4 Beaches in 3 Days

We left Combarro on 31 May and moved to an anchorage off Playa de Areas, west of Sanxenxo, and settled into a lazy routine of reading and enjoying the sunshine; a routine that kept us occupied for the next 3 days.

Playa de Areas,  Ría de Pontevedra

Tucked away in Ría de Pontevedra we may have been, but the customs launch still found us and we were boarded for the fourth time since we have been in Spanish waters. They are always very polite and we have stumbled through completing the paperwork with our very broken Spanish and, normally, their much better English. We did learn from them that this May has been the coldest on record since 1985.

Sailing gently between anchorages there have also been some major developments in my fishing. To date Nicky has branded me as a ‘vegetarian fisherman’ because I only catch weed. That’s all changed though. Optimistically I was hoping to catch a small tuna as we worked our way down the Spanish coast so we could enjoy sushi and grilled tuna steaks. On 31 May, however, my days as just a vegetarian fisherman came to an end as I managed to catch a rubber glove. I realise that the number of fishermen that have caught large fat tunas are probably ten-a-penny, but the number of fishermen that have caught a rubber glove, well…. I can probabaly just count them on the fingers of one newly gloved hand!

I am ignoring Nicky’s new accusation that I am a ‘rubbish fisherman’!

However, this new title was not to last as I did, eventually, catch several mackeral as well, which fed us for one dinner and made some excellent pate.

Playa de Bon, Ría de Aldán

Playa de Arnelas, Ría de Aldán

Between Ría de Pontevedra and Ría de Vigo is the small Ría de Aldán. This came highly recommended by Oscar and Patricia, our friends from Redes, and the claims by the pilot book of quiet and very picturesque remoteness further encouraged a visit. We spent a night at Playa de Bon with the rocks on either side of the bay so close that it felt like you could reach out and touch them (not the best night’s sleep!), then moved for lunch at what we thought would be the more exposed Playa de Arnelas right at the bottom of the north facing Ría. It was much more sheltered than we had expected which perhaps explained why it was so popular with some of the larger yachts staying there for the weekend.

Sailing such short distances between the beaches has significantly reduced our average miles per week figure, but it has been very pleasant and our books read per week stats are definitely up! The bimini is up for shelter from the sun, the sky and sea are a deep blue and mostly it is shorts and T-shirts weather with a fleece on hand to wear when sailing around the windier headlands. As we approached Ría de Vigo, the last large ría before the border with Portugal, we realised that it feels as though we have barely scratched the surface of this fantastic cruising area. Exploring the Spanish rías more thoroughly could easily fill a whole summer.

Islas Cíes

But for us there are new areas to discover, so we sailed onwards into Ría de Vigo which is guarded by the Islas Cíes. The Islas Cíes look magical, like Caribbean islands and you half expect an old pirate ship to appear at any moment. They are part of the Spanish Atlantic Islands National Park and we really want to visit them. Sadly though our application for permission to visit has not gone well so far. There is apparently no record of the e-mail application we made when we were back in the UK in March, and which we resent from Guernsey. On discovering this whilst we were at Portosin the amazingly helpful staff there rang up the government department for us, helped us to resubmit the application forms and then rang again to make sure that they knew that we were away from home so to send the permission by e-mail. A week on from that we had still heard nothing, but we hope there might be news when we visit Cangas.

Playa de Barra, Ría de Vigo, with rocks which look like a small dog

Prior to stopping at Cangas we spent a night anchored off Playa de Barra for a very pleasant lazy Sunday. Another British yacht anchored close to us late on in the evening and we think that they were also flying the Guernsey Yacht Club burgee. However, our opportunity to say hello passed by as they had moved on by the time we were up for breakfast. Another yacht to keep an eye out for in our travels.