We awoke and decided to stay put as the weather continued grey and overcast but by the time we had popped ashore for a coffee and to visit the panadaria for bread the sun had appeared and we decided spontaneously to go.
However staying at the same spot at anchor for over a week is unusual for us and the wind was filling in nicely, unfortunately from the wrong direction! It was around 26 miles to Ria Arousa, so gambling on a lack of swell we set off with an emergency get out plan to anchor at the beaches of San Francisco at the mouth of the Ria if the wind wouldn't cooperate.
The wind as usual was a little flukey as we sailed close hauled in very light winds, due in no small part to our newly cleaned bottom we were doing a very nice 4 knots over the ground. We got a call from JB who was driving to the small town we were passing and he was following us on AIS on the Internet. As we couldn't really stop we arranged to meet up later in Ribiera. We headed out to sea the get out plan abandoned and we committed to the voyage south.
We continued to tack out of the Ria and Dark Tarn was sailing really well, the swell we had got so used to on the north coast was now absent and even though the wind speed never rose above a force 4 and was 3 for most of the time we were making good speed of between 4-5 knots. We got involved in a tacking duel with a German yacht and beat a zig zag course south.
For what seemed the first time in ages we were sailing! We were joined later in the afternoon by two other yachts both bigger than us one of whom ' Wild Iris' was another OCC boat. They had obviously been tacking in closer inshore and we coincided about half a mile apart, the German yacht took a big tack out to sea and made the best tactical choice of the day beating us all to Cabo Corrubedo by about a mile.
Wild Iris and Independence in front of us as we approached the Cabo Corrubedo.
After about 30 miles of tacking we approached the rock strewn entrance to the Ria de Arousa. We had kept company with the three other bigger and faster boats, no small achievement given our fully loaded weight and the light winds. I decided to attempt a bit of intricate navigation through the Passage known as the canal de Sagres. This is a very narrow, shallow gap in the barrier of rocks and islands that shelter and guard the entrance, at one point we had less than three boat lengths clearance between rocks on either side but it soon opens out and although not clear of rocks it's a bit less heart in the mouth!
Our companions had declined the challenge.
It had been a great day, we had covered about 36 miles to get the 26 or so due to having to beat upwind but it was so nice to sail without the ever present Biscay swell we felt that we had somehow ' turned a corner ' the Ria we could see looked intriguing, with a large amount of vivieros, which were now called ' bateas' we had moved on again! As had the language. Looking around I could count at least a dozen possible anchorages in sight. The Ria having the characteristics of an inland sea due to the barrier of islands sheltering the entrance. However before we could explore we had an appointment with JB and Anna to keep.
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