Ria de Ribadeo

Unusually for us we didn't seek out any further weather information the morning we planned to move on from Luarca to Ria de Ribadeo because our walk around the headland had confirmed a calm day like the previous one and we assumed we would enjoy another light downwind sail.  After a bite to eat we left the quay and headed out of the inner harbour.

I was sitting on the foredeck, sorting out the enormously long warp we had had to use on the quay, to cope with the rise and fall of the tide, as Chris turned the boat to starboard towards the exit of the outer harbour...and then the wind and waves hit!  I staggered back to the cockpit exclaiming, "Where on earth did this come from?"  Rather than do all the crew jobs, like sorting ropes and fenders, I opted for the easy task of helming, while Chris struggled with the motion of the boat whilst coiling the warps.

The wind had risen quite significantly from the early morning and was now up to twenty knots.  We sailed under the jib only, putting on our life jackets and saftey lines to be on the safe side.  At one point, Charlie broke free of his tie and Chris had to sort him out.  The sky was blue though, and the trip was exhilarating as opposed to worrying. Once again the entrance required a careful lookout for leading lines and the motion of the white topped waves in the river mouth was quite disconcerting.  We held the lines though and once we were under the bridge the water was relatively calm!  This was our first experience of a "ria" in an area called the Rias Altas.  These deep, steep sided estuaries in the mountainous coastline provide some beautiful and protected anchorages and ports.

We were greeted with a radio call from Zephyrus who had arrived from Gijon earlier that day and spotted us coming in.  They were already moored in the harbour but we were keen to develop our anchoring experience and headed off to an anchorage southwest of Figueras' shipyard.  We were not surprised to see Athene there and we eventually dropped our hook nearby and in just enough water according to our calculations.

Anxious to be back at the boat for low water in case we swung too close to shore on the change of tide, we left our evening visit to Zephyrus at about 10 o'clock.  The crew of Athene were sitting in their cockpit as we passed and we told them our reasons for our early return.  They explained that such concerns were not necessary for them because they had already touched the sandy bottom!  We took a lovely photo of them that evening though!

We spent another night at anchor and explored Ribadeo briefly during a shopping trip.  Ian and Joe (Zephyrus) had successfully purchased a plank in the town, much to the amusement of the German couple, Jochen and Hanna, on Lycka who had also arrived in the ria from Luarca.  They were moored next to Zephyrus and the six of us met up in the dinghies at Castropol, had a walk and chatted over a beer in a small bar by the harbour there.  We are all heading for the Med, and it appears at much the same pace!

We would have happily spent a third night at anchor but the following morning we saw some men from the shipyard carefully positioning channel marker buoys.  They motored over to us and explained that the large ship in the yard would be leaving at high water (7a.m!) in the morning and we would need to be out of the way!  So, with the channel beautifully buoyed for us we headed to the harbour that evening and moored up beside a French yacht.  In our efforts to get a weather forecast at the yacht club there, we got sidetracked into a few more beers with Ian and Jo.  We all planned to move on the next day, to Ria de Vivero, the only thing Jochen and Hanna had to do in the morning was collect their plank!