Muxia to the fruits of Sardineiro

We left Muxia & what a bloody good decision as we ended up having the most amazing sail down to Sardineiro. The sea state was perfect nice and calm not choppy at all and the wind was 15-19 knots behind us. Wind on the nose is not good as it has to be at least 45 degrees otherwise you have tack & that is a pain as you have to go miles out of your way just to make a bit of progress …it can be soul destroying as we have learned in the past. We were absolutely howling along at a steady 6-7 knots and it felt brilliant. It seemed like it had been lifetime since we had a sail like this and we had forgotten how amazing it was. We were all comfy and no horrible noisy engine to spoil it, which mean we could enjoy talking. We chatted happily all the way mainly about the Atlantic Crossing and what it might be like, what provisions we will need …. and agreed lots of Haribo were high on the shopping list!

We rounded the last bit of headland and now we had warm sunshine beating down us, as the sails had shaded us most of the way. This was the icing on the cake. We arrived at a quiet little anchorage by a little beach with not another yacht in sight, all that was there was a few little mooring buoys behind a tiny breakwater with some little local fishing boats. The anchor took straight away thanks to the lesson from crazy Dutch Peter & we wandered ashore with Scrump Dog. Some nice fisherman let us tie our dingy to there trawler as there was only a boat ramp no pontoon to tie onto. It amazing how well you can get on with people despite not being able to understand a word of each others languages. We’ve had conversations with little old Spanish ladies & their dogs no having a clue what they are saying. I have gone in numerous local shops & butchers buying bits for tea and managed to get my point across with nothing but hand signals, I am actually quiet enjoying it. It’s like a little challenge and you feel victorious when your successful at getting your point across …like playing Pictionary!

Scrumps enjoyed a walk on the beach & we took some cool photos of our little yacht anchored in the picturesque bay. We found an odd restaurant with wifi and were treated to some free local grapes. It was a lovely chilled evening and we were buzzing after our perfect sail.

In morning I arose to gorgeous sunshine and not a single cloud in the sky so we decided to stay another night and make the most of the nice weather. There were lots of boats around us with about 7 men who looked to be spear fishing, it turned out that they were collecting razor clams. We rowed to the beach past them in the dingy & Scrumpy was going crazy, he got so confident that he was literally balancing on the front of the dingy trying to get to the men. One guy came up for air & was laughing his head off and came over to show Scrumps his razor clam & give him a stroke. Then when we were about 5 meters from the shore Scrumpy the dare devil decided that he couldn’t wait any longer & div bombed off the dingy swimming his way to the beach much to the amusement of a bunch of old ladies who were power walking up and down the sand. Simon spent the day spear fishing and got us a fish for our tea, just like a true hunter gather. We really enjoyed it at this anchorage as it pure Spain, nice a quiet with friendly locals and completely non tourist. I like places like this as we get to see what Spanish life is really like.

The following day we woke up to a very different picture …. you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. We were just surrounded by thick white mist, amazing what a difference a day makes! This was disappointing as we had hoped to leave and continue on with our progress. We had a nice walk ashore and found a fig tree so picked some to take back with us, you can’t beat free fruit! Then we decided that rather than hang around we would venture out into the mist as it was only 18 miles to another port. We’ve sailed in mist a few times now so we were concerned it just meant we both had to keep our peeled for other boats.