Baiona

Fortaleza de Monterreal which was built between the 11^th and 17^th centuries

We arrived at Baiona in the late afternoon of Saturday 30 June. It is an impressive approach overlooked by the castle, which is now a Parador hotel but with one section as the Monte Real Club de Yates. Mooring was stern or bows to but with lazy lines already run out to concrete weights in the middle of the runs, so there was no need for us to use our anchor. Nicky radioed ahead to tell them we were coming so the mariñeros were out on the pontoon to meet us. We chose to go in bows to which is much easier than reversing in and offers a little more privacy in the cockpit. The lazy lines make mooring this way very easy and, being bows to, we also got to use our bow ladder for the first time.

Baiona is famous as the arrival port of the Pinta, the first of Christopher Columbus’ ships to return to Spain in 1493 following the fleet’s discovery of the West Indies.  We were moored very close to a replica of the Pinta but did not stay long enough in the city to visit it. Something for next time perhaps?

We only stayed in Baiona for 24hrs so it was a bit of a rush to fit everything in. Having moored up and completed the paperwork, we had a look around part of the old town and then hunted down some shops so that we could stock up BV with rations, gas, beer and wine before they closed.

The tapas bar street looked like it would be very lively in the evening, however, we had other plans. Nicky had visited Baiona once before after having been at sea in a gale for about 6 days en-route to the Canary Islands. I don’t know if it was just that it was dry land after the storm, but she was impressed with the Monte Real Club de Yates’ clubhouse and wanted to go out to dinner there again.

So, having rushed around exploring the town and stowed all of the stores, we put up the boom tent again and tried out some of the new beers we had purchased. Then, after showers and donning smart rig, it was off out to dinner. The clubhouse of the Monte Real Club de Yates is very civilized. Inside it is all wood panelled and there are trophies, models of yachts and old oil paintings of square-riggers in battle all around. Outside, surrounded by castellated walls, is the lawn and beside it a lovely veranda with views across the marina and towards the town.

Sitting at a table under the veranda we enjoyed our last dinner in Galicia. It seemed appropriate to go with the local specialties and so we had tuna empanada and octopus to start and then a huge seafood paella (our first this trip to Spain) as a main dish. We both ate far too much of it so I even left some desert – a very rare occurrence! All in all though it is a really nice location; I can see why Nicky wanted to visit Baiona again.

Sunday became a day of chores. All of the clothes washing was done, some meals cooked and equipment checks made ready for a long passage south. Much as we had enjoyed Galicia and could easily have stayed for the whole of the summer, we wanted to try to make up some of the time we had lost with our trip back to the UK to keep us on track for getting to Cyprus for winter. The forecast was for N to NW winds of up to 25kt out at 10° West and all the way down to Cape St Vincent for the next few days. Thereafter the wind was forecast to be light and variable but we expected a sea breeze would kick in during the afternoon. We had also been monitoring the Levanter wind, which for most of the previous week had been blowing from the east through the Straits of Gibraltar at +30kts. Clearly this would seriously impede our progress in getting through the Straits but the forecast showed it easing off considerably (to about 10-16kts) from Friday 5 July. We therefore planned to sail directly to Cádiz in southern Spain’s Andalucía, with the Algarve in southern Portugal being an alternative destination if we wanted to go ashore early. Either of these locations would position us reasonably to sail through to Gibraltar when the Levanter finally blows itself out for a few days.

Boomtent, windscoop and bow ladder all being put to good use

So with barely time to take a breath between activities, and certainly not having done justice to what Baiona has to offer, we slipped our lines at 1815 hrs on Sunday 30 June and departed. We’ll have to come back again!