Ria De Cedeira - La Coruna - Corme

Sat 8th August Ria De Cedeira - La Coruna

We all woke up feeling great after a good nights sleep swinging gently at the mooring. We were a bit disappointed to wake to the pitter patter of rain (in Spain!?) Ali and Daniel went off in the dingy to investigate getting some water on board as the smell of seven unwashed bodies was starting to get a bit unbearable! Whilst ashore they talked to a couple who informed them that there was a large fireworks display on in La Coruna that night…. We would have liked to stay in Cedeira for another night or so but the lure of a fireworks display and a big city proved too much for us so we decided have to set sail for La Coruna later. We all went off into town for lunch and to get some supplies first.

There were some traditional food stalls set out because it was Saturday so Ali the girls and I had some ‘pulpos fieros’ (spiced octopus) which seems to be the local speciality as it is top of the menu at many places. Kaylee would actually eat the octopus as long as we bit off the suckers first. We went for a walk around and found a Spanish version of Iceland (the shop.) All the food is loose in big freezer compartments and you just get a bag and a scoop out what you need ,even fish and shellfish are loose too. This seems a good way of doing things, it would certainly solve the problem of a bag of frozen brussel sprouts lurking at the back of the freezer for a couple of years!

We all congregated back at the boat and set sail for La Coruna about 34 miles away. It took a bit of fairly ‘exhilarating’ tacking to get out of the voe against the wind and swell but once we were out it was all down wind to La Coruna with only one jibe to perform. Matt had his first pleasant sail after Biscay and felt OK the whole way (I think the thought that it would be over in a few hours was still a relief though.) It was warm enough to sail in shorts and tee shirts for the first time! At one point we were sailing quite happily into La Coruna when we noticed a five gallon drum floating, it actually turned out to be a creel marker, this was not the worst of it, the next one we spotted, now that we were newly alert was just a peerie 500ml coke bottle!

We got into La Coruna and headed for the marina that is in town, rather than the one out on the breakwater -as anyone with small kids knows that the less distance between the boat and town the better!
We were just sitting down for tea when the fireworks started so we sat on deck with a glass of wine ad watched them. They were really impressive. It is a big annual celebration her to mark the anniversary of the Spanish beating the British in some huge boat battle. Maybe not the best night of a year to be a Brit around here but I think it is really just a good excuse for a party.

The ‘big kids’ had scurried off into town and we invited Andy and Lesley from the next boat over for a dram (seeing as it was Saturday.) They are a very nice couple from Glasgow who are also heading off down the coast of Spain. They have been sailing for years and have some great (and some fairly hair raising) stories to tell!

Sunday 9th August - La Coruna

We were woken as usual by Kaylee a little too early in the morning screaming that there was a fin in the water and it must be a shark!! Of course I sprang out of bed to find that the shark was actually a dolphin which is very friendly and plays with the boats when it comes in.
We had a really very lazy day, went for a walk around town with the girls, went out for lunch. Went to find the only shop that was open to get something for tea. There was a festival of books on and loads of little stalls set out and amongst them I managed to find a Ingles - Espanol dictionary which we direly needed as we really have no idea!

At night we went into the main square in front of the palace where a large stage was set up and watched a guitar band who were very good. It was a real family atmosphere and we stayed until the end with the lasses dancing away to all the songs.

Monday 10th August

This was a day of organisation as there area few things that needed fixed around the boat and the boat needed a good clean out also! Ali went off around town to try and locate the piece he needed and I gutted out the boat whilst the lasses fished off the pontoons. The big kids shopped (they had been waiting for this moment eagerly all day yesterday as everything was shut and all they could do was window shop.)

In the afternoon we took the girls to one of the small beaches around town. It was fairly packed and great for people watching. There is a lot of posing and strutting that goes on here it is almost like a David Attenborough programme on mating rituals!


On the way back to the boat we were at the chandlery at the other marina when we came across a familiar faces, Brian and Rosemary that we had been rafted to in Padstow! They had made it across the bay about a week earlier than us and are making there way west too. We arranged to go out for dinner the next night and catch up.

We got back to the boat late and had enchiladas cooked by Matt and Daniel for tea. Then later once the girls were in bed we left the big kids in charge and went through to Andy and Lesley’s boat for another few drinks. We tottered back over the pontoon at about 3 am to find the boat in darkness.

Tuesday 11th August - Trip to Santiago de Compostela

We got up as early as we could manage to go and catch a bus to Santiago de Compostela a famous cathedral in the city of Santiago. It has been a pilgrimage destination since early Christian times and they even think before that in different pagan religions. The remains of St James are said to be buried there. The main reason for going was to see the swinging of a huge incense burner in the cathedral. Of course us being us we didn’t research the times and managed to not see it at all. We also didn’t research the fact that you are not supposed to go in shorts and tee shirts or wear hats etc etc however they seemed to be fairly relaxed about this Ali only being told off for wearing a hat. It was very crowded, I think early morning would be a better time to visit. Santiago is a lovely old town with narrow streets and cafes everywhere. Lot of people were going around with the long sticks that the pilgrims used to travel with, there were lots of stalls making a killing out of selling them!

We got back just in time to go out for dinner with Rosie and Brian (without kids as the others were baby sitting!!) It was great to catch up and swap sailing stories. We finally found a nice place to eat where I had my first (and last) taste of cordero oreja - pigs ear!

Wed 12th

Just a normal day nothing to report until night time. We took everyone out for dinner as it was Matt and Shannon’s last night. We had a very nice meal with a bottle of wine and some beer. The little kids started playing up so Ali and I left the big kids to move on to another bar to have an ice cream for pudding…….. At about four am I heard a fair bit of commotion and what sounded like a heard of elephants trying to get on the boat. Then I heard some one go to the fridge and declare there was only wine left to drink at which point I felt I should remind them that it was only three or four hours until they would have to get up and maybe less than that our kids would wake up and jump on top of them!
It turned out that they had all had more than enough as it was - seeing as one spent the next hour or so feeding the fish off of the deck of the boat and another had cut his leg trying to get back into the marina without a key……. when it turned out the gate was open!

Thurs 13th to Wed 19th LA Coruna, Ares & Rades

We said goodbye to Shannon and Matt on the Thursday morning which was fairly impressive considering the time they went to bed and the state certain members of the crew were in!

We were going to leave Coruna as soon as Shannon and Matt had gone but Ali managed to locate a cheaper piece for the sails and was getting it posted to him so we had to wait in La Coruna for the post, it turned out to be a local festival so there was no post over the weekend- typical.




Alistair got a hair cut one day.......







We went for a visit to the Torre del Hercules one of the oldest working light houses in the world. It was first built in Roman times and subsequentally pulled down and rebuilt over the years. You can walk up to the top and it was a very windy day so the girls were screaming and laughing at their skirts flying over their heads! On the cliffs below the Torre del Hercules there is a huge mosaic of a compass that has the picture and name of all the Gallic nations on it so there was a thistle for Scotland. Obviously the compass points were wrong as there was 180 degrees covering Cornwall, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.








We took the girls to a couple of the beaches and even swimming with some Scandinavian kids off the pontoons. Ali decided to have a look at the propeller whilst he was in the water.





Kaylee became and expert shrimp fisher as they discovered if you just rub the net in the seaweed on the pontoon you can catch a shrimp nearly every time. One day they caught about thirty with the help of a couple of French kids and Kaylee thought we should have them for lunch, funnily enough we didn’t!








We went off and anchored for a night when we realised we weren’t getting the post until after the weekend in a place called Ares, it was OK but a bit of a tourist town woth not much going for it. Daniel entertained the girls by taking them out for a spin in the dinghy. The next day we went and anchored at a lovely place called Rades. It was a typical example of a small Spanish seaside town with a small pier, beach and a couple of cafes and pubs. We all went for a dip at the beach and then headed back to La Coruna. Daniel had decided to leave by then as he had to get back to Inverness for an appointment and the rate we were going we weren’t going to make Vigo in time for him to fly from there.




There was plenty of socialising to be done in and around the marinas. We met a couple from Finland - Thomas and Maija who are doing the ARC (which nearly everyone around here seems to be doing.) Ali and Daniel spent Daniel’s last night onboard their yacht until 4 am singing and playing the guitar.




We had gone for a walk to the other Marina to look for Brian and Rosie but they had left, however we got talking to a Canadian couple with two kids the same ages almost with ours. They invited us back for the little girl Nyah’s 5th birthday for some cake. The kids all had a great time and the parents had a few beers and a good chat too! They had crossed the Atlantic from Canada to Ireland in 11 days . Olous and Vicky said it was OK as the wind only got up to 30 knots on a couple of days….. We invited them back over the following day and the kids had a craft session. Once they had gone I had to send Ali off for an hour whilst I tidied! He has never really liked crafty things on the boat and this was an extreme example of 'creative play.'

Whilst at the other marina we were admiring a super motor yacht (pictured) and it turns out that it belongs to Kimi Raikonnen the Formula 1 driver. It was on the pontoon next to the Canadian boat and Vicky and I wondered if they needed any crew!

Daniel left us on Wednesday night, we were very sorry to see him leave as it has been great having some more adult company onboard. Hopefully he will come out for a few weeks on his next leave too.

After Daniel left we paid up and headed off to anchor for the night as we thought we had paid the marina enough over the last two weeks! We just anchored across the bay at a beach with the intention of getting up and heading off after breakfast.

Thurs 20th La Coruna to Corme

We woke up to rain and wind and fog so decided to stay put until after it cleared so we did some ‘lessons’ with the girls, We thought we had better start getting on with it seeing as the schools went back in Shetland the day before! It is going to be harder than I thought to teach Alisha to read, maybe it will all come together. We left at around mid day, the skies had cleared and it was a beautiful day. It was a thirty five mile trip to Corme which took us the full seven hours as we had to motor the whole way because of a lack of wind.

There were a few sights to keep us amused on the way. Ali had been talking to another sailor who had told him about the swimming crabs everywhere, Ali thought he had had too much sun! That was until we rounded the coast coming from La Coruna and we saw them, millions of them about three inches across their backs all swimming to the surface. To say the girls got a bit excited would be an understatement! Also shoals of fish swimming just under the boat. Kaylee had dropped her net in the sea which was probably a good thing or she would have spent all her time hanging off the side of the boat precariously trying to catch fish.

We got into Corme in the evening after a really rolly motor across in the big swell, which had unfortunately proved too much for Alisha. It was a but tricky trying to figure out where to anchor as it is fairly hemmed in with fish farming and rocks. We had tea and set up the dingy to go ashore. The first place we tried nearly ended up with me in the sea. It was low tide and the very steep slip was covered in a slimy white growth which I couldn’t get a grip on at all and I was in one of those one foot on the shore and the other on the boat which is moving away from shore situations. I just made it back into the dingy and no more - phew! We were successful at the next pier and went for a wander, it is a nice enough wee town but we decided that we would still progress onwards the next morning as the anchor holding was slightly on the dodgy side.