When we were telling people what our proposed routes were earlier this year it was easy to say Helensburgh to Kinsale, then Kinsale to La Coruna. How niave we were. Two weeks late on the proposed arrival date we have finally made it into La Coruna marina A.

We left Lorient in sunshine and had a great motor sail for the first 24 hours. The first night the stars were out and we were guided by an almost full moon. Staying awake was no problem and the night passed uneventfully. This was more like it!
Spoke too soon. Just after breakfast the wind picked up a little, skies started to darken – this looks horribly familiar. Yup we were back in the claws of yet another gale. 40 knots of wind and big rolling swell which at times was breaking over us. However by now there was a routine so we got out the safety lines, battened down the hatches and sat it out. It was long sit – it went on until just before darkness. Glad to say however the overnight part of the journey was just uncomfortable as the wind moderated considerably.
The coast of northern Spain was a most welcome sight around 7.00 a.m. even if it was watery and grey. We berthed in Gijon with a big sigh of relief.

The next couple of days were spent getting organised for our next crew who were due to arrive on Sunday. Arriving in Gijon proved an excellent solution to their travel arrangements as they flew into Oviedo. They were wondering how they would get from there to La Coruna so that was one positive thing to come out of our detour.

Gijon was an interesting city. We hardly heard any English being spoken and not many people could understand my version of Spanish – interesting times.
Anyway Doug and Dorothy duly arrived and we headed away on Monday.

We managed to reach Luarca with the wind on the nose- motoring again!
However this was one of those rare occasions where we actually managed shorts, t shirts and suncream. The entrance to Luarca was a bit daunting without detailed maps but we got in to the entrance to find an interesting mooring arrangement.

Excellent well trained crew that we are. we had all the fenders and ropes at the ready for the marina (that’s what it was called in the book). To our surprise it was 6 mooring buoys all occupied with lines ashore as well.
As we were circling thinking how we’d get round getting lines to the various points a couple (Anne and Tony – we later discovered) called from the harbour wall that it was o.k. to raft up to their boat Razamataz. This was duly done. Then 1st mate liz had to don her cosi and get in to the water to take the lines to the buoys. Fortunately she didn’t also have to scale the harbour wall ladder with shore lines as a really nice Belgian couple took then in their dinghy. (Our dinghy still being in a roll on the foredeck!!!)
Anyway we were soon ship shape and had our neighbours ondeck for a G & T.

We took the opportunity to go ashore in the morning after the guys had duly pumped up the dinghy. Luarca was very small. Mainly a fishing port and we were all reminded of the East Neuk as we wandered around it. Captain had us swiftly back on board though as we had a long haul ahead of us.

Sun shine once more as we headed out again with the engine on. Our aim was to get to Viveros by tea time. We had a lovely day although again there was little opportunity to sail. Viveros was much larger and faced with multi blocks of flats right along the beautiful beaches. The crew jumjped to action and were ready for the marina. When we got there the sign at the entrance said – completely full. Bah humbug. Anyway not to worry we just went into the bay and dropped anchor. Ballerina from Gijon was also there.
A quiet evening was spent listening to the rain pattering on the canvas and proposals to have early morning swims etc were hatched.

Alas great plans – the morning dawned with thick fog!! Team discussion and we agreed that we would head out and if it was too bad would come back. Two hours out and things began to get better. We had not seen a boat throughout the previous day and we were no sooner out of the bay than we were negotiating round 4 tankers! The headlands were fearsome the way they loomed out at us from the mist. Anyway apart from lots of random tiny fishing boats in the midst of nowhere things were fine. Again it was a motor job but at least that way we could take quick avoiding action if necessary.

Dorothy, our resident therapist kept us on our toes with mind games, singing lessons and yoga class. We must have been weary as we willingly participated!

Fortunately the mist lifted and we were able to stick with the original plan of getting to La Coruna rather than take a detour to a safe anchorage. Much hilarity as Liz tried out her Spanish again to book a berth and was greeted by a lovely warm Irish guy whose English was perfect.

Captain decided we’d stay put and do some maintenance and enjoy r & r for the day. Great plan but alas it is pouring with rain and we can’t see very far. However I’d much rather be in port than out in this trying to get down Finsterre.

All in all we have covered twice the distance we thought we would do just to get here – heaven help us trying to do the Atlantic! John has rationalised it out that although we are two weeks late getting here we are only 2 days behind schedule as Doug and Dorothy wouldn’t have gotten here till Tuesday.

Thanks to one and all who are keeping in touch. It is great when we get somewhere that has internet access and we read them all.