Muros

Muros is a very pleasant town with narrow streets and old stone buildings in typical Galician architecture. There is a row of bars along the waterfront under stone arches which were originally used to protect small fishing boats when the weather was bad; boat garages effectively.

We anchored off the harbour and so used the dinghy to get ashore, tying it to the bottom of a ladder in the wall of the old harbour which worked well. It did mean, though, that climbing down the ladder to get back onboard the dinghy, with rucksacks full of wine and food after shopping, needed a bit of concentration to make sure that we didn’t end up swimming.

I should have taken my photographs on our first quick look around the town on the afternoon of 20 May as it was beautifully sunny as we strolled around all of the back streets. At the time though we were intending to stay for a few days anchored off Muros so I left my camera behind thinking there would be another opportunity to explore. Our anchorage, however, was not protected from the northeast which was a slight concern and so, during a short visit ashore on the morning of 21 May to shop and hook up to the internet, we checked the weather carefully and discovered that the wind would soon start to blow strongly from the northeast. That changed the plan somewhat and after lunch onboard we moved to a new anchorage in the ría, which we hoped would be better protected from the northeasterly winds. The morning’s shopping trip was very successful though; we bought two regional specialities: octopus and pimientos. More to follow about them later.

Anchored off Muros

Our new anchorage was in Ensenada de Esteiro close to the beach to the left of the private island pictured below.

It is just 4.5 miles away from Muros and, with the lack of wind at the time, not worth the effort of hoisting the sails. As we motored around the bays we saw a large school of dolphins in the ría; the first time we have seen so many close in to shore.

Getting into Ensenada de Esteiro was easy with just a few of the batea (fish and shellfish farms) to dodge and once there we anchored close in to the beach.

Batea

Our anchorage close to Playa Parameans in Ensenada de Esteiro

In the evening all of the clouds cleared and it turned out to be  a lovely spot for dinner onboard. Overnight the wind did blow strongly so it turned out to be well worth moving from Muros.