ENTRY .I've got to get out tomorrow if I don't I might never leave. This is a beautiful little town ,Loads of fresh fish and restaurants. So much fresh fish in the market shark, conger eels, octopus and the usual other suspects. The trip from Arcachon was one of my best days about 6 hours of sailing .A squall which soaked me and involved reefing I knew there was a fishing vessel less than a mile a head but couldn't see it. Sailed through a missile range which the locals were pretty confused about (as to whether it was active or not).Part of it should have been but I was told by others that nothing was going on so I went round the contentious bit anyway. Then ended up at this entry where there was a swell and a westerly wind both contributory factors, followed by staying to the left of the passage until the statue then cross to the right! Bring on tomorrow and a short hop to Biarritz.

Biggest sand dune in Europe

long beaches at CB

Low tide I need high!