Cangas again

It was time to get out and about, we love the process of exploring a new place however something that has become something of a bad habit is that we rarely turn left at first. It doesn't really help that most of the town is a right turn away. However as the sun was out, a short explore along the coast seemed a good idea. We left the marina and turned left.....

The path is not obvious as it leaves Cangas, a small climb up a hill and a drop down to a to a disused factory reveals a rather nicely renovated seafront park area and a paved cycle path.

This is the view back towards Cangas. As is usual in the Ria the water is extremely clear.

The paved path continues through more disused boathouses and further park areas, there are also several beaches the that are dog friendly.  The views over the Ria to Vigo are extensive.

After a mile or so we arrived at the small bay and rather splendid beach at Aramilla. 

There is a convenient beach café. After a small refreshing beer we had a swim to cool down, this is a very nice beach to swim from.

There are great views of the islands of Cies and when we were there the Dolphins were playing around the bateas just offshore.

After we had dried out we continued to follow the orange arrows that indicated the path. This became well wooded and soon climbed around the next headland.

We were surprised when the path disappeared into a tunnel, this was quite long and very dark, never a happy combination for Lynne. Normally she is quite keen on holes in the ground but likes a head torch.

We found it was very straight forward and soon found ourselves on the other side.

 the path continued and we followed it for a few hundred more metres before deciding to head back to Cangas. We were wearing unsuitable footwear for a long walk and we further decided to continue on another day.

It appeared that the path continued at least as far as the next major bay at the Ensenada de Timens.

This is around the second headland visible in the photo below.

After tea we went out for a drink around town, there always seems to be something going on in Cangas and this evening was no exception. There were some women working very hard and precisely making sand paintings in a closed off street by the market.

The following day this was completed and really was quite impressive, particularly as it was created overnight. The picture below was taken then. It seems to have something to do with a religious occasion when people dress up in pointy hats a la Ku klux klan.

As we wandered back towards the marina we once again passed the wonderful clock and weather station built in 1907. This octagonal thing of beauty has barometers, hygrometers, anemometers, thermometers and of course a clock. a boon to mariners, I think it's wonderful.

The day after we did finally finish the walk we had started the previous day, the weather wasn't as kind being fairly overcast. We made it to Limens which is a beautiful bay backed by a large area of dunes. well worth exploring in its own right as is the whole peninsula of Morrazo. Further along are Neolithic remains on the headland we had sailed past to enter Ria Vigo some weeks before. For now we had to content ourselves with a coffee in the local bar/ café.

It appears that you can grow anything in this sheltered bay, we discovered prickly pears growing in the dunes.

The flowers are quite lovely. After lunch on the beach we headed back leaving the mystery of how to continue to the beach at Barra and the rest of the peninsular for yet another day.

The next bay along is called the Praia days Moscas, which translates as the beach of the flies. We were not too keen on that! However we would certainly return to Limens as it is a really lovely spot.

Another tick on our to do list was finished as a few days earlier we had gone over to Vigo on the ferry to visit the Head Office of the Maritime Terrestrial National Park of the Atlantic Islands of Galicia. This rather grand sounding establishment is the issuing authority for the licence to Navigate which is essential to get an anchoring permit for the islands offshore. We had tried and failed to do this online so decided a visit in person would be easier. the offices also had a fascinating exhibition space and we looked around after dropping off the relevant documentation in person on the second floor.

There are audiovisual displays about the history geology and wildlife of the islands, the staff are also incredibly helpful when seen in person.

Within 24 hours our all important Licence to navigate was received via e-mail and we printed it out on board Dark Tarn. In order to anchor or sail within the National Park limits we now just needed to log onto a website with our password and ID and we would receive permission via email which we would need to print off to present to any rangers who enquired. wonderful simple Spanish bureaucracy! As my licence lasts for 3 years I am now a happy bunny. The islands await!

Why Dark Tarn?

A question that always seems to get asked a lot by new acquaintances is why is your boat called Dark Tarn?
The real answer is that I don't know.....for sure.
When she was originally built she was called Faysarc, a reference to her builder Paul Fay.
with all due respect to Paul, thats a rubbish name.
When I asked Chris, her second owner why he had changed her name he said it was because he needed to find a unique name as he wanted her to be a part 1 registered british ship, which she is. I couldnt believe that there were two Faysarcs, maybe there was a Faysarc 2?
 However it remains a fact that there is only one Dark Tarn on the Registry of British Ships (part 1)
He also said he thought a dark tarn was a west country name for a sooty tern. Which it may well be.
I know that a Dark Tarn is a mysterious and wonderful thing unique to the northlands, its a mountain lake. It has many names in the ancient tongues, Douglas, Blackpool, Dublin, All reminiscent of ancient lore and power. Its the basis of the Arthur legend and the Lady of the Lake, In the days of the ancient Britons it was a place to make offerings of precious things like swords and gold, and sometimes people...
So thats the history bit, and to be fair the name alone was enough to agree a sale sight unseen for one of the joint owners.
To us, our boat is a way to explore the world, To me this is summed up, along with a whole bunch of unresolved spiritual stuff in a poem by Walter de la Mare.
Its called,

The Scribe

What lovely things

Thy hand hath made:

The smooth-plumed bird

In its emerald shade,

The seed of the grass,

The speck of the stone

Which the wayfaring ant

Stirs -- and hastes on!

Though I should sit

By some tarn in thy hills,

Using its ink

As the spirit wills

To write of Earth's wonders,

Its live, willed things,

Flit would the ages

On soundless wings

Ere unto Z

My pen drew nigh

Leviathan told,

And the honey-fly:

And still would remain

My wit to try --

My worn reeds broken,

The dark tarn dry,

All words forgotten --

Thou, Lord, and I.

Walter de la Mare

so there...........

Ensenada San Simon

We anchored in the relatively shallow but very sheltered upper reaches of the Ria de Vigo. We took the solar panels and positioned them in ocean crossing mode ( port out starboard home ) this of course assumes that any crossing is east west and in the northern hemisphere. We returned to the small cafe we had enjoyed the evening before during the downpour and treated ourselves to lunch.

This turned out to be really cheap and very good indeed. There were a suspicious number of trades men's vans parked outside and we were lucky to find s table free. This was obviously a favourite earring place for workmen and truck drivers.

A nice starter of local mussels was followed by a meat course that had defeated our poor Spanish, culleta, which we had translated as knife turned out to be ' blade ' or shoulder of lamb and delicious.

A bottle of the local Alberiño wine was included in the menu and we were very full and slightly drunk when we finally made our way back to Dark Tarn. We had noticed the brides from the beach at Cangas on the TV however couldn't really follow what was going on, the brides seemed to be chasing one groom down the beach, possibly an ongoing advert or soap. That evening a bride and groom were sailing past our boat again dressed in all their finery and were being followed and filmed by an arial drone and a film crew.

 Later another bride chased the yacht in a speed boat. Still no wiser as to the object but it provides us with constant amusement!

The following day we took our dinghy and crossed the Ria to the opposite bank passing the distinctive islands of San Antonio and San Simon ( they are joined by a small bridge.)

The small town, really more a collection of summer houses on the shore is called Cesantes and after a bit of a walk around the shore we discovered a small restaurant built on a hill with the rather intriguing sign saying " we are open, come in"  so we did. The chef turned out to be very friendly and took a lot of effort to explain his ' international ' cuisine.

The dining room had a very pleasant aspect with views over the Ria and the food was superb. The main course was ' lubiña ' or sea bass caught in the Ria and presented filleted, unusual in Galicia where fish are invariably served whole. As we declined Postres our host sent along a few blackberries and what seemed to be a type of passion fruit picked from his garden as a complimentary tapas.

 We again returned to a dark Tarn too full to eat tea!

The following day our explorations took us further into the Ria by dinghy again to the town of Santa Christina.

We discovered a really nice little beach bar and returned the next day to enjoy a " beach day "

One of the downsides of the Ensenada was becoming apparent, it was very weedy, to the point where our normal swimming regime had to be curtailed somewhat. A lot of the weed floating about seemed to be cut, indeed it really was most like long grass. We assume it had been cut from the floating platforms, the vivieros or bateas that were used to cultivate shellfish.

Soon it was time to leave we had enjoyed our stay indeed Bob and Maureen on Modus Vivende had decided to stay in the local marina for the winter. We headed back to Cangas, we felt we needed a bit more onshore for a long stay but we would certainly be spending a few weekends visiting!

We set off back down the Ria going under the motorway bridge as usual worrying about just whether we would actually fit underneath.

It was a gentle motor past Vigo as the wind was virtually non existent, as we approached the dog leg around the reefs off Cangas we were delighted to spot a pod of dolphins playing around the port hand markers.

Lynne is normally reluctant to move around on deck but on this occasion it was the perfect place to observe the antics of 20-30 dolphins, young and old.

I managed to hurriedly grab a little video on my phone.

Soon we had to leave our new friends and reluctantly we left them to their games and made our way to our berth at the marina, we realised we had had nothing to eat all day so we had lunch in the small cafe overlooking our berth.

I suspected that Lynne was happy to be back and the welcome by the Dolphins had reinforced the good feelings we had about Cangas.

The gathering

 Another reason to wait around in Baiona was the arrival of the East Atlantic Rally. This event was a few boats from the Ocean Cruising Club who were cruising in company from A Coruna to the Caribean. Lynne had emailed the organiser Neil and arranged to meet up possibly Sunday, we were also expecting Seawolf to arrive on her way south.

We were surprised to see yet another O.C.C. boat turn up, this turned out to be a beautiful 64 foot schooner called Wolfhound.

She had been built near Poole in Dorset and was being delivered to New Zealand by her owners Steve and Louise. We were lucky enough to be invited aboard and shown around this fabulous yacht. She is built of wood and epoxy and the workmanship is first class. There is a website showing the building of the yacht and her blog at www.sywolfhound.com there are also some links to Steves paintings ( he is a marine artist )

Neil and Helen turned up in Milveina, an aluminium yacht coming out of the weekend fog to anchor.

We had a nice chat with this Canadian couple but unfortunately couldn't stay to socialise with the other crews on the rally. I am assuming they were delayed, possibly due to lack of wind or fog. Neil had complained they had to do a lot of motoring to get here. We had walked around the headland admiring the swells crashing in on the rocks and knew that the weather was taking a little turn for the worse in the next couple of days. I had planned to use the last of the contrary ( for boats heading south ) winds on Monday to go north and avoid the northerlies which would set in possibly for weeks from Tuesday.

Monday saw us walking up into the hills to the distribution centre to pick up our pump spares, Lynne also took the opportunity to gather some fresh mint she had spotted in the fields. We had a last quick shop in Carrefour and had a last visit from Steve from Wolfhound who presented us with a magnificent foghorn I shall be fitting under the radome this winter.

Could have come in very handy the previous couple of days ( fog is very common along this coast )

We raised sail and pulled up our anchor and as we headed out past the harbour wall we met Modus Vivendi with Bob and Maureen aboard coming in!

Unfortunately we wanted to use the last of the southerly breeze to take us back up Ria Vigo to San Simon so we had to carry on as Lynne chatted with Maureen on the radio.

We sailed through the same inshore passage of the Canal de Porta that avoids the reefs and islets known as the Estellas.

The winds were gentle but we're still giving us 4-5 knots as we approached the Enseada de Carriera which also gave us great views of the Islas Cies.

As we entered the Ria proper we were on a dead run and were sailing goosewinged with the main and Genoa on opposite side. This is a twitchy point of sailing and takes a lot of concentration.

We sailed past Cangas and Vigo and had soon covered the 20 miles or so to the rather lovely inland sea that is San Simon. We sailed under the high motorway bridge and past many bateas into the calm waters of the upper Ria.

 We anchored in the shallow bay off San Adrian, just about where the number 4 is on the above chart and spotted Magnet in the marina.

We were anchored just opposite along with a French yacht. Lthough only a few miles from a major city and quite well populated this part of the Ria is a haven of peace and quiet. Well relatively!

The winds were forcast to go northerly and increase which is what they did. We were in a bar that evening ( the only one ) with Jim and Megan from Magnet when the heavens opened and torrential rain fell. Luckily the bar owner gave us a lift back to the marina but Lynne and I still got soaked to the skin as we took the dinghy back to Dark Tarn.

The first real rain we had seen in a month! That night the sky lit up from horizon to horizon with sheet lightening. Perfect shelter to watch a perfect storm. We would stay here a few days until the weather improved.

Churches of Baiona

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We would eventually stay in Baiona for a week. We enjoyed the town and we had found a cafe that did great tapas and had good wi-fi. We had also repaired our heads ( toilet ) using up our last neoprene diaphragm to repair the outlet pump. Luckily the main distributors for Whale pumps in Spain were based in Baiona. An email request found they had the part in stock and were open Monday morning.

This left us some time to kill and as Lynne was keen to look at the local churches we duly set out late one afternoon. The two churches of note in Baiona are surprisingly almost next door to each other. In the Plaza de Santa Liberata.

The one on the right is the Sanctuary of St Liberata, building began in 1695. St Liberata was the first Christian woman to be martyred by crucifixion and she is depicted on a statue in the fascade.

Inside is the usual fantastic guided alter piece this one displaying scenes from the life of the Saint.

There are also fine paintings in the side chapels.

Just across the square is St Mary's and the first impression we got was of the heavy scent of fresh flowers which the church was full of. A lady seen in the photo below was busy exchanging fresh flowers as we arrived she can be seen in the doorway.

This church has real age having been begun in the second half of the 12th century, most of the building we now see however dates from the 14 th century, still an impossibly long time to grasp.

At first I thought the interior was quite dark until I took off my sunglasses! There is the obligatory guilded alterpiece and several side chapels with clothed statues, all richly decorated with fresh flowers.

As you look around my eye was drawn to the stonework in the arches where you can see the carved masons marks left by the builders.

This is quite difficult to spot on the walls but is very obvious on the buttresses above your head. A very human and I found quite touching message from the past.

Another church of note is St Johns chapel which is closed all year round except Easter and the feast of St Johns day. 

However the Mercy chapel is open to visitors and it is by the town hall.

The interior is quite plain ( for a Spainish church ) and it's obvious that this is a simple fishermans chapel with statues of St Carmen and small representations of boats in the decoration.

It dates from 1595 and has a statue known as the " Golden Christ " , we think it's the one central in the alterpiece. Apparently this statue came from America full of golden coins in its hollow interior. The chapel used to be sited outside the entrance to Montrreal fort but was moved into the old town in 1656.