Island life

 If you look at the map below Dark Tarn was anchored at the little anchor symbol at the south end of the Praia de Rodas.

We rowed ashore and walked towards the campsite which was in the process of being assembled. Its possible to rent a tent or pitch your own if you wish to stay overnight, or you can always arrive aboard your own boat!

There is a causeway connecting the campsite area to the northern part of the island, this can be impossible to cross at certain states of the tide, the lagoon is also known as the aquarium due to the profusion of sea life its possible to see.

the road carries on towards the ferry pier, this disgorges tourists during the day but at this time of year the island doesn't feel at all crowded.

A little further on is yet another stunning beach the Praia de Figueiras.

It seemed a good spot for a swim and a sit......

Later we climbed up through the Eucalyptus forest heading for the Alto de Pricipe.

This is a well known viewpoint and has a collection of weirdly shaped rocks adorning the summit.

 There is a precipitous drop down steep cliffs on the Atlantic side. The views are again outstanding.

The sunbaked rocks are home to many lizards and as Alex has recently acquired a large lizard as a pet ( a bearded Dragon, called Madison) he was fascinated and fairly desperate to catch one!
He also insisted in giving his mum a heart attack by getting too close to the edge, the rock he is on in the photo below is known as the" throne".

We wandered back through the cool woods unfortunately Lynne twisted her ankle in the rough track which would influence our plans considerably in the next week.

We walked back to the campsite area and continued on to our favourite beach on the island, the Praia de Nosa Senora,( Our lady beach) this overlooks the southern island of San Martino.

A final swim and we left the island after a very interesting,  (and hot ) day on what must be one of the loveliest islands in Galicia.
That evening we were joined in the anchorage by another old friend Aros Mor and its skipper Ian who we had last met on the north coast a year ago. Alex and I sank a few beers in the bar ashore which was open for the first time in the year. Ians crew was Brian who was flying home from porto on the same day as Alex. Lynne was confined afloat due to her strained ankle. We would undoubtedly bump into Aros Mor again as we sail down the Portugese coast. The following morning we had planeed to climb to the lighthouse but Lynnes ankle and a foggy sea-fret persuaded us to sail back to Cangas.

Back to Islas Cies

I booked a couple of days anchoring at Islas Cies, this is very easy to do as we had completed formalities last year. A couple of hours saw us approaching the Praia Rodas on the west side of the main island, we dropped anchor under sail and noticed a French boat from Cangas already at anchor.

This was the day after the terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena and Alex had been awake most of the night chatting with his friends on messenger, One of Alexs friends had been missing for a few hours after attending the concert. She turned up safe to everyones immense relief..We let Alex have a doze before going ashore.

The Islas Cies are a truly stunning place, the water is crystal clear, the sands are clean and white, the air is heavy with pine and eucalyptus. It was a million miles away from the tragic events unfolding at home.

Alex used his rowing skills to drop us off on the beach.

The heat was growing and the water looked very inviting.......

Alexs factor 50 seemed to be working well!

That evening we enjoyed a lovely sunset and looked forward to exploring the island tomorrow.

As the breeze died we were left alone, the French couple aboard their boat from Cangas our only company.

Exploring the Ria

It was soon time to set sail, we had an enjoyable time showing Alex around our temporary home but now we felt it was time to set sail for a little day trip.

We decide to drop down the Ria to anchor off the beach at Barra for lunch.

We tucked in under the cliffs and enjoyed an al fresco lunch in company with a couple of local yachts.

 Barra and Nerga beaches are really beautiful and the recent rain had left the pines and Eucalyptus trees very green.

As we raised anchor and headed back up the Ria past Cangas and on to San Simon a racing fleet was returning to Vigo . We spread our gennaker to catch the light winds and keep up with the returning fleet but the wind died completely off Cangas and we had to resort to the engine to take us under the motorway bridge and into the upper Ria.

 We anchored off San Adrian and were pleased to find not only Magnet but Modus Vivendi with Bob and Maureen were also anchored. We adjourned to the only bar by the Marina for drinks and conversation.

Sadly this would be our last evening with Jim and Megan for a while as they planned to leave for Xufre in the morning. Bob and Maureen however planned to linger in the Rias for a while longer....

As Bob and Maureen were meeting a friend in the morning everyone adjourned at a reasonable hour, we however stayed on into the evening chatting and playing table football.

San Simon is a very sheltered anchorage and we spent another day recovering from the previous nights excesses. In the photo below you can just see Dark Tarn. The Ensenada is totally landlocked and surrounded by hills on all sides

The following day we returned to Cangas. Alex again took advantage of the local skatepark and after a pleasant afternoon swimming and skating we had a drink in one of the pop-up beach bars or Chiringitos.....

These seem to have a lifespan restricted to the summer months, they literally spring up and are built overnight and will disappear just as quickly at the end of the season.

Alexs P20 had to be upped to factor 50 as the sun became increasingly hot!

Vigo visit

A visit to Vigo proved interesting, I hadn't realised before the potential for skateboarding that the wide open plazas and pedestrian areas presented. Megan had told Alex where the local skaters congregated near the Yacht club and we wandered up through the old town and back towards the particular square Megan had mentioned.

The weather continued bright and sunny with odd showery intervals.

The young dinosaur continues to grow, and possibly because of the recent match with Manchester united in the UEFA cup the ugly merman statue was decorated with a Celta de Vigo shirt. the local team are known as " Os Celestes" or the Sky Blues.

Alex was missing his guitar so that initiated a search for a cheap guitar. Normally Lynne likes shopping but she didn't seem overly interested in musical instruments, (neither Lynne or I can play a note on anything)

 However a guitar was found and Alex bought it to donate to the boat so that I could learn.

Alex met up with the locals as planned and enjoyed skating the local spots.

Luckily a small collision with a local was treated very politely!

Birthday presents

Finally the day arrived when we crossed the border into Portugal to pick up Alex from Porto airport.
It is a good hour and a half drive along good ( toll ) roads.

We parked up the hire car and Lynne was soon establishing squatters rights on a prime spot to await new arrivals. Alex's plane was about half an hour late but we soon met up and began the longish drive back to Cangas.

Alex was very pale and his mum was soon advising liberal use of our favourite sun protection P20. Alex was keen to look around Cangas and try out the local skatepark

Later as we walked back along the seafront it seemed no street furniture was safe from Alex.

As Alex has always been interested in photography and street art we showed him the exhibition of old photos which was the current display in the old chapel in the park.

I took Alex on an evening walk to thw old whaling station to show him the graffiti art there, Alex has always enjoyed "Urbex" or Urban Exploration, basically exploring derelict buildings. The Masso factory and the whaling station proved irresistible

.
We also had a few beach days to work on Alexs tan!

Alex also enjoyed learning how to order food and drink in Spanish.

On evening we had a text from Jim and Megan that Magnet was anchored in the bay, we had a very pleasant evening having a few drinks around the old town.

Unfortunately Jim and Megan had decided to return home to N.I. for the summer due to family concerns and we arranged to meet up at San Adrian later in the week for a final visit before they sailed to Xufre to store Magnet ashore at the boatyard there.

Aldan and Fatima ( anniversary)

A very early start for us saw us catching the ferry to Vigo at 9am, unfortunately it also coincided with a torrential downpour of biblical proportions. We had arranged to hire a car from Vigo and as we walked squelching along towards the Enterprise office (recommended by the way) enthusiasm was low.
Luckily Veronica was very helpful, spoke excellent English and was able to recommend a good cafe while we waited for our car to be washed, After the usual formalities, we then had a 16 kilometre trip around the Ria before the bridge we had sailed under nearly 7 months ago headed back towards Cangas.
We had a slight detour to stock up at Lidl, great to have a car to carry the shopping! after dropping off groceries at the marina we thought it would be nice to visit Aldan, just a little too far to walk but just a 10 minute drive. The weather continued to be unsettled.

Aldan is a small town at the bottom of a minor Ria off the Ria Pontevedra. It is surprisingly shallow in parts and although only a hop skip and jump from Cangas feels a world away. It was sheltered from the strong southerly's that had been blowing consistently for a good few days.

In another surprise the church was open, we availed ourselves of the opportunity to have a look in a small provincial church. It came as no surprise that the church was .......................surprising.

It was the weekend that the pope was visiting Portugal to celebrate the canonisation of the miracle of Fatima. The two children who witnessed the virgin Mary were canonised and as our eyes adjusted to the light we saw a lady decorating a statue to honour our lady of Fatima.

we were again amazed at the richness and vitality of the church in a small village, The sense that the building was a vital part of the fabric of local life was reinforced by the small acts of decoration that were becoming very familiar. The altarpiece was another gilded work of art. In this instance the beauty was in the detail, small statues in niches and alcoves.

A particular item that had me puzzled for a short time was a statue of pope John Paul who I had not realised had been canonised. Lynne quickly corrected me on this......the lady of sorrows I believe is hiding in the alcove behind John paul.

As well as being the anniversary of the Fatima miracle it was also lynnes birthday, so we adjourned along the sandy harbour to seek out a restaurant or taperia for lunch.

Of course this being Galicia we were duty bound to pay our respects to the local literary figures before eating.
We decided on a small taperia which seemed popular with the locals (this was a Saturday)

Lynne was tempted by the pulpo enpenada, or octopus pie, I was a little more conservative with fries and Zorza (pork, spiced) After lunch we decided to risk the unsettled weather and explore the other notable thing to do in Aldan which  was to explore the "Enchanted forest"

Add caption

Aldan at low water.

spring cleaning

Lynne and I walked out one evening and had a closer look around the old whaling station. Lynne had not had the chance to look closely at the place (needing to go through a hole in the fence ,( its not obviously free access )

It is however fascinating.

I will admit at this point to having a bit of a problem with the amount of graffiti in Spain, There is an awful lot of graffiti in public places, it is a bit of an eyesore. I do not however have any issues with decorating an abandoned structure with art, this is neither vandalism or pointless ego massage. Art is what it is and again in a country I first visited when it was a fascist regime in the late 60s and early 70s I can sympathise completely with graffiti as a means of self  expression and political rebellion. freedom of expression should be tolerated even when its sometimes difficult or obtuse. Having seen cave paintings from the beginning of human existence which say the same thing, namely " I was here and this was what was important to me" We are all part of the same family.

I also suppose that we all have had to bunk off work at some point.
which is how Lynne and I found ourselves on the beach at Playa Rodeiera again watching the local dolphins perform, unfortunately it was very difficult to capture them on a phone camera.

However I did catch this shot of a cetacean whos fin exactly lines up with the whaling station in the distance.......................
Later in the day the sun developed a great halo, the cloudless sky was not giving much credence to the old weather lore " ring around the moon , rain soon"

We  had decided to repaint the non slip paint on Dark Tarns decks, our friends on Merry Mood had been kind enough to deliver a large tin of Masonry Paint ( Sandtex) this was recommended by Paul Fay, Dark Tarns original builder who has been using it on  Ti-Gitu for a few years. it is very much cheaper than yachting alternatives which we had run out of and was difficult to obtain in Spain. We worked until the heat became to much and took ourselves off to the beach for a swim. As I say we all bunk off work sometime.......

First we needed to remove items like the life raft and mask off most deck fittings, so a trip to the local Chinese bazar was needed. These establishments are the Spanish equivalent of pound shops in the U.K and are simply everywhere. So loaded up with masking tape and cheap brushes before we got on with the job. We managed two coats on the coach roof and continued on one of the side decks into the cool of the evening.

we managed to get half finished before the weather took a turn for the worse. We were enjoying an evening drink with a couple of British yachtsmen who had arrived the previous evening and enjoying a beer as Manchester United managed to beat Vigo 1-0  on the TV. The dark clouds gathered and just after midnight the downpour began.
No excuse the Sun Halo had predicted just that................
we now wait for better weather to finish the decks, what we have done looks splendid and the non slip is superior to our normal finish.