Our first night was in a tiny bay between Isolote Coroso and the mainland. It was an idyllic spot with a tiny beach near by, but we had some swell reaching us. Not enough to make us move - indeed, it was like most anchorages - but we are just getting spoilt by the lovely smooth places to stop in Spain!
The next day we moved up to Playa Barrana. We could have used the marina but there's no need - and this is one of the things we love about this area. Anchoring is wonderfully private, and peaceful (usually!) and Duplicat is well equipped to cope with an extended stay at anchor. Indeed, at this point we decided that we'd stay out of marinas for the equivalent of an Atlantic crossing - roughly 18 days of managing battery and water levels. The water at Playa Barrana was lovely and the next morning we saw dolphins hunting near by. One even swam alongside us so we motored down to our next stop. Next up was a stop at Camariñal. We had spotted the Gadis right by the beach so took the opportunity to do some shopping. We know we can't do this when crossing the Atlantic though!
We had a great meal ashore when we stopped at Carril. Again, we anchored outside the tiny port and took the dinghy inside (which was all that would fit!). We found a wonderful seafood restaurant by the fish market and had clams, razor clams and a fantastic 'merluza a la cazuela'.
From Carril, we moved down to anchor in the bay by Punta Caballo and it's lighthouse. We spent two nights here as it was a great spot and the wind blew from the south.
From there we motored around to Toxa where we anchored off the Gran Hotel (and used their wifi :). It's quite shallow there, and we had to hunt around to find a hole, but find it we did! We sat nicely in 5m of water but could see the shallows all around us at low tide.
This was our last stop in the ria, and though it sounds like we didn't do much - we totally adored our time there. In fact we talked about returning because it is so wonderful. We were well into September yet the weather remained gorgeous. The only complaint would be the lack of wind - but the motoring between anchorages gave us plenty of hot water for showers after swimming :)
Leaving the ria, we were aiming for Isla Ons - a national park that allows visits only once permission has been obtained. This involved sending in some paperwork and then requesting permission online - not too onerous. So with printouts in hand, off we went...