We had a leisurely morning in Combarro, did a bit of shopping and the attempted a gentle sail in light winds down the Ria Pontevedra. We only had a short distance to Ilas Ons which sits at the entrance to the Ria, we found a great spot on a lovely sandy beach. It was the most perfect day and very hot so we had a swim and then set Askari up for a seriously relaxing day.....
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| Small town on Ria Pontevedra |
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| Sailing slow out of the Ria |
Around lunchtime Lee and Andrew arrived with 'The Katherine' and we both enjoyed a lovely afternoon as many boats arrived in the anchorage and had various strange techniques which we found entertaining. There was a big power boat with a group of guys on and a yacht with a group of gorgeous girls anchored right next to them, so that was very entertaining watching the guys show off for the girls!!
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| Isla Ons |
One small British yacht dragged anchor, nearly hitting The Katherine, so Andrew whizzed off to find them on the beach. When they got back they looked totally shocked and promptly left to find a mooring.
We had a fabulous dinner with Lee and Andrew before returning to Askari as a Spanish Yacht decided to move into the bay and anchor right on top of us. Andrew tried to encourage him to move in his special way but he wasn't having any of it, so we decided that rather than have a sleepless night we'd move into the Ria. As it happened we found a great spot in the dark well out of the north easterly that arrives on this coast every night.
Next morning we had planned to go back to Iles de Ons, however during our night time antics Carolyn managed to get anchorage permission at Ilas de Cies (we couldn't get that one when we tried a few days before). This is the most well known of the islands and is famed for it's gorgeous beach. It is off the entrance to Ria Vigo; Vigo being a fairly big town this island is of course very popular - it immediately reminded us of our favourite island of Rottnest back home - although alot more people.
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| Ilas de Cies |
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| Ilas de Cies |
We went ashore but after we had walked on the beach a bit we were approached by the guards who wanted us to move our dinghy which was anchored - it either had to be outside the buoys or on the beach..... with the surf it was too hard to drag the dinghy out so we decided to avoid the crowds and head back to Askari for a swim and BBQ. We were delighted when the Jolie Brise came into the bay under sail and then anchored right next to us. She is a UK flagged tall ship and more than 100 years old - she won the inaugral Fastnet yacht race and was the last sailing boat to deliver the Royal Mail - amongst other amazing history.
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| Jolie Brise Sails in |
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| Our neighbour - the Jolie Brise |
Our relaxing was short lived when Andrew spotted a tender floating off out of the anchorage, so he went to fetch it - eventually the owner was found while pouring champagne on his huge stink boat! Later the owner delivered two bottles of local wine and stopped by for a chat.
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| Wine gift for retrieving dinghy |
Then we noticed the Jolie Brise was on the move...... Oh my goodness was this the third boat rescue in 24 hours??? Andrew went ashore to try and find the crew, no luck so he picked me up and we went to try and let more chain out - not that easy on a vessel built in 1913 - luckily the skipper came back just in time. We stayed until about 8pm before heading into the Ria Vigo and anchoring up next to the Katherine - Andrew promptly whizzed over with Lee's homemade potato bake - love this cruising life and the kind considerate friends.
Next morning it was into the Marina at Vigo for boat jobs!
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