Beautiful Wind to Viveiro

Ribadeo to Viveiro 31nm

Thursday 6 August

What a difference a day makes! We awoke to sunshine and a healthy looking wind.

We said goodbye to the felucca fleet next to our mooring in Ribadeo marina and headed back out under the bridge – equally worrying as it’s now high tide so technically the clearance is less than yesterday. However they do measure the highest tide clearance.

How lovely to have a good 15 knots of wind on the beam. We skipped along with the Yankee at an easy 7 knots. Lovely stuff! We saw a few dolphins but they didn’t swim over. The sea was a bit rolly so I left writing the blog til we got to into port.

There were a couple of boats ahead of us, one I looked up on AIS was called Panache – and I thought, I used to know a Contessa with that name.

When we caught her up it WAS a Contessa 32 – and we last sailed with her racing at Cowes Week in the early ‘90s! She’s a long way from home!

We moored up next to a Swedish boat, Vaï, who told us they’d suffered an Orca attack 2 weeks ago and had their steering damaged. They are awaiting new cables and a new quadrant. 

He said they didn’t see them, just a sudden three big bangs from underneath. His rudder is ok but the steering is completely broken. They were rescued and towed to Viveiro by the Finistère rescue service.

They reckon it will be another couple of weeks before they have all parts and are mended. He said he was bored being stuck here, they were supposed to be in Italy next week. Well at least it’s not Bracknell.

There have been no sightings near here for over a week so we hope to sneak round to Corunna tomorrow. It’s a bit scary out there.

David told me Viveiro used to be a fishing port but now the fish factory is closed and they are trying to build up the marina facility.

He didn’t say that it’s the most delightful town we have seen yet in Spain

The old town is a pretty pedestrian-only collection of paved streets, bustling with pastry shops with long queues, lively bars and a busy central square getting ready for the week long folk music event.

We watched the beginning with the little ones bouncing around like puppies.

They have bagpipes here, we could have been in Scotland, but everyone was smiling and the costumes were very colourful.

Bagpipes here are called Bagua. They are just as loud as Scottish ones.

We took a break from the dancing to have a delicious meal at Asador restaurant including the local speciality: octopus, potatoes and egg – very delicious and filling! The tomatoes here are fabulous too.

Then we enjoyed more jolly folk dancing! It’s so joyful!