Ria De Camarinas (3)

Wednesday 10th September 2008
I wake fully refreshed and make a cuppa. I can see ‘helpful matey’ Harry and his other German friend making ready to set off. Harry agrees to radio me regarding what the wind and swell are doing outside of the protection of the Ria. I wish him well as he passes me on his way. Wind F1-2 with 1.5m swell – not ideal!

With the anchorage looking now a bit empty I seem to stick out like a sore thumb all alone right in the centre of the anchorage. Through the binos I can see the outer hammerhead pontoon is now empty. The guidebook says its 4m of depth so no worries there, no wind whatsoever to make things tricky – let’s do this!

I set up the lines and fenders ready for a starboard side mooring, then I started the engine to get the anchor up (windlass – I’m posh). My anchor also bought up some old rope so I was lucky to not get fouled, although it wouldn’t have surprised me!

I ambled over to the pontoon and was just about to go ashore with the lines myself when an English speaking smiling face appears and offers to grab my guardrails as I pass him a line. All tied up no problem.

Senior quickly arrives announcing that I can’t stay here, so we explain that I simply want some fuel and will then get going. It turns out that fuel is available via pump - if I get closer. The English guy (aka Colin) offers to take my lines again as I move to a closer berth dictated by senior. Off we go again. Now, about that fuel – nope the pipe is not long enough – Jeez! Can I turn it around? Just give me a can of fuel!

I pay for two cans full and will come back for the second. With 40 litres now onboard the fuel gauge is saying full, well at least I now know that each bar must be ~22 litres, meaning that I must have had about 60 litres still in the tank. See I knew the problem would go away on its own!

Once all fuelled up I make a few last minute preparations including the rechecking the weather. Later S / SW F6 will be right on the nose and not very enjoyable. While I have been doing things around the boat another English couple (Mark & Amanda on Blush) have invited me to a coffee to discuss tactics and the weather. Sod it – I’ll stay here for a night, its only 14 euros anyway. I didn’t need much convincing and seeing that I’m moored up already it makes sense to stay put. I really should go back out to anchor to save money but I need to sort out the light.

First things first, everything electrical – laptop, toothbrush, razor, etc gets charged up. If I’m paying for a marina it’s getting juiced!

Secondly, I am going to annoy Senior again and get another can of fuel to keep onboard as a back up – it makes sense to have extra in reserve if I am going to be anchoring more often.

Then it’s off to the bar to try and suss out if there is any Internet access. A ‘cafe con leche’ later I am up to date with my own blog – thanks Crutey for posting on my behalf. I will upload pictures etc later as it’s not viable via Sat phone and I can’t get any of the wireless networks to let me have Internet access.

After restocking ‘nice sugary things’ at the supermarcado, I attack the lower shrouds. Yes I know that I have been told they are fine, but they were as loose as – well a loose thing in those 30kn winds the other day. One turn on each side and I promise not to touch the caps or intermediates! They certainly ‘feel’ better now.

Ok, the anchor light. While waiting for Colin to come over to ‘wind me up’, I decide to recheck the switches – it working! Great I won’t have to sweat my fat ass up the mast now. When Colin arrives I announce the good news and show him. Guess what – its not working. The wind is picking up and it’s starting to rain. Mannana mannana I guess.

I have noticed that the people are very friendly here, I have had offers of 3 bosons chairs, an ascender and plenty of ‘winders’ to help me fix the light in one afternoon.
*Kat - if you do make it to the Southampton boat show have a look for those ‘ladders’ you hoist up on the main halyard, its either that or have steps installed up the mast.

The weather is not looking good for tomorrow (thurs), but very promising for Friday onwards so I will probably stay put and get that dinghy out not to mention sorting out the anchor light. Also being asked if I was ‘on delivery’ probably means I should maximise on the marina shower facilities and have a shave.

One things for sure, I won’t be bored!

Ria De Camarinas (2)

Tuesday 9th September 2008
Upon waking up I knew immediately that I wouldn’t be going anywhere and could ‘relax’. The situation was that I had one of three green bars (before one amber and one red) on the fuel guage and really needed to get some fuel just incase caught out as this coast isn’t called the Costa Del Morte for nothing and the formidable Finister was only remaining hurdle before the sun really comes out – so they tell me.

For some reason I couldn’t relax for breakfast or even a cuppa until I had visually checked around the boat, and there they were… The bat cars I had fitted in Brighton to the mainsail before leaving the UK were broken. It is a good job I noticed this as the next time I would have raised the sail it may have torn and then I would be really without a paddle!

The sail battens are connected to the sliders that run up the mast groove by a ‘horseshoe’ shaped piece of metal with a retaining screw that screws through it and through the actual batten. Two of the four ‘horseshoes’ were completely bent out of shape with the screw being held in place by only one side and the plastic batten. Luckily no screws had been lost. I removed the two bent ones completely and got the tool bag out. After bending them back into shape I was able to refit them so no harm done, the remaining two were in place but loose and would have soon suffered the same fate as the other two just repaired. At some stage I will replace the screws with bolts and nyloc nuts just to be sure I think.

Finally, time for breakfast. Pondering the fuel situation I consulted the guide books. At Camarinas fuel is available but only in cans. I really do not want to try and get moored in this tiny marina on my own just to get fuel using my one and only can. My tank is 110 litres and my can 20 litres, I reckon I have less than a third left. I could get the dinghy out and then row ashore to get a can full but this is going to take a while and then its hassle trying to stow the dinghy on the foredeck and all for 20 litres that’s hardly going to make any difference. To be honest I’m just too lazy to do anything!

Meanwhile its nice and sunny and the wind dies off to nothing and the boat is drifting in circles with no chance of the anchor coming out, so I drop off to sleep. Maybe the problem will go away?

Throughout the day I continue to ‘ponder’ the fuel problem. It’s weird how your brain stops working when you are tired. My options…

1.> Get the dinghy out – It has to come out at some point anyway. Go ashore and get some fuel. I can arrange someone to take my lines and suss the marina out first hand from ashore if more fuel is still required.
2.> Radio the marina – Just get the boat over there and at least I will only have to carry the fuel can rather than row it in the dinghy.
3.> Set off regardless of being low on fuel – This is the most attractive scenario, pretend the problem does not exist. I can then get fuel at the next destination (Portisino - ~50nm). However, I know that the weather has to be guaranteed perfect for this and its not. The forecast for tomorrow is saying no wind at all (motor required) to start with then going to F6 (motor might be handy).

I’ll sleep on it…

I spent the afternoon planning routes and playing the guitar, I’ll get up early tomorrow morning and see how much wind there is and make a call on it.

During the afternoon helpful matey (who’s day I ruined previously) paddled over to say ‘hello’, we discussed weather and plans etc and he is looking to get going tomorrow morning. I did consider asking to borrow his dinghy seeing as it was already pumped up and wet, but decided this would be really taking the piss as mine is packed away nicely not more than 5 feet away.

Just as it starts to get dark I remember to put on the anchor light, only to find … It no longer works! Aaarrrgghhh!!!! … What else can go wrong!!!!

After playing around with the switches in the hope of a miracle, I resign myself that it’s busted. I decide to use the deck light as there is no way I’m climbing the mast in the dark.

Despite having a spotlight on me, I slept like a dead man. I am not sure if I knew that there was no wind at all and hence little risk of pulling the anchor out or if I didn’t care if it pulled or not and I run aground, either way – I slept!

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!

Ria De Corme / Laxe

Woke up and paid for my berthing before getting Brian to lend a hand slipping the lines at 0730 utc. By 0800 I had rounded the Coruna breakwater and already had the mainsail up. The first thing of note was that there was very little wind and a good size swell still running after the previous days bad weather.

All in all the wind was just strong enough to sail – if you had a flat ocean. Each time the the swell heeled the boat over the sails just tacked / flopped and then popped back with a bang when the wave had passed. This was one of those ‘man I’m sick of the sound of the engine days’. I motorsailed all the way, attemting every hour or so to sail sans motor without any luck.

My 37.74 (log) miles took me to my destination Laxe beach in Ria De Corme, very nice!
I dropped anchor in 5m of water over sand with no other boats within the anchorage with the wind blowing me gently offshore – perfect. Then out came the drink & sarnies, only to have the wind breeze from no fixed direction.

My first night at anchor was rather sleepless as I had to listen to the sound of the anchor chain being dragged across the sea bottom and I had visions of waking up aground on the beach!

My new found friend is my handheld Garmin GPS, or more specifically its anchor drag alarm. I set the distance threshold for 10m which did cause it go off every now and again due to my drift, but generally it was a nice comfort factor that allowed me to relax easier. I also set an alarm every 3hrs to check my position visually. Old sea dogs (if any read this) are probably laughing at all this and sleep soundly at anchor.

Single Handed Friends

Into Saturday, well not much to report. I cleaned the boat, my clothes and myself after going for my moonlight swim in the marina. Without going to much into details, Daz decided to leave so I am now ‘Single Handed’.

I returned from town to find both Jack & Brian sharing a glass of wine aboard Timshel (Brian’s boat) and I quickly joined them. After swapping details we said farewell to Jack who was returning home (Spain) the next day. Who knows we may even cross tracks on down the line.

Jack – Old sea dog who circumnavigated with his wife for over 17 years and still sailing. Making progress to Gibraltar over the next few months to carry out repairs on his new vessel just purchased a few weeks ago.

Brian – A translator who has been sailing since age 15 and been living aboard various boats in France for the last 10 years and has now set sail in Timshel bound for the Canaries via Africa, soon to be joined by his girlfriend – sound familiar?

Fair winds & Calm Seas to them both…

In The Drink!

Today I decided to do the tourist thing and went for a long walk by myself. Daz spent the day asleep recovering from an evening on the wine with Brian and myself, I felt a bit ‘worn’ but had to get out in the fresh air.

I walked all along the coast and even visited the Tore of Hurcules before coming full circle via the town centre with a KitKat McFlurry to reward myself.

The beach here is lovely and the waves looked to die for … given more time this would be worth a surf, it’s a shame the boys aren’t out here!

Friday evening, me and Daz were getting the boat ready to set sail first thing in the morning. As we were filling her up with water, I got my foot stuck under the black mooring line in the dark and jumped down onto the wobbly finger pontoon with one leg still entagled on the boat. I seemed to hover there for ages before accepting my fate! Into the water I went. It actually wasn’t that cold and before I hauled my ass over the pontoon It would have been quite laughable but I realised I had my mobile phone in my pocket.

Luckily, the SIM still works and I have an old Nokia backup phone – Gutted about losing the more modern phone though.

Ramblings from a La Coruna Cafe

Ok I have found a cafe that allows you to use your own laptop on their WIFI network.

First things first...

Happy Birthday (love & cuddles) to Melody Crute and thankyou to Mr Crute for posting my position via twitter while I was 'out there'.

Mucho thanks Tom for sorting out the domain - C ya soon? Whats going on on planet Verizon - someone give me all the latest on what I'm missing as I havent heard from anyone! Not even the Vegas stories! Dave - you alive?

So whats new out here?...

Well I heard that Bruce had to 'run for cover' in Biscay and is now holed up on the Isle De Yeu just below Camaret after hitting 45kn winds and huge seas in the bay. Looks like we timed it perfectly and got very lucky with the weather for our crossing.

My 'neighbour' Jack, who is moored next to me, completed the same route as us across Biscay is a frequent writer for Yachting Monthly and wants 'my story' about selling up and setting sail ... watch this space!

Congratz to Kat for completing her ISAF courses - Ocean Safety, Sea Survival and Ocean First Aid. Lots of good advice for the 'big one' later in the year!

Kat has now booked a flight to Madeira for the 28th October, so this means the new plan is to forget going into the Med as time will be to short. Instead, the current thinking is to complete Portugal via a couple of stops, maybe Porto (~200nm) and Lisbon (~200nm), then on to Madeira (~500nm).

Sorry Stu looks like I wont be hooking up in Cannes after all.

Also Prav - likewise, sorry - the delays in N. France mean there is no way for me to get down south fast enough to see you. Looks like you both will have to come and see me in the Carribean?!?!?

Since arriving here, the weather has been terrible with rain and strong winds. Looks like the UK South Coast has had it bad as well. When the weather settles we will be making a move. It seems as if every place we arrive there is one sunny day before the storm clouds catch up with us!

Oh ... here is a clip of the Biscay Dolphins. I coudn't get it to upload from the dive of a CyberCafe I had to resort to previously.

And an example of Heidi doing her thing early on a Biscay morning... Not very exciting I know, but it gives you an idea of what the sailing was like across Biscay I guess.

Jobs that have been 'completed' since being here:

New bulbs for the Navigation lights - purchased a short while ago, not fitted yet.

Portugese courtesy flag purchased in preparation for the journey to come.

While giving 'my story' to Jack, the water pump fired up and water started leaking into the heads (bathroom to you land lubbers). Luckily, the burst hose was long enough to 'cut N shut' it. I have purchased a new length of hose to keep onboard, just incase.

Another yacht is having a nightmare with breakages and repairs. Luckily for me, some Spanish bloke who works for Selden Rigging was coming to see him in the marina, so I 'borrowed' him to get an opinion on my own rigging tension. Verdict, it's fine for 'normal' sailing. I may decide to just give the shrouds a little tighten just incase of stronger winds - better too tight than too loose - amen to that vicar!

It was rather amusing to watch as he didn't speak a word of English, so he called up a woman to translate via mobile phone. Somewhere along the line he wanted us to sail 2 hours around the coast to where they are based but for what I have no idea? - Neither did the woman on the phone!

The Selden guy did mention fixing my broken Genoa Pole but then it all got lost in translation, I decided not to pursue this topic!

I will also need some new mooring ropes soon as two have worn through due to the wind and swell in this marina, for now I'm being a sea Pikey and 'making do', but they are getting a bit short!

I fixed the 12v internal supply to allow me to have the Satphone turned on all the time so you folks can send me SMS messages from the Iridium website.

Nothing else to report at the moment but I will try and sample the surfing here and hopefully see the sun before we leave.