After a very windy night at anchor with Dark Tarn being battered by huge gusts of 30 knots and squirrelling 30.0° from side to side we awoke at 9 ish deciding that it was time to go further south leaving the coast of death behind. Although the winds had been quite violent overnight as usual Dark Tarn had not moved at all, we have been very lucky on the dragging front I have to admit and do not claim any particular credit for it. The forcast was for increasingly strong winds and I felt we had stayed as long as was sensible or comfortable.
We left under sail having put one reef in the main and raised it before breaking free the anchor ( which took some doing )
Soon we saw the hull speed climb to 7 and then 8 knots. I decided to leave the Genoa stowed as we were going very well as was. ( it was windy ) The other yacht that had been at anchor overnight motored out behind us and headed for Corcubión. We however powered out heading south and soon he was lost in the distance. The winds built from the NE, Dark Tarn had a bone in her teeth and was making great speed towards the isolated rocks of Lobelia grande which were sprouting great gushing waves in the distance, soon they were abeam and a frightening thing they were, a fitting goodbye to the coast of death. I remember thinking that a force 7 wind in the Irish Sea would be distinctly unpleasant yet here we were sailing at speed with no water on deck. The sun was beating down and the weather felt distinctly warmer if that's possible for we were headed now for the Rias Baixas, the southern Rias, at least we were if the wind would hold, which it didn't, dying off to nearly flat calm even though a mile or so ahead it was obviously windy. So it was engine on for 10 minutes as the sails slatted uselessly then motored across the oily flat calm and then bang! Suddenly we were back in Force 6-7 winds of 20-25 knots and off we went again engine off and rattle off the miles, glorious sailing and so hot I had even taken off my t-shirt.
Soon we were approaching Cabo Carriero.
The wind at this point being a benign force 4. As we rounded the headland however and stood out to clear the rocks off Punta Queixal the wind rose to a solid force 6 and we were forced to reconsider our strategy for entering the Ria.
•I do apologise for the lack of photographs, but we were very busy sailing most of the day•
We sailed close hauled to the southern shore and crept up the rocky coastline putting in a couple of tacks to clear the rocks off Porto Son and attempting to gain a good position to attack the approach to out destination, the bay of Esterio. This took nearly two hours. Longer in fact than it had taken us to sail to the Ria!
Once we had negotiated the viverios ( live fish cages ) in the entrance to the bay we found a spot between the Irish boat Magnet and the British boat Moonlight.
Shelter at last! We dug in our anchor with healthy burst of astern letting out plenty of chain in view of the forcast strong winds. Below is a photo of the Irish boat ' Magnet ' steel boat like us.
Good shelter it was too! The wind dropped to insignificant levels, in the prevailing NE wind all the anchorages on the north shore of the Ria seemed favoured.
We blew up the dinghy to go ashore and as we landed Jim and Magda from Magnet also landed and we introduced ourselves, having mutual friends in Bob and Maureen, our ' advance party ' ,we walked into the village to discover the supermarket didn't open until 5.30. It seemed a perfect opportunity for a fortifying beer, so we did. As is becoming normal we found we had a lot in common with our new friends and one beer turned into a few!
Later, much later, Lynne and I went ashore to a local bar for a coffee,to watch the sun go down over the bay, and the three boats at anchor there.
Dark Tarn is the middle boat.
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