Fog, Rain and a Neck Strain

Ahoy,



let me be the first to apologise for the lack of content in Pull on What of late. Camarinas despite being an enjoyable Marina had no WiFi(and nasty showers).

The Ol' Girl and me arrived at Camarinas late, around 22:30 on the 11th, mooring up went without a hitch and after slipping the lock on the gate with my pocket knife, to my great satisfaction I found that the bar was still open, in fact it remained open until 4am, I may have had one or two beers in memory of Nauta Coruna(no tears).

In Camarinas I met the most Brit's I have met to date and despite having the odd tipple in the same way one might have at home, I do not know yet if it is preferable. This aside Camarinas was a very multi-cultural Marina with boats of all shapes and sizes from all over the World, young, old, in the middle and youngsters too, a great place to meet boaties. My thanks to the many that bought me a beer or two.

So the day after I arrived, I awoke at a surprisingly reasonable hour to discover that there was about to be a grand Fiesta for the Mary of the Sea, I do not believe myself to be particularly superstitious, however, as a novice sailor with a big chart I thought it could not hurt to stay and join in.(this is only partially true)

After what seemed like a week of drinking, dancing(wiggling for me) and eating the finest sea food I have had in my life I was a little weary and it took a day'ish to recover from what was only 4 days of revelry. During this time I caught up with Andy and Pam from Felice and Mike and Jane from Muhuhu, it's a big ocean but a small world and seeing them made my stay even more enjoyable, I wonder if the feeling is mutual?

Of course there was a price to pay, not illness, high fatigue or even a great fiscal one, it was the weather, the wind did not want me to leave, in the end I left twelve days after arriving.

The afternoon I left I decided me and the Ol' Girl would head to one of the Ria's on the way down to Villa Gratia and anchor up for the night, alas with strong swells and the wind determined to stay SW this was not an option, so I pressed on to Villa Gratia. This was the first night passage on the "Coast of Death"(thanks Maria) without a chart-plotter, I did have my GPS coordinates, what a shame the GPS kept on re-setting itself which did not increase my confidence in it, in the end everything went OK, despite a ten hour passage becoming twenty two and a very uncomfortable one at that.
The very second I arrived in the Ria that Villa Gratia is in, the fog descended, the heavens opened and I still had just under two hours to go before I could make berth, surrounded by unlit mussel rafts.
It did not take too long for this bizarre climatic greeting to disperse and soon I was being greeted by the Marina staff and on my way to a hot shower and a bit of a snooze before sorting out the formalities in the afternoon.
I awoke with a minor neck strain and a healthy appetite, I met the Marina Manager, who was expecting me, as not only had the delightful Maria from Nauta Coruna been in touch, my parcel from Jeppeson had arrived, new chart chip's for the plotter, what a fantastic welcome.
The intention is to stay here for a couple of days and head to Baiona, where I may even get to use a bath, an invitation from some Red Ensigns with a property there, I do sometimes dream of a bath these days.