Leketio

We had planned a large hop from Getaria all the way to Castro Urdiales, a small fishing port just West of Bilbao, however we were a little slow getting up in the morning and once we got out to sea there was very little wind so our plans had to change.  We perused the pilot books we carry for this coast and from the many small ports and anchorages on this stretch of Northern Spain we chose Leketio, it had the prettiest looking photos!  Less than half an hour after this change of plan the wind arrived, but it brought with it some very low cloud from which poured some proper English weather.

It is at time like this I really envy Chris' immunity to seasickness, for while I am cured by concentrating on helming, this necessitates sitting out in the rain while Chris sits below in the dry!  Still it gave him plenty of time to study the approach charts for the harbour at Leketio.

After an hour of sailing into the rain, the Isla de San Nicolas appeared through the murk signaling a turn to South into the port.  The Island lies in the entrance of a small natural bay, providing a considerable amount of protection from the weather and any swell running.  Behind the Island is the harbour and a beautiful sandy beach, overlooked by red tiled houses running up the steep sided hills.  Very picturesque indeed and as if anticipating our entrance into this beautiful bay the wind dropped and sun came out and dried the boat.

We motored into the bay and turned into the port to look for a berth for the night.  The port was full of fishing boats and so we decided to anchor outside in front of the beach.  There were a number of mooring buoys here for local boats so we dropped an anchor to keep our bows facing out into any swell that might find its way into the bay and took stern lines out to two buoys.  Despite this belt and braces approach we felt we were a little close to another yacht moored close by so we took a second anchor out in the dinghy from the bow and we were soon moored so securely it would have taken a hurricane to shift us!  The effort was well worthwhile because at night the knowledge that we are secured in four places is very comforting.  This knowledge seems to make you deaf to all the strange noises and creaks that keep you awake while swinging to a single anchor line!

Shortly after we arrived we earned ourselves a bottle of wine.  It was very easy and we are going to develop the technique we used into a strategy for keeping our cellars fully stocked!  'Big Archie' as we called 'Archibald le Grand', the large yacht to whom we had donated our berth at Getaria, arrived and finding the port, as we did, rather too full of fishing vessels, seemed to want to moor nearby.  As we had our dinghy already inflated Chris nipped over and took their lines and voila one bottle of rather delicious white Bordeaux which we drank with Big Archie's crew; Pascale, Helene, Xavier, Geraldine, Stephanie and Thomas, the following day.

Our arrival, were it not for the weather, had been timed perfectly to coincide with a festival of street theatre due to start on Friday, the following night, and continue for the rest of the weekend.  As we 'opened the bar', we watched teams of actors on the beach behind rehearsing  a play about, we later discovered, Moby Dick.  And then it started to rain again . . . . . . .

The rain did not stop the local rowing team from practicing.  A small, narrow, very un-seaworthy looking craft, stuffed to the gunwales with hulking great blokes, fourteen of them, all rowing like mad fiends whizzed up and down the bay.  The speeds they attained seemed remarkable and the 'team manager', or at least a chap with a very loud voice, could barely keep up in his motor boat.

The next day and the day after that the rain continued, washing out the festival almost completely.  This was a bit of a shame as we had laboured for hours trying to translate the programme of events - only available in Basque!  Just about the only part of the festival that proceeded to plan was the firework display on Friday night.  This took place above our anchorage and so we had a quite spectacular view.

After three days of rain Sunday dawned clear and blue and with a good weather forecast we set sail for Bilbao.  We had not been planning to stop at Bilbao, as it is a very industrial area.  Helene on Big Archie had persuaded us that the Guggenheim Museum was a must, and, as we have visited the Guggenheim in Venice and been suitably impressed we decided Bilbao would be our next stop.