Muxia
Saturday 15 August
With the wind howling in the marina at 23knots we decided not to round Cape Finisterre today. There’s a wind acceleration zone that can give you 10-15 extra knots off the Cape.
So we decided to find out what the little port of Muxia had to offer.
We climbed the hill – there are good views from the top and impressive granite boulders.
And we looked at the church at the end of the world – one of the pilgrimage posts for those going to Santiago da Compostella and the end of a separate pilgrimage that comes up through Portugal.
They were half way through a restoration project but it looked very impressive. I particularly liked the angels dangling ships over the apse although one seemed to have dropped hers.
We looked at the waves and the wind on the rugged shore and were quite glad we weren’t out there.
There’s a huge granite monument to all the volunteers who helped clean up the 2002 Prestige oil spill when up to 70,000 tonnes of crude oil destroyed marine life and fishing all round this shore.
No one took the blame and the insurers didn’t pay out. The Spanish had refused to let the listing boat enter a port so it broke up in the sea. All the sailors were saved but the ecological disaster blighted this coast for a decade.
The sculptor is Alberto Bañuelos, it is called A Ferida which means wound.
Muxia now seems obsessed about harvesting goose barnacles.
We had a siesta and headed out to another excellent restaurant. Muxia certainly punches above its weight in the gastronomy department.
The weather forecast shows pretty strong wind off Finisterre until Wednesday but tomorrow looks not quite so strong as all the other days… we will make the decision in the morning!
