Ría de Finisterre to Ría de Muros

The following morning all the storms had disappeared leaving a clear blue sky so we decided to move on to Ría de Muros, the most northerly of the four large Ria Baixas which we would particularly like to spend some time exploring. There was very little wind to start with so, when there was just enough wind to sail, we elected to do so under main alone to give the trolling lines the best possible chance of catching a large fish; still an unfulfilled hope! We had decided to take a route quite close in to the shore, dodging a few nastily placed rocks, and so had a great view of the wild coastline.

Ensenada de San Francisco – a possible anchorage for us

As the day progressed and the sun grew hotter, the wind gradually increased until we were doing a good 6.5kt under mainsail alone. We rounded Pta Queixal at about 1400 and reached, at increasing speed, into Ría de Muros, until we lost the wind under the high ground just short of Muros town.

Muros seafront

After a short debate we decided to anchor off the harbour as the wind was still firmly in the north-northwest. In fact it continued to increase all afternoon, reaching about F6 by around 1800. It was, we think, our first exposure to the ‘nordes’, the typical northerly wind that blows down the coast of Spain and Portugal in the summer, generated by Azores High to the west and the diurnal low over the Iberian Peninsula. Despite the wind we were confident in our anchorage as we have an excellent anchor that nearly always digs in first time and once dug in, stays there. Confident enough to do a quick explore ashore and stock up on the essentials (primarily the lovely regional Albariño wine) but we would leave our main exploration until the next day.

Sunset over Muros harbour