Well, the prices in Spain are very good! Far better than France, which is a relief! The foibles are interesting - we have to lock up our shopping trolley and rucksacks before we go into the store itself. This makes things interesting when you reach the checkout as all your carrying gear is locked away by the entrance. Another foible is that you have to wear a glove when handling the fruit and veg - not a big deal, in fact probably better, but something we keep forgetting! You also have to weigh everything, even the cucumbers (which cost about 30 cents!)
The other task was to arrange a SIM card with some data. The joemobile sim that we had been using in France had a handy "Mode Europe" setting which gave us 10 free days roaming using our French data allowance, so we could hit that hard (and did!) however we'd needed a local sim for Spain eventually. One from lycamobile looked like a good candidate so we headed into town and found a small retailer. Fabien didn't speak much English and we were still in the earlier chapters of the excellent "Spanish for Cruisers". So he called his girlfriend and asked her to come quick. She dashed over only to find it was to help some foreigners, not an emergency! However they were very helpful and set us up with a sim. A chunk of data and lots of minutes to the UK - sorted.
However it was soon apparent that calls to the UK weren't being taken from the minutes. So back to Fabien. He called Lyca and tried to sort it. No joy. So after the 3rd attempt, I said that I'd just get a new sim from another provider. However at this point Fabien and I disagreed. He wouldn't let me pay as he claimed it was his fault. I said no, it was Lyca's fault and it was only €15. We argued back and forth via Google Translate, and in the end, I gave him some money which he reluctantly took. He set the sim up and monitored it for a few days then SMSed me the login details. An incredibly generous and helpful guy and an experience that we've found isn't uncommon from the Spanish.
We had our first taste of Galician food. The pulpo (octopus) was good but huge portions! We really liked the relaxed laid back atmosphere in Viveiro which extended even to the wiring..
Before we left Viveiro, we saw a cat anchored outside the port. It looked like a Broadblue and sure enough when they came in and berthed behind us, it was a Broadblue 42 (could be 435, I forget!). In fact it was the very same boat that had been out at Endeavour Quay when I was thinking about extending our transoms for better dinghy access. We had drinks with Chris and Carolyn and the next morning I helped Chris fix an anchor winch problem - he had a spare solenoid onboard which was a simple solution. In return, I borrowed their pressure washer to do the non-slip decks on Duplicat. I really regret not bringing mine (though god knows where we'd put it!) and I'll have to get one somewhere.
We left to head out to anchor in Ria de Barquiero, but thought we'd see Chris, Carolyn and Splice in Cedeira. On our way around to the anchorage, our port engine alarm went off. A quick check showed it to be belt related, so we carried on under one engine. Once anchored, a closer inspection showed the alternator pulley had fatigued and destroyed itself. Most unusual! I got the spare alternator out, but course the one thing that doesn't have is the pulley!
Our anchorage in Ria de Barqueiro was delightful. We were alone for a few days, plenty of swimming and relaxing - this is what we like!