Raffaellesco - Bill and Suzette's Sailing Adventure

  Friday 8/26/22 Woke to gray skies, light rain and calm. The skies cleared and it was a beautiful day. Enjoyed the morning reading and watching the boats go by. At 1200 we saddled up the dinghy and bikes and headed to town. One more trip to the hardware store and a stroll through the shopping district. Stopped at the scuba place and picked up my little 5 L tank. There was a street fair going on down by the water so we had to check it out. Mostly food vendors; we bought more cheese and some incredible bread. The loaves must have been 18” in diameter with fruit and nuts in them. We bought a wedge. As we made our way back to the boat, we could see that a beautiful schooner had anchored next to us. We were going to leave today for Zumaia, but it was a gorgeous day, so we stayed. A perfect day to swim, read and nap in the sunshine. I enjoyed planning our route and destinations for the next couple weeks, that will bring us to Gijon, not that we were going way off shore or had lots of ...

 Monday 8/22 The boat settled by about 0900 and a rain had set in, as predicted by 2 of the 4 weather reports I was watching. It was a good day to catch up in important things like reading more equipment manuals, balancing the check book and doing some paperwork. The sun teased us once or twice, but the rain did not abate until about 1500. We took the opportunity to go into town and walk the strand along the beach. There were lots of people and lots of shops to leave your money in. The buildings looked Swiss in their architecture, but laid out in a hap hazard maze of streets and walk ways. Mirror ceiling in a chocolate shop revealing the process For my friend Bob W, the rower Back on the boat it was Pizza night, I know, Sunday is pizza night, but frankly I hardly know what day it is! Our next commitment of sorts is to be in Bilboa, Spain by around 9/1 so Jeanneau can take care of a couple items left on the punch list, though I will not be surprised if the parts are not there ye...

 Friday 8/19 A beautiful day to be at anchor. We stowed the code 0, tidied up the lines and messed with the rigging on the dinghy davits, they just do not work smoothly. Tuned the standing rigging, it seemed that the back stay was loose while sailing and that the mast had to much rake in it. Around 1300 we were ready for lunch and a dinghy ride. We stopped to talk to our boat neighbor who made a restaurant recommendation, we think. We headed into the little marina nearby, Port de la Vigne to check the weather report and check with the Capitainerie on the sea condition at the entrance tomorrow. He jotted down a number and said call this number for the report. Ok. Lots of beautiful shallow draft boats on the moorings. This bay is famous for oysters and has been a great source since the Roman times, so oysters for lunch. We motored south to what looked like the restaurant, but no dinghy dock. At the ferry dock a guy said we can just put our dinghy on the beach, so we did! We manag...

 Wed 8/17 Why is it that everything happens at 2 in the morning? Woke from a blissful sleep at about 0200, the boat was quiet, but something woke me. Went up on deck and witnessed a pretty spectacular lightning show, fortunately it was out over the ocean. Satisfied that all was well I crawled back into my comfy bed. With a chance of rain and lightning in the forecast for today we decided it would be a good day to sleep in and stay in port. The anchorage was comfortable, though a little rolley in the morning with all the boats going out. The day turned out to be sunny and beautiful, but we could see dark clouds in the distance and the weather radar showed rain in the area. Since we were going to be at anchor for the next few stops, we decided to deploy the tender, this is no small task. I went with an inflatable rather than a RIB so it could be deflated and stored out of sight and out of harm’s way. It lives in the huge locker under the aft deck. It took a few tries to fold it...