9/10/2022 Gijon, Spain

Woke to a beautiful sunny day. Order of the day, cleaning. You realize how big this boat is when you clean it stem to stern, not that it was so dirty. The marina we are in is in an industrial area not unlike Wilmington or San Pedro, California. After a day or two of no rain the dirt accumulates.

Got underway about 1230 to move to Puerto Deportivo, Gijon. Radioed in to the marina to let them know we were arriving, but would like to stop for fuel first. They said that the tide was too low for the fuel dock, but we could take our berth. As we came into the protected marina a staff boat met us and waived us into the fuel dock, go figure.

After fueling and checking in we settled into a finger berth at the end of the docks. Formulated our shopping list, broke out our wagon and shopping bags and headed to the market. The local super market was ok, they went to great lengths to explain that because we spent more than 100 euros we received a 25 euro coupon for our next 100 euro plus purchase. I think we will be back. Down the street we found a place called Coalla Gourmet, thought we died and went to food and wine heaven. They had an incredible selection of wines and liquors, so the bar got properly stocked. Suzette bought about 5 different cheeses and some sliced hamone. Picked up a few other delicious treats as well. With the wagon full to over flowing, we walked back to the boat.

With the boat now fully stocked we turned the second refer on for the first time. Suzette was so happy to have more refer space to better organize and access her food. We were ready for company. Spent the evening cooking a frittata for the next day and a delicious dinner for the evening. On shore there was live music playing and lots of people gathered for their festival. It was fun to watch and listen from our floating home. The party went on literally all night long with music and revelry.

9/11/2022 Gijon, Spain

Up early and the party was still raging at 6:00 am. Started the day by getting the guest cabin ready for our guests. We had not made the guest bed yet. When we did, we discovered that we had the guest bed sheet on our bed. Now we had to go into panic mode and wash sheets.  Our guests arrived with the cabins in complete disarray.

Don and Diane arrived about 1100, earlier than expected, but so welcome to come aboard. It was so great to see good friends and start sharing the adventure with them. We spent time just catching up over a light lunch. We walked the town and saw firsthand the decorations for the festival and the live music. Back to the boat it was nap time for our weary travelers and relax on the foredeck for Suzette and I.

For the evening we had a smorgasbord of tapas, cocktails and conversation. It was fun planning our next destination as everyone weighed in.

9/12/2022 Gijon, Spain

Up early under gray skies as predicted. Departed about 0930 for what turned out to be a long motorboat ride to Ribadeo. We wanted to take advantage of the good weather to make progress to our ultimate destination; Porto, Portugal. The water and wind were calm, but we did get a little wind toward the end of the run, so we put up the sails for a short sail. In fact, it was a sudden blast of wind where we saw 25 knots, which would have been more alarming if we had sails out. By the time we unfurled the main and the self-tacking jib the wind had dropped to 12. We rolled up the jib and unfurled the code zero, now the wind was down to 8. We sailed for awhile as the breeze faded to nothing.

We motored into the wide opening to Ribadeo and found a great anchorage just inside the opening. There was a beach and a park just east of us. We could see the bridge over the mouth of the river and the marina to the southwest. It was mexicaly for dinner, a few rounds of Mexican train and off to bed in a very calm and quiet anchorage, though we did get a pretty good dose of rain.

9/13/2022 Ribadeo, Spain

The day dawned clear and calm. We put away the code zero, cleaned up the boat and weighed anchor. We motored under the 30m clear bridge with no problem, hoping to find an anchorage that was a bit closer to town. Unfortunately, we once again found shallow water and turned back to our original anchorage.

Once settled back in we loaded up the dinghy with the wagon, shopping bags and 4 crew. It was a smooth ride to the marina and after some inquiries and some searching we found a public dock to tie to. It was already close to 1:00, the bewitching hour for stores to close for lunch. We found a great restaurant near the marina and enjoyed local seafood and a bottle of wine. We were now in the region of Galicia. The Galicia octopus was outstanding.

We walked the steep streets up to the downtown area and found a great supermarket to buy some more food for some specific dishes. As the skies were darkening, we made our way back to the boat before the rain began. Full from lunch we played a few rounds of dominos and enjoyed our cocktail hour before having late light dinner.

9/14/2022

Another quiet night and lazy morning. A boat flagged out of Great Brittan pulled in and anchored. We stopped to say hi on our way back to town. Three young men, English, Hungarian and Yugoslavian, they had sailed 5 days from Brittan. They were looking forward to going into the Marina for hot showers and some stable land to walk on. They were headed to Malaga, Spain, where the Brit was moving to.

In town we found a great hardware store and electrical store for some items I had been looking for for a while. Picked up some seafood for the evening Paella and had a beer at a café on the main street. Again, with a darkening sky we headed back to the boat just beating the down pour of rain.

We had two boats from Norway pull into the anchorage as the rain pummeled us.

9/15/2022

Departed under a gray sky and light wind as predicted. The skies grew darker as we motored west. Then the sky opened up and pummeled us with rain, but no wind. As the rain passed the wind picked up and we sailed under the Jib and mainsail. We had a visit from a few curious dolphins and got to sail for a while. Turned southwest to enter Viviero and motored into a quiet anchorage with 3 other boats.

Diane, being our resident Canadian, got excited when we spotted a Canadian flag on the boat next to us. We stopped by in the dinghy to say hello. They were from Montreal, sailing west similar to us, on a 6-year cruise with their son. We beached the dinghy and went for a walk on the hard packed sand at low tide. I had seen a stone bridge between two rock islands and I was able to wade out to one of the islands. I climbed the rock and crossed the bridge. The tide was coming in, so I quickly made my way back, drenched after a little slip and fall. It turned out to be a little fool hardy in my bare feet, though I sustained only flesh wounds.

On the boat we had a great pizza night and played dominos.

9/16/2022

It was a fairly calm night, but getting rocky in the morning so we got underway. We put out the Jib and mainsail immediately and had a great sail in 15-18 knots of breeze on a broad reach. We made great time in spite of the boisterous sea. This was the first harbor to harbor sail we have had so it was extra special.

The opening to the harbor was wide and deep so access to the anchorage was easy and the anchorage was well protected from the swell. The town is Cedeira, Spain. It is notorious for its wind as we were finding out. We put away the code zero, cleaned up and enjoyed appetizers and cocktails in the cockpit as the sun warmed us up from a chili day on the water.

The wind absolutely howled all night, but Raffaellesco stood fast. As I lay in my bed listening the wind howl, I was already planning my nap for the next day.