BACK TO FRONT AGAIN

Because I can't get to post as often as I write, the blogs are back to front. This lot starts at 'Leaving Porto Novo'.

WHERER WE ARE

Here is an idea of where we are,

LADDERS ETC

While on things technical there has been a request for some explanation of a few terms.
Warps are ropes that hold the boat to a pontoon or jetty.
Rodes are ropes or chain that hold a boat to an anchor. I have put in a picture of the rode locker so you can get an idea of what was involved in sorting it out. The white rope on the right hand side is for the large parachute anchor that goes out over the front, as there is 140metres of it. The only way to sort it out was to flake it out up and down the jetty and then pull it in and make sure it was stowed to run free. The middle green rope with the short length of chain on it is for the smaller drogue out the back, it is only 45 metres, with another 45 metres underneath if we need to add to it. The chain on the left is for the kedge anchor over the back, the one on Dave’s launch pad. They all have shackles on them ready to go, and we hope we never have to use them. You may also appreciate the novel use of Lakeland washing baskets and a recycling bag for the chain.
The gangway. I thought you might like to admire Dave’s gangway for getting on and off when we are moored stern to as in Bayona (more of Bayona later). He used a bit of an old extension ladder, a plank that can be also used as a fender board of we have to go on a wall, and a set of wheels off a green wheelie bin. It comes up off the jetty at night to stop it clanking if the wind gets up and would also repel boarders too.
A bimini is a sun awning that can be used at anchor or at sea. It is essential to provide shade in case of having to spend time at the wheel in the sun. It is basically a sheet on a set of poles or a frame. We were going to get one made before we left but things were becoming too delayed and complicated so it will probably be in Portugal. The umbrella has had its time up at sea, and grateful too we were for it, and it is also good in port if we don’t want to get the great big brown cover out. The umbrella and my huge green sheet are working well here in Bayona and the boat is staying cool inside – big relief to me I can assure you.

LADDERS ETC

DROGUES ETC

As we had rocked and rolled on the swell at anchor at Panjon, we deployed the drogue over the side which acted as a very effective damper and made things very comfortable. That is the blue thing in the photos. Its main purpose is to be streamed out the back end in heavy weather to slow us down if we are surfing in a gale, but is has other uses including this one. It basically like a large vented bucket, and is extremely effective. It can even be used for emergency steering. Australian so it must be good!
The pole sticking out is one of the two poles we use to hold the front sails out when we are going downwind, but it too has a number of uses, the main one of which is getting the dinghy in – pictures supplied too. It doesn’t take very long at all to get it in and out, and it is light enough for the two of us to sort out without straining anything. We are most pleased with this new acquisition, much easier to handle than the rubber duck, and easier to deploy too.

CHURCH AT PANJON

This was an amazing building to be sure.

PANJON (PANXON)

PANJON
Panjon was a small town tucked up on the corner of the big bay that has Bayona on one side. The forst thing you notice is the church up on the hill, and the miles and miles of white sand beaches full of bodies catching the rays or others walking up and down the length of the beaches. All times of the day and evening there are determined walkers in swimsuits getting a constitutional or perhaps showing off the body beautiful, though to be honest the walkers tended to be the craggy souls like us and the sunbathers the more slimline models.
We anchored off the end of the harbour breakwater and despite the wind and slppy waves launched the dinghy and went ashore. It is by now Saturday so time to find the church and the supermarket before Sunday. Having wandered about a bit and sorted ourselves out it was the must have coffee and ice cream on the beach front before seeting back to the boat.
Sunday was calmer and een managed to get to Mass without getting church clothes wet. An amazing church, looks old but is rather new by Spanish standards, started in the late 1800’s but not finished until the late 1930’s. Inside the mosaics on the roof and walls are magnificent, the photos don’t do them justice , and I was taken by the depiction of Our Lady Star of the Sea – much more graphic than that at Tobermory, and the expressions on all the faces were so moving. Look for the upside down man.
Bread from the bakers, then coffee and ice cream again while watching life on the beach, including the man who wandered to the water’s edge in full view of everyone to relive himself. Even Dave, used to the vagaries of male behaviour, eas taken aback. Must be different here! The tourism here was not that of the foreigners, but Panjon is the place the Spanish come for holidays and a day at the beach. This is obviously a well off part of Spain, what we would call the commuter belt for Vigo and Bayona.
So off home, and get ready for the trip to the marina tomorrow. We have to call in for mail and diesel, as well as to do some sail changing for which we need a pontoon to fold up the one we ae taking off.
If you look at the pictures taken from the beach Spirit is the furthest out, you can just see a glimpse of the brown sail cover. Look slightly left of centre.

ISLAS DE CIES

More pikkies. We were anchored where the boat is near the beach.

PORTO NOVO AND ISLAS DE CIEL

LEAVING PORTO NOVO
‘Hey, Jen, can I go iup to the supermarket?
‘No, Dave’.
‘Can I take the rubbish up?’
‘No, Dave’
‘Why is the engine on Jen?’
‘We are going now’
‘Right now?’
‘Yes Dave, before the b......y wind gets up. Remember yesterday, 5 to 8 no wind, 10 past 8 a howling gale’.
‘Best I get the warps off then’.
‘Right Dave, and don’t forget to hop on board.’
And so we made a graceful exit from Porto Novo, out into the ria and on the way to Bayona. Once the fenders were in and the warps stowed, we turned the engine off and bobbed along on the tide in the bright sunshine and Dave made lovely toast for brekkie (yesterday’s bread as I wouldn’t let him up to the bread shop, but wonderful all the same.) Looked about for the wind, and there was none – sod’s law I suppose, so we got out that wonderful pink and purple colourful sail and started to drift along in the direction we wanted to go. No hurry, as this leg was only about 3 or 4 hours.
‘Jen’
‘Yes Dave’
‘At this rate we will be there in 15 hours time’
‘Hmmmm. I suppose 1 knot is a bit slow’
‘You can walk faster’
‘Not St Peter though’
It was nice drifting along and at times we even did 2 knots, able to have a civilised morning tea without falling over, watch the dolphins, and the other boats pass us by under engine. We were caught up by our friends from Muros who very cheekily motored alongside and offered us some diesel! After a while we looked at the map, and decided that we would be able to go to a little anchorage off an island on the way, so gave in for the last couple of miles and motored to the Islas Ciels. So glad we did, and found our friends there too. The islands are small, but have wonderful beaches and are a great holiday spot and day trip destination. Put the anchor down, watched the ferry come and go with the trippers, looked at the people on the beach and generally chilled out. The wind did pick up but the anchor held nicely and we gently rocked off to sleep.
Not too early a start, we were the last boat to pick up its anchor, and off we went for the last few miles. Just put the foresail up and whizzed along at over 6 knots, great sail into Bayona harbour. Decided to anchor off in a corner across from the marina at a little town called Panjon or Panxon depending which map you are using.

ALL BACK TO FRONT

Dear fans
I am still hopeless as i had 3 blogs ready and first of all posted them on the wrong sit - heaven knows where they went to. Then got doing the pictures and the internet went down and had to start again. Now I find it is all back to front! It should read Muros - Corpus Christi - Portosin. Promise to try harder!

PORTOSIN

PORTOSIN
Having decided it was time to move, we started to get the boat ready. The plan was to get the bread on the Monday morning and then toddle over to Portosin later in the day. However, it started to rain, and Dave is allergic to rain now ( I don’t much fancy it either). Then the wind got up, so we decided tomorrow would be better. Tomorrow came and if anything was worse than the day before – thumbs down on that day too. Wednesday came and went as the weather was windy and rainy. By now we were low on just about everything as the dinghy had been put up on the boat on Monday, and we weren’t in the mood to put it out again in the rain. Then the water ran out of the tanks and we had to dig the bottled stuff out. So it had to be Thursday. Thursday morning was overcast but fine. So quick bowl of cereal and we were off to Portosin. We managed to get over and sorted out, up to town for bread for lunch before the rain came. That saw us lugging the washing to the laundry in the wet, and was it wet!
So here we are and there is wi-fi so there is blog.
The plan is to fuel up tomorrow and leave the following day or so to continue further down the coast to Bayona, with a couple of overnight anchors on the way.
Portosin is a little marina in part of a fishing port. The fishing boats here tend to be on the large side as they are built to go out into the Atlantic. They are supposed to slow down when they come in, but usually it is at warp factor 9 and we get to bounce about a bit. We have been followed over by another English couple who are not best impressed by the rainy weather – we are just calling it Mull weather and know it will get back to being roasting again. The marina girls are excellent and speak English, French and German fluently. They are also having a laugh trying to help me learn some more Spanish. The laundry was a trial though, took forever as I had saved it all up till we got here. From now on it will be was a we go!
The little village ia bout a mile away and has the basic little shops. I am still trying to find a post office as I have some snail mail to send. To all of you who have sent e-mail by MMVY5@sailmail,com I give you many thanks as it is such a pleasure to get news form you all.

Saturday - Still raining can you believe. Tobermory again but a bit warmer

CORPUS CHRIST MUROS

Because I am not very good at this blooging yet, these pictures go with the text of the next blog down

corpus christi

CORPUS CHRISTI
‘Hey Jen’
‘Yes Dave’
‘What are all those people doing over there in their re t-shirts?’
‘Can’t see, Dave. They are behind a wall.’
‘They have sacks of stuff. Maybe they are cleaning the streets or fixing the road.’
‘Don’t know, Dave, we can look tomorrow when we go ashore.’
So tomorrow came and it was time to go and get ready for Mass at midday. Puttered in the dinghy trying not to get wet as we were in our best bib and tucker as it was Corpus Christi Day – very important day for us. When we got ashore we were a bit early so started to look around and then all the red t-shirts became self evident. Everywhere through the old part of the town there were groups of people decorating the streets. Over the last couple of days we had seen groups of women sitting in the little squares with boxes of flowers and greenery they were shredding into other boxes, but I did not have the words to ask what they were doing mutilating flowers. Now it was obvious. Patterns had been drawn on the pavement and filled in with coloured flowers. They were stunning. Further along the decorations were in some sort of coloured sand and silvery metal, further along patterns in the tiniest of crushed stones. All along the route of the Corpus Christi procession the pavement was carpeted, must have been the best part of half a mile or more. At various points along the way little later were set up and decorated, there is one in the pictures. We found out that Mass was at 7 pm followed by the procession, so after taking photos of some of the work, went back to the boat to rest up ready to come back in the evening.
Mass was amazing, especially as there was a visiting choir and the music was subtly tinged with the cadences of the local music and so very moving. Then the procession formed up ready to take the Blessed Sacrament around the town. The banners came out for the various organisations associated with the church, the local band took up position and the new communicants from last week formed up in their first communion outfits. At the rear of the children were two little angels and the world’s smallest altar boy-to-be – look for them in the photos. The procession set off down the hill from the church, a slow and dignified pace, with the band keeping everyone in slow time. This was the cue for the rocket launcher on the quayside to start letting off his rockets with amazing loud bangs. No health and safety here, just a car bootload of rockets being let of 4 at a time all the time of the procession, which took nearly 2 hours. The Blessed Sacrament was processed by the priests under the canopy, and the 6 chaps holding it up kept time by clunking the poles down on the pavement each step. Down the main street and along the flower strewn carpetway, past the little squares in the old part of town and back up the steps to the church.
There were so many people about it was hard to get any photos, so I have done the best I can. The church dates from the 13th Century with additions till the 16th century and is mostly unchanged from that time. None of the modernist asceticism here, statues everywhere and all still looked after with love and reverence. We are on one of the pilgrim routes for Santiago de Compostela so Dave was pleased to find his mate St James had a place in the church. One thing I have learned to tell people is that Dave is a bone fide pilgrim, which means a lot here, and that the hat badges are for real not a tourist copy. They are most impressed that he did the long northern route.

MUROS

JUNE 3
At last we are able to get a bit of news out and catch up on the blog. It would seem that our naive hopes that internet connection would be easy in Europe have been proved false as our first foray in Spain has let us know that Vodaphone isnot the same in Spain as in the UK and wi-fi is not universal. However, more of that later.
We finished the last blog in the Scillies and what a lovely stay that was. The day came for leaving and saw a flurry of activity from us on a bright and sunny day. We had fuelled and watered the day before, but although not due to leave till 3 pm due to the tides, the time passed in an eye blink. The dinghy was hoisted on deck, a bit slow as it was the first time we had done this manoeuvre, but finally tied down on the new cleats I had insisted on instead of the fiddly little loops before, and the deck secured and ready. The wind looked as though it was going to be behind us so we dragged the second foresail on deck and hoisted it up with the other ready for twin headsail sailing. This writes a lot easier than it is to actually do, as the sail on the stay has to be dropped and then both sails hoisted up together – slow winching by old crocks, but we made in the end. Then the poles out each side get rigged and snugged down ready to receive the sails when we get going. So a bit later than planned we slipped the buoy and motored out. We had readied the heavy weather sails on deck in Swansea, and flaked the rodes for the sea anchor and drogue in the cockpit locker ready for instant deployment – after all we were going out into the big wide world.
As we motored out down towards Bell Rock lighthouse in the afternoon sun it was stunning, but no wind, and a very depressed Dave muttered about losing “the window” and other such nautical terms. Approaching Bell Rock, huge in its magnificence and isolation, perched on what seems a non-existent rock, we altered course and low and behold a breeze came up and then we were sailing. Fabulous. A short while later we looked behind us and saw a vast fog bank looming up behind us and coming ever closer and then enveloping us, not the best thing. More unsettling was the mournful hooting of a fog horn from a large ship somewhere in front of us. Hmmmmm. So off goes Dave to try to get his new computer programme working, the one we had problems with in Swansea, and thanks to St Joseph and St James it came up and did the business. It allows us to pick up ships transmitting over their radar and plot their track. They can’t see us as we have no transmitter, but it gives invaluable information of what is around us. So we knew which way Fog Horn was going and how close and then in the murk he was where he should have been, almost too good to be true. This is AIS and it stood us in good stead all the way down, apart from the smaller fishing vessels and yachts which do not seem to be transmitting.
So we sailed on into the night and stared the watches, 3hrs on and 3hrs off at night and 4 on and 4 off in the day. This means we rotate the times and allows joint meals. The fog eventually lifted to a starry night and then the beauty of the sunrise and moon set. We had company from dolphins again and again, all huffing and squeaking alongside as they do. So much for gales and Biscay, eventually we had no wind and all we could do was either slop around in the swell or motor. Slopping in the swell was not an option as we were in the shipping lanes below Scilly so motor it was. And was and was. Until......
That awful time when there is absence of noise – the engine stopped. We could have cried as we have put so much effort into cleaning this fuel system and here we were having to go through all the hard work again. So totally unbelievable. At least this time we were out at sea. So the old routine of empty tank etc and find more slime from dead bugs killed since the last effort. And on again towards Spain, still motoring despite trying to sail whenever possible as fuel usage had to be rationed if at all possible. The sun was really hot and much to Dave’s disgust the umbrella came out – I think he is a bit embarrassed by sailing with a garden umbrella, but until we get a Bimini built, shade is a must. And I did notice him sitting in the shady bits when it was his turn on watch. Terry the tiller worked hard and after a bit of thought, us being slow learners, we finally got the book out and after a read realised he wasn’t a plug and play item as Dave had thought (hoped more likely– hates handbooks), so followed the instructions and lo and behold he gave a little sigh of thanks and managed to keep on course at last. Then.....
Having just dodged the shipping lanes leading to Finisterre we had a repeat of the engine trouble again. This was just the last straw in a way as it seriously disrupted the watch system and we were getting tired. But the fuel had to be cleaned and decanted yet again as we would not have enough to get to Muros, so lots of smelly diesel later and aching arms from shifting tables and jerry cans in the rocking boat were on our way again.
The entry into Muros is lovely, and we rounded the corner into the bay and with a huge sigh of relief dropped our super branny new (well, used once) anchor . Apart from putting on the sail cover no more jobs were done as we were so tired we just went to sleep, even though the sun was still out.
Muros is delightful and not yet touched by tourism, or some other modern inventions like wi-fi or easy internet access. There is no mobile broadband roaming in Spain, and we can’t take out a contract so that is out. We did get a SIM card for the spare phone after much digging into the dictionary, but the cheap international is on a contract phone here, not the pay as you go as in the UK, so calls are limited. But we found the little supermarket and are on a search for the bigger one, have found the nicest coffee place, found the church and hardware store where we go in with pockets full of bits to show the man behind the counter as the words don’t appear to be in the dictionary. People are so kind and friendly and put up with my painful attempts to speak their language, and show no impatience whatsoever.
It is HOT. At the earliest opportunity the sewing machine was out and a huge green tent made to go over the boom and another cover for the front hatch as well. This added to the cover already on the back of the boat has made it liveable, and we also have a windscoop going down the front hatch that will direct any little breeze into the cabin. Dave still has a duvet, but at least has moved down to the summer weight and into summer PJs, I have a sheet and sleeveless PJs – always said he was a frog! But the biggest prince to me.
We have spent 2 of our days here doing the diesel tank clean yet again and there can be no further bug or sludge possible in either tank. We have filtered everything twice again, wiped both tanks out with Jeye’s fluid (not easy in the back of the boat), replaced filters, cleaned fuel lines and just about every bit of fuel system you can think of. There has been so much diesel transport that the gas alarm started to go off in answer to the fumes – and what an alarm that is I can tell you. You cannot switch it off and I am sure they heard it in Madrid.
After this I was able to sit down at last and have time with my precious radios and see what my bug bears there were. It is surprising where the time goes at sea, and I was unable to get an uninterrupted time on the watches to do so. But at last worked out that the computer I took to see Bob the radio man at Easter had been altered so it would not talk to the radio. So having loaded the secondary computer with the appropriate software we now have a computer that talks to the radio and the Pactor modem that allows us get weather faxes and do e-mail. And a pleasant surprise awaited me as I fired it all up, we had mail waiting for us! You lovely people that left us messages, what a heart gladdener that was. So we are open for business – our address in MMVY5@sailmail.com. Text only, no pictures.
We took a day off and had an adventure getting the bus to Santiago de Compostela, a special place for Dave as he did the full 600 mile pilgrimage to Compostela, and then took me back to see the last part of the walk by car. The first bus arrived with no seats left, so by the time the second one turned up we got there too late for the Pilgrim’s Mass in the cathedral. We walked the old haunts and had a magic time, made the bus back and found Spirit is still here.
The way of life really agrees. Shops open 0930 to 1330 and the 1730 to 2030, coffee places all day. Bread is yummy, and the cold meats and cheese to die for. And then there is fish. And fish. And more fish. And all kinds of sea creatures in large trays in the fish market. Not to mention the fish swimming about the boat. Dave reckons these are common fish as they are only mullet. But then the mullet bring the dolphins in too, and they are good to watch playing.
Sunday was a big day in town as we found out when we went to Mass that is was First Communion day for about two dozen of the village children. Everyone was there, kids in white frocks and sailor suits, relatives dressed to the nines all excited and flourishing cameras. Thankfully we had arrived early and were able to get a seat while the church became more and more crowded. It is a lovely old building, dated 13th to 16th century. The bell tolls the hours, and the bell before Mass is rung by a chap up in the bell tower wielding a big hammer, making an awesome sound. After Mass when we went out of the church we found that there were as many people outside as inside, all in festive mood.
Things you notice:
The emphasis on families- all out together, dressed up, the children in classical children’s clothes, the teenagers modest while trendy, all chattering away together.
The babies dressed to the nines, matching bootees in soft leather and bonnets, frills everywhere.
The patience of adults with the kids.
The relaxed pace of life.
The patience of everyone with visitors.
The cockle pickers out in the bay at low tide, hordes of ladies with their skirts swirling in the water, chattering on ten to the dozen while they work their way along the sea bed filling floating baskets.
The customs men having a laugh a minute on board with us while we attempted to fill out their form, then waiting for their mates to come and collect them in the official boat.
And so much more