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.

Bay of Biscay! Morgat - Ria de Cedeira

Tues 4th August - Morgat

We spent a nice couple of days in Morgat. We were tied up to an English boat inhabited by Neil and Sue and their three girls. They had just returned from the North Coast of Spain and Neil even wrote us out a Port and Marina guide for the area which was very good of him. The girls played non stop with the their two youngest daughters which was great. It is always a bit of a relief to be tied up to some one with kids as they understand how noisy it can be and even better as in this case if they enjoy a glass or two of the old vin rouge!
Morgat is quite a touristy town ,it was developed last century by the owner of the Peugeot car company as a resort for his workers. There are two beaches within two minutes of the Marina so Ali took all the girls to one for a while whilst the ‘Big Kids’ went for a dingy ride around the harbour. I think they all had fun but you should have seen Ali’s face when we spied the big kids motoring towards the boat with all three life jackets inflated - they had apparently capsized due to a ‘rogue wave’ that came out of nowhere…….
Ali and I went to get some weather report for the next few days and post the blog at an internet café. The weather was looking perfect nothing but 3-4-5 Northerlies for 4 days. You really couldn’t ask for better so we went on the very long hike to the supermarket in Crozon to get some supplies and to try and get replacement gas canisters for the life jackets as we had used up all our spares due to the earlier capsizing incident. We were unsuccessful so we told everyone to be really careful not to accidentally inflate the jackets.

Wed 5th August - Leaving Morgat

Ali, Daniel and I got up at half past six to set off to Spain. It was a beautiful if cold calm morning and the water in Douarnenez bay was like glass. I stayed up on first watch for a few hours whilst the men went back to sleep. Someone had decided instead of going south through the Raz de Sein we would carry on West for a few miles so that we would leave the continental shelf as early as we could. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake as the tide got us and it took HOURS before we could finally turn South and start making some actual Progress towards La Coruna.
We thought we would be able to sail when we turned South as the forecasts had all been Northerly but we found the wind to be coming from the West and there was not much of it- this meant the motor stayed on all of the first day. We had had images in our head of using the spinnaker the whole way across Biscay and getting there in record time but this was not to be. The forecasts were both wrong- we never did get any Northerly winds at all and in fact not any wind for the first two days!

Shannon had been so worried about crossing the Bay that she had nearly jumped ship in Morgat. Ali, Daniel and her boyfriend Matt persuaded her to stay and sail with us. By about lunch time on the first day I think Matt was wishing he and Shannon had flown across. The poor boy was suffering from ‘le mal de mer’ and didn’t really recover until day three. I felt very sorry for him as we were all bombarding him with advice on eating to feel better but every time he did he just got ill again. I really can’t imagine what was going through his head as every time I have bee ill at sea there has been a light at the end of the tunnel only a few hours away not two more days away!!

Shannon did very well and nursed Matt through the worst of it. Neither Shannon or Matt would venture inside except for essential visits to the loo for the whole three days, luckily the sun shone for almost the whole trip. At night we persuaded them into our sailing suits so that we didn’t have to worry about them getting hypothermia too! You should understand that although there was only light winds, there is still a big uncomfortable swell.

Daniel Ali and I decided on a shift pattern for the night watches. I would do from 8 to 11 then Daniel would get up to do the 11 to 3 shift and Ali got the graveyard shift from 3 - 7 then I got up and took over again. It all seemed to work out very well except the lasses wouldn’t go to sleep until I was down below and seemed to wake up as soon as I was on deck again.

The sunset (my watch!) the first night was amazing Shannon and I were both taking photos, poor Matt couldn’t even raise his head from the deck to look. Then the near full moon rose on the other side of the boat, it was a beautiful night. The rest of the night passed without a hitch and even less wind!


Thurs 6th August - Biscay Day Two

This day passed much the same as the first -we motor sailed the whole day again (thankfully we had two spare drums of diesel) It was another sunny day and so we persuaded some of the more beetroot coloured members of the crew to put on some factor 50 sun cream as we thought sea sickness and peeling skin would be the last straw!

The biggest event of this day was a pod of about twenty dolphins that swam along with the boat for a while. There had been just one dolphin that came for a look and then left. Kaylee said that he had gone to get all his friends, we all laughed but had to take it back when a few minutes later they all appeared. Even Matt managed to raise himself up enough to catch a glimpse.

One hazard we encountered for the first time on this trip was the electrical gadget hazard. Occasionally when you went to use a winch you would find an I pod wrapped around it and have to unwind the wires before being able to proceed. It was actually amazing that no i pods or cameras or dishes ended up in the sea as there always seemed to be two or three lying loose on deck no matter how may times they were put away or secured. It was a new one on us, usually it is cuddly toys that run the risk of going for a swim!

Matt began to recover slightly towards the end of this day. He managed to keep his tea down and actually moved from the windward deck to get a bit warmer at night time.



I managed to get us into what could be described as a ‘nearly close quarters’ situation with a very fast cargo boat at the end of my shift! I thought a boat was a fishing boat in the act of trawling so I went to starboard but then it was coming straight at us- eek! A quick lurch to port and it was all OK but it made me realise to think twice about what I presume a boat is doing especially when tired!

Friday 7th August Biscay Day 3 - Cedeira!

The day started out much like the two before being calm and sunny with the non existent wind in the West. It had been so calm over night that Ali had taken down all the sails and we were just rolling around in the ever present Biscay swell. By the end of the morning watch there was actually a breeze coming from the East which was strong enough to sail, this turned out to be very lucky as the fuel tank was running dry. We made much better progress at seven to eight knots the rest of the way to Spain. We had decided we would just go into Ria de Cedeira and anchor for at least one night as it was four or five hours closer than La Coruna and there were some of us who could certainly do with a large meal!




There were whoops of joy/relief when we could see the Spanish coast. It signalled the end and we were all glad, even Ali ,as he had been annoyed about the lack of sailing and the slow progress over the Bay.




We got into Ria De Cedeira in the late afternoon and got out the bottle of champagne (that had been chilling since we sighted land!) given to us by our next door neighbours Colin and Susan and toasted getting to Spain. The girls felt left out so we gave them some tonic water with grenadine in it too. Next was a relay of quick washes using no more than a basin of water each as we were running low then we took the dingy into town for dinner.

We had a lovely Italian - I know we were in Spain but it was the closest restaurant to the jetty and we were starving! At this point we all realised that speaking Spanish was going to be very difficult indeed. There were a few things that we ordered that were shall we say unexpected!

We went for a small walk into town and found a play park in the town square which was great as we hadn’t seen a single one in France. The girls were so delighted that they made us promise to stay for a few days. It was about eleven at night and the place was buzzing with kids everywhere and people all sitting out in the bars. We decided to call it a night as we were all rather tired. We went out in the dingy first and realised how dark it gets here and that a light left on at the boat would have been a good idea! I think we were all in bed within half an hour of getting back - a record.

Douarnenez to Morgat

Douarnenez 28th July - 3rd Aug

We decided to stay in Douarnenez until all of our extra crew arrived. Since it was all going to coincide at the same time we realised we would need an extra sleeping berth. Douarnenez is quite a big town and not too touristy so it had all the DIY/chandler stores necessary to help us with a few bits and pieces.

Firstly Ali took the top off the sitting room table and put runners underneath the top of it so it could be pulled out. The next day Ali must have looked quite a sight as he went to the building store on his folding bike to get some wood to extend the couch into a bed. He arrived back at the boat in the pouring rain with wood strapped to the bike. He said that there were a few people laughing as he tried to get it all tied on at the store you can see why in this picture! The shower hose had burst the night before so we had to fix that also and Ali even made (yes made) a new shower curtain so that we don’t have to crouch down to have a shower when rafted to another boat. I have been busy finishing off sewing the poppers underneath all the couch cushions and putting Velcro under them to keep them from slipping off the chairs at sea. Kaylee in particular finds this a very good game to play when we are on a starboard tack as she jumps hard on to the cushion on the couch and it slides off onto the chart table with her on it. Hopefully this will put a stop to that.

Ali has been so proud of all his modifications he has been dragging unsuspecting French yachties onboard to have a look. I think he met his French equal in Pasqual a fellow Hanse sailor as they were on each others boats, borrowing tools, swapping stories and oohing and aahing at each others home improvements for a day or so. There are quite a few old boats tied up in the river lock with quite young couples renovating them quite a task as some of the boats have not been in too good a state to begin with.

It was nice and sunny one day so we went to the little beach just around the other side of town. We could cycle there as it was promenade nearly the whole way there. The girls had a fun. Kaylee is always braver in the sea and was trying to swim with Ali. Alisha was perfecting her sandcastle skills. There was a large boat race on in the bay which wasn’t moving very quickly because of a lack of wind.

We met a nice couple called Graham and Rita who were berthed along the pontoon from us. They had a lovely 'Island Packet' boat when we were on it Kaylee needed the loo and Ali offered to go with her as he didn't want me to be jealous of their toilet - I was!! They told us about the UGRIB weather forecasting system on the internet which you can download the files onto your computer. They seem really good I will tell you after we cross Biscay if they were accurate!

I decided it was time to lose a lot of hair and booked a hairdresser appointment. I was going to go really short but thought I might just wait until I could converse with a hairdresser somewhere as all we could manage was hand signals. It was funny sitting trying to speak when all you knew was cava and cava bien and some smiling (which I wasn’t doing when she burned my ear with the hairdryer and stuck her talons in my eye!)

We spent Thursday tidying up the boat for Daniel arriving. The girls could hardly contain themselves all day long and were nearly at bursting point when he arrived at tea time. They jumped all over him and the poor boy was assaulted at the crack of dawn each morning until his cousin Shannon and her boyfriend arrived on Sunday evening. The girls were a little shy with Matt at first but within an hour they had their jewellery box out and had decorated him. Luckily he is a good sport.

There was a free concert at the skate park on Friday night. The flyer we got said it started at 6pm so we thought it would be one of those events that started and finished early. We duly turned up with a picnic tea and some refreshments at 6pm to sit and wait as the only ’customers’ there for at least an hour before any music was heard. It was a rather strange affair as the main stage was decorated with a skull so we presumed it was a death metal concert but around the site were crepe stalls and art stalls and a tea and coffee tent. The crowd eventually started arriving and we were surprised to see that many were really quite old. There was blues band playing in the bar which Ali thought were amazing - apparently they were like Doctor Feel good (whoever they were!) Then the main act came on, the heavy rock band who seemed a bit tamer than the skull deco would suggest as the only words I got was a ‘bon soir’ every now and again. Alisha and Kaylee had a good night as they managed to play with quite a few different kids after going around saying Bonjour a lot.






Daniel and I went to the hyper market on Saturday afternoon which was to say the least like a trip to heaven or my personal idea of the place! There were two whole aisles of cheese and the delis were amazing. Fortunately we had to carry back anything we purchased and take Kaylee home so that curbed our spending slightly. We shouldn’t have gone when we were hungry!

Sunday was spent trying to create some space for Shannon and Matt who were arriving at tea time. Daniel and I reorganised all the lockers and under bed spaces and we managed to get it all stuck in. We went out for a meal at night and most of us had ‘le menu dejour’ which was very yummy. We prepared for leaving on the high tide at 5am to go to the isles de sein. Ali and I tried to sneak around not waking anyone but when Ali went down to the bridge to give the toilet keys back to the harbour master there was no one there and no one to open the gate…….. So it was back to bed for a few hours!

Mon 3rd August

We left Douarnenez this afternoon in mist and rain and decided to make a short hop to Morgat to wait for the wind to change to cross the Bay of Biscay. This should happen on Wednesday morning! See next instalment for the full horror of ’The Bay’