Ria De Camarinas

I woke up still a little tired but keen to get going to Camarinas just over 20nm away. The sun was out and again very little wind. I raised the anchor and got the mainsail up within seconds only to be rewarded with almost zero wind once rounding the Laxe breakwater.

Once again on went the motor. I tried desperately to sail all day with no luck. In the distance I could see ominous looking clouds and the NavTex forcast had read. F3-4 with F6 locally. The F3-4 bit hadn’t materialised all day, hence the motor being on.

Literally within seconds the wind hit starting at 15kn gusting to 20kn, at least the motor could get turned off now I was steaming along with 1 reef in the mainsail. Slowly the wind began to climb, 20kn gusting 25kn, 2 reefs in the mainsail. Along with the wind, so did the seas with that horrible short steep chop that makes for vertical walls of water I have learned to hate with a vengeance.

Out of lazyness or habit or just inexperience I usually get the motor on when the seas get bigger with some mainsail for stability and this is what I did for a while before realising the waves were causing high fuel consumption. Hmn… time to conserve the fuel.

By sailing pretty close to the wind I found Doris would sail herself with 2 reefs in the mainsail and no headsail, gently jogging against the waves on her port bow. The ride was even quite comfy. I did throw a few ‘F’ words around while putting in the 2nd reef, the line became caught around the mainsail lazy bag batten (the side I couldn’t see) and I managed to tear a 12” long rip along the underside of the bag – crap!

I sat there watching the coastline dribble by at around 2.5kn thinking this is going to take ages. Also, to the angle of the waves I was 1.5nm of my course out to sea and when it came to my ‘left turn’ into Ria De Camerinas I simply couldn’t make any ground due to the waves on my beam. Nothing else to due but sail on past at a snails pace and then try again while running downwind with the waves further behind me as a ‘right turn’. This worked a treat and by now I was seeing gusts of 33kn and the sky was black as I entered the shelter of the Ria.

I sailed all the way into the anchorage behind Camarinas breakwater, rounded Doris up and dropped the mainsail like a polished pro. Then, while drifting in open water tidied up the cockpit and lines before getting the anchor already. Then on with the engine at the last moment to conserve fuel. Over we go, once around to scope it out, noticing I am struggling for depth in some areas, then pick the spot. I motion to a guy already anchored about depth and he announces he has 7m, perfect. Lots of room, down goes the hook. The wind starts blowing the bows off and I feed out the chain, all is going perfect until I notice that Doris is laying 90 degrees to the other boats and helpful matey is getting closer!

I don’t understand it what the hell … Then it occurs to me, he is using an anchor rope instead of chain and the water must be shallow enough that I have picked up his line with my rudder. Now the boats are laying side by side and I am apologising for being a complete idiot, while getting some fenders in place. So much for being the polished pro – more like the polished prat!

This isn’t a subject I really want to dwell on, suffice it to say that we used my broken spinnaker pole to clear the rope from my rudder. Once clear, I redropped anchor somewhat out of the way from everyone! Damage – none I can see (assuming the rudder is O.K.) and a wonky NavTex aerial which I straightened once settled.

With the wind still blowing its socks off, I was (again) more than a little worried about the holding power of the 10kg Delta anchor (30m x 8mm chain) and out came the handheld GPS. It hangs from the window above the bed so I can hear the alarm easily.

I am not sure whether I am slowly getting used to anchoring or tiredness was catching up, but I definitely slept a lot better. It was really nice to speak to Kat tonight after such a crappy day!