Atlantic Islands
We motored from Ria de Arousa down to the first of the national park Islands we planned to stop at - Isla Ons. We anchored off Playa de Malide for the night. The buoys to protect the swimming area off the beach push you quite a way out, so we snuck around to one side. The fishing boats ignore the buoys though - one even placed pots right through the area! We had a great view of the mainland with the moon that night, and incredible phosphorescence in the water!
We were tight enough into the cliffs that we couldn't see the lighthouse, but we could see the sweep of the beam. We got a photo as we left the next day.
From here we went into Ria de Pontevedra to visit the old town of Combarro. Again, we'd anchor off and dinghy in. This is a very popular little town famous for its old grain stores on stilts to keep rats at bay. It's a gorgeous little place, but I imagine it gets insanely busy in peak summer periods.
Again there were plenty of fireworks. Not sure what this set was celebrating, but they were very loud!
After a couple of nights at Combarro, we headed down to Islas Cies, the final set of the national park islands. We stopped for lunch off Playa das Rodas, but decided to move down to the quieter Isla de San Martin. We anchored for the afternoon and relaxed and swum. Overnight though we had a few issues. For the first time this trip, we needed to move! Not because we were dragging, but the wind had shifted and we'd ended up bumping into one of the buoys that marked the swimming area. So at 2am we pulled up the anchor and headed out a little way before dropping it again. Once settled we went back to sleep, but what we hadn't reckoned on was that this bay was the one used by fishing boats in between hauls. All night we had fishing boat after fishing boat come in quite close by us, drop their hook and sleep for a few hours before moving off. Not a single one was a problem, but each time I woke up and had to check, partly because I knew there were some pot markers in the bay and in the dark, I wasn't sure how far we were from them. When it was light, I could see that we weren't close to any of them, but the tiny markers used on the ones we could see were not easy to pick out by torch!
Again there were plenty of fireworks. Not sure what this set was celebrating, but they were very loud!
After a couple of nights at Combarro, we headed down to Islas Cies, the final set of the national park islands. We stopped for lunch off Playa das Rodas, but decided to move down to the quieter Isla de San Martin. We anchored for the afternoon and relaxed and swum. Overnight though we had a few issues. For the first time this trip, we needed to move! Not because we were dragging, but the wind had shifted and we'd ended up bumping into one of the buoys that marked the swimming area. So at 2am we pulled up the anchor and headed out a little way before dropping it again. Once settled we went back to sleep, but what we hadn't reckoned on was that this bay was the one used by fishing boats in between hauls. All night we had fishing boat after fishing boat come in quite close by us, drop their hook and sleep for a few hours before moving off. Not a single one was a problem, but each time I woke up and had to check, partly because I knew there were some pot markers in the bay and in the dark, I wasn't sure how far we were from them. When it was light, I could see that we weren't close to any of them, but the tiny markers used on the ones we could see were not easy to pick out by torch!
So early next morning, we decided to head into Baiona, bringing to the end our run of 17 nights at anchor. It was a very useful experiment as we now have a good handle on power usage, how much charge we can get from the solar panels, and how much water we need to make. The good news is that we were pretty happy with things - the slight charge deficit over time is easily sorted during the periods we use the generator for the washing machine.