Ria de Barquero

It is a very short hop from Vivero to Barquero, no sooner have you left the first ria than you are turning into the second.  The route takes you inside a small island, so it barely felt as if we had set out to sea.

Within two hours, possibly our shortest hop this trip, we were anchored in a small bay a few boat lengths away from Lycka, pronounced "Looka" and Swedish, like their boat, for luck.  The bay was open to the west across the ria, but with a northeasterly wind that would not bother us.  To the north a rocky headland sprang from the Ria, densely covered with trees, their very topmost branches waving in the breeze.  Along the water's edge the sea had carved a few small caves into which a small inflatable dinghy could just explore. Around to the east a deserted, bright golden sandy beach separated the blue water from the rocks, continuing in an arc around to the south.

We ventured ashore in the dinghy to top up supplies.  The Ria has a small fishing harbour which is too shallow for our yacht and the entrance is such that you need to hug the shore for the channel, otherwise, like us in our dinghy, you get stuck behind a huge sand bank!  Once we had doubled back and found the channel we tied up and clambered up the rusty ladder to the quayside.  It was beautiful and reminded me of some of the Greek villages we have visited.  A short walk up a hill and we found a small Spar.  The girl was most helpful and seemed to speak English well as we tried to explain that we wanted only parts of the whole chicken she had under the counter.  She proceeded to butcher the chicken and apologised profusely for the time it was taking because she had never done it before!  It turned out that she had spent some time living in Guildford, Surrey, and she was pleased to practice her English again although she encouraged me to say the Spanish words for all the vegetables we wanted!

On our return to La Premiere we opened the bar and drank deeply of two beers and the spectacular scenery.  A little later Jochen swam over and he and Chris went out to play with our sailboard!  Time flies when you are having fun and it was 8.30 before they returned as the sun was set over the far side of the ria.