Castro Urdiales

A final visit to our favourite panadaria for bread and croissants before we dropped off our key cards and a bottle of something for Alvero. As we chatted with the young guy on the office ( unfortunately it was Alveros day off ) we realised that without at least one key card we couldn't get back on the pontoons!

10 minutes later we had brimmed out water tanks and were slipping lines for the last time.

We kept a close eye on the engine as we motored out of the inner harbour ( the Abra ) and began the buoy hop to the main harbour entrance a mile away. There were a few fishing boats coming in and the bright red dredger but the sun was out visibility was good and the winds were a gentle force 3 unfortunately from the west so we remained under engine for the short 9 mile trip to Castro Urdiales.

We passed the old fishing village where we had enjoyed more than one glass of wine. We were both feeling very sad at leaving.

Soon the outer harbour wall fell away with its distinctive wind generators. We were crossing the anchorage area for the harbour so had to give the anchored ships awaiting entrance a decent berth.

The weather remained kind as we slowly got back into cruising mode.

 In the distance we could make out Castro with its distinctive church and castle and before too long we had rounded up giving the harbour wall a good offing to anchor just as a terrific thunderstorm hit.

The next couple of hours proves quite anxious as the wind rose to 40 knots and the sea turned white with torrential rain. We were anchored in 13 metres of depth so had a lot of chain out, this proved to be a problem as the wind swung through 280° and our stern got very close to the harbour wall. The anchor was holding but we were swinging wildly in the veering winds. ( no photos, too nervous! )

After a while and after debating whether to continue on to Laredo and shelter in the marina there we decided to tough it out, Lynne cooked some food and we decided that blowing up the dinghy would be a bit pointless as neither of us wanted to leave Dark Tarn unattended.

We will see what tomorrow brings...