Gijon

We managed to cast off from Ribadesella at 0900, having been disturbed by one of the yachts inside us trying to extricate itself from the middle of the four rafted yachts!  The wind was not acting as the forecast predicted but because it seemed similar to the previous day we were not too disappointed and we fully expected it to come round to the east once the sun was up and warm. 

We weren’t far wrong, but the wind was very light and despite several attempts at getting out the genoa, the engine stayed on.  By about midday we could have sailed but by then we seemed not too far off and we were thinking about getting in and settled and doing some shopping!  Chris made a yummy “Plumpwich Nicoise” for lunch, which was, basically, tuna, egg and salad stuffed into pitta bread!  About an hour later, having figured out that we didn’t need to go round the distant cardinal markers, and navigating the entrance at low water, we moored up on the reception pontoon and had a much-needed cup of tea! 

Before allocating us a berth, the harbour master insisted on seeing the ship’s papers and passports, but apparently, compared to previous years, the administration is much quicker nowadays!  He also kept the ship’s papers; we suppose to stop us from disappearing in the middle of the night without paying!  We also organised for some important post to be delivered here, the Atlantic Spain and Portugal Pilot, which had only been published in May.  Gijon is the last biggish port before we get to La Coruna, and since the pilot starts there it was important to receive it!

We quickly settled onto the well-spaced, full-length finger berth (real luxury after the last three nights in different places) in the visitors’ area, among a number of British and French yachts, several of which we had seen before.  With our larder restocked after a visit to the “Mas y Mas” supermarket where the girl on the vegetable counter found us (or our attempts at Spanish) very amusing, we were ready for a stay of several nights, awaiting our package.

Like many of the towns, Gijon has an “old town” and a more modern city area.  We were quite surprised by the Roman history of the city.  Somehow, I expect to see Roman remains in Britain but I have not previously thought about how the empire spread in this direction too.  During our exploration we went into one of a number of the local museums, which housed a real mixture of modern and traditional art, the most striking piece being a wooden carving, some 15feet wide by 6feet tall, of a quayside, showing all the expressions of the people in intricate detail.  In the last week or two, our voyage has taken a real cultural slant!

One of the yachts that arrived in the marina was Serendipity, owned by Robert and Sue, which we had encountered in the anchorage at Santander.  They are on a “short” three week cruise this year, but know the area well having sailed here for the last eight years, usually for a few months at a time!  We didn’t refuse their invitation on board for drinks one evening, eager to glean any useful information.  Our 6 o’clock drinks continued until gone midnight, however, as we all hit it off well and chatted and chatted.  Chris whipped up a quick pasta supper for us all, which though cooked aboard La Premiere, was served in the luxury of the saloon in the Moody 471!  The four bottles of red Spanish wine that were consumed that evening may have had something to do with the free flow of conversation, and it certainly had something to do with the way I felt the next morning!

One of the interesting things we learned was about L’Aberwrac’h.  Apparently, a short while after we had been there, a storm swept through the area and the pontoons were slamming down on top of the boats moored to them.  There was much damage all round, but one of the safest yachts had been a single-handed bilge keeler that had gone further up river and run aground on purpose!  We can only assume that this was the same bad weather we had had whilst in Treboul.

Part of Sue and Robert’s reason for calling into Gijon was that a race was due to finish here from Plymouth.  It involved their Sailing Club and being on the cruising committee Sue had agreed to be part of the welcome party.  The race (for cruisers) is apparently sponsored by the Asturias tourist board and also involved boats from Holland and France.  By Wednesday evening the visitors’ berths were buzzing with the sound of happy sailors and champagne corks!

Since our stay in Gijon was going to be several nights, we contemplated some ongoing improvements and servicing to the engine and heads.  Although the local chandlery was a Volvo agent we couldn’t get what we needed so that job was put on hold until La Coruna.  Neither of us particularly fancied the idea of tackling the heads so we procrastinated over that too.  We did however, have a big spring clean, removing all the floorboards washing and polishing them and hosing out the bilges.  It made us feel a bit better about the jobs we hadn’t done.  We have also discovered a bit of a gas crisis.  On board are two 1.8 kilogramme Camping Gaz canisters, which stack neatly into our gas locker.  However, they do not sell this size in Spain and so we spent a day weighing up our options and came to the conclusion that we could not store a spare on the transom but would have to buy a large canister which would fill our gas locker, and stow our two small empty ones away.  Quite what we do when the large one runs out in the middle of nowhere I’m not sure, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Once the pilot book had arrived we were free to leave Gijon, but ended up staying on because the wind had done a bit of a runner and what little breeze there was came from the west.  Although we are keen to get moving and down to Lisbon before mid September we see little point in motoring all the way round!  In fact, we were quite pleased not to have moved on because on Thursday afternoon, Jo and Ian on Zephyrus appeared on the opposite berth!  You may remember that we had first met up in Ile d’Yeu and Chris had thought I had been rather too talkative!  It seems I hadn’t put them off getting together again and spent the evening on La Premiere, once again drinking far too much wine and this time I prepared supper!  Sue and Robert (Serendipity) joined us for drinks before going off on another engagement so for a while it seemed our cockpit was overflowing with people.  It turns out Ian used to be in the plumbing business and he passed on some good advice about the “heads”, so it was just as well we hadn’t tackled the servicing after all!  We have much the same route and timing in mind so we will not be surprised if we meet up on other occasions.  Having nearly completed the journey across the north coast of Spain, we seem now to be more among the live-aboard community, many of whom miss out this coast, and brave the quicker route across the Bay of Biscay.