Rias

Leaving A Coruna with dark clouds brewing behind, we sailed around to Ria Camarinas in mixed conditions meaning it was a case of motoring and sailing in only 10kts of NW breeze for the 51 miles, where we anchored for 1 night. Having done this back and in 2018 we know the trip south is going to be a mix of motoring & sailing especially as we’re going to be sailing “very” close to the shores where the prevailing winds are light. We have no choice though because of the risks of contact with Orcas.

The Rias are stunning & you could spend an entire season exploring yet still only scratch the surface of what’s on offer. However we’d decided to keep moving south, so the next day we sailed 39 miles to Muros where we anchored, again for only 1 night as our sights were set on spending time in the next Ria called Arousa which is also the largest.

There’s 2 routes into this Ria, the challenging route (in poor weather) is through a narrow rocky channel requiring some pilotage skill but this route saves over an hour & the weather was good so we went that way & Yep lots of rocks. We wouldn’t have taken this route if there were wind and swell present!

There’s plenty of anchoring opportunities throughout the Ria to shelter from any wind direction which we love as anchoring is free, those of you who know me know how tight I am 😂

We ended up spending nearly a week in the Ria including a couple of nights in the marina at VilaGarcia which made it easy to do a big food shop in the local supermarket which was extremely well stocked and cheaper than the U.K. by at least 20%. Interestingly going to a cafe and drinking coffee or beer was less than half the cost of U.K. prices too ….. great for us but questions now being asked as to why the U.K. is so much more for the same items 🤔

Our next Ria was Pontevedra, again only stopping for 1 night at anchor before moving onto the last Spanish Ria called Vigo. This is probably our favourite of all with quiet anchorages and party ones too if that’s your thing. We initially stopped in a small cove called Limens close to the beach but the north wind was blowing through the valley behind making for a very rolly anchorage. Charlotte wasn’t happy as it was making her feel sick so we moved to Cangas a short trip of 5 miles to a very calm anchorage again just off the beach.

Cangas is a busy town with direct ferries across the Ria to Vigo city and tourist ferries for sightseeing, which run from 7am-11pm every day. This causes some swell but it only lasts for 15 seconds every 30 minutes so worth putting up with for the view alone…. And oh so quiet nights!

Eventually we pulled ourselves away to head south to the final town in the area called Baiona which was our favourite place to visit back in 2018. This time we anchored just behind the very posh & expensive marina which, yes was free. Tying the dinghy up to the fisherman’s dock wall was a mere 3 minutes away and we were in the centre which was totally packed. We asked in the marina if we could tie up there even offering to pay but the simple answer was no! The Spanish love their fiestas and we’d arrived for yet another 4 day weekend of live music and fireworks.

Jeremy on Right Turn rejoined us here as he’s been doing his own thing for a week with his partner Julie who’d flown in. Sadly he arrived just too late for the Saturday night firework display which was simply huge & very loud. The side streets where so many bars & restaurants were, was almost impossible to pass through due to the volume of people, especially with Nala so Caroline picked her up to save her being trampled on.

So now it’s time to leave Spanish waters and begin the journey south through Portugal which means sailing VERY close to the shore in under 20 metres keeping a close lookout for the ever present fishing pot markers. Jeremy will be sailing in company with us now for most of not all of this section, buddy boating can be fun 🍺!