Wildfire

The strong winds kicked in as forecast and we let out more chain in anticipation. The winds were consistently force 6-7 occasionally 8 in the gusts overnight. We left the plotter on so we could take advantage of its drag alarm feature, this effectively gives us a safe circle beyond which if we happen to go an alarm will sound. We were shifting from side to side in the very strong gusts ( gusts veer ) that we had to extend the alarm zone to 100 feet before it would stop going off every two minutes! We survived the night but the following day the winds continued to blow even more strongly if anything and both us and our friends aboard Magnet were confined to ship. In the afternoon we kept hearing helicopters and smelling woodsmoke. On popping out heads out of the companionway hatch it became apparent that there must be a large forest fire burning upwind as helicopters carrying water buckets, I think they are known as ' bambi buckets' were flying over us headed towards Santiago and the whole Ria was clouded in smoke.

It wasn't actually possible at one stage to see the other side, it became even more dramatic in the evening as the moon turned orange and the smoke clouds were illuminated by the setting sun.

We checked on the Internet for local news and discovered that there were wildfires all over Galicia due to the dry weather and strong winds. 

This is a news agency photo of the fires near Santiago.

Another night of high winds left us a little short of sleep but as the sun reappeared the winds dropped remarkably to a benign breeze and we were able to go ashore finally and stretch out legs and relax on the beach. An amazing contrast.

Dark Tarn and Magnet are anchored in the bay in the photo below.

There was still evidence of the wildfires as we could see one just to the south of us.

The smoke from the fires is obvious beyond Magnet and the viverios in the bay. Viviero is a fish cage or mussel farm, the Rias are full of them.

 Enjoying the feeling of dry land beneath our feet again we started to explore the town of Esterio, one of the events we had missed recently was a sort of soapbox Derby, which has turned into an annual event and even though we were too late to see the actual occasion we were lucky enough to stumble on the storage for some of the cars used in the race.

These were real works of art.

Being beautifully fashioned from wood and each one unique in design, and it has to be said beautifully upholstered.

There were replica bugattis, what appeared to be a steam car and a spinning wheel, even a boat, wonderful.

Some seemed to be a little more crude but close examination revealed the workmanship involved.

The photo above shows the winning car.

Returning to the boat we resolved to stay a few days as there was very little wind around now and there was a festival on Sunday which we would like to stay and see. Over the next few days the strong smell of smoke would reappear every so often but by Saturday the helicopters were no longer in evidence and we assume that the fires were under control.