Ria de Vigo I

We’ve left O Grove and Ria de Arosa sailing south. We pass Illa de Ons, Illas Cies, and also the Ria de Pontevedra. We need to fly out of Porto soon, and it is much shorter/easier to get a bus connection from Vigo. So we’ll skip these areas for now.

We anchor at Enseada da Barra. This is a nude beach, quite famous here. We don’t go ashore, just enjoy the nice beach from our anchorage. We do not have a problem with nudity (actually Wim likes to have a sun bath nude, on board, in our privacy 🙂) but we don’t feel the urge to show our nude bodies to others nor feel the need to look at others. Contrary of the hundreds of people on this popular beach…

The day starts with lovely weather, and breakfast and coffee in the cockpit. Our favorite start of the day!

But… During the morning the weather changes. It gets cloudy and the wind picks up from the South. This bay is open to the South and waves start building up while we are close to the beach, on lee shore. Our anchor holds well but the heavy pitching on these waves is no fun. We decide to hoist anchor and dive deeper into the Ria.

We anchor at Moaña bay. The first time, our anchor drags and we re-anchor. Again, it drags. But just as we consider to re-anchor it holds very good. Hmm, we’re a bit close to the boat Müggele (we know them from our stay in Viveiro) but for now it’s okay.

And, it’s a festival day: El dia de virgin Carmen. Carmen is a Mary-like saint and she’s the patron of the fishermen here. All fishing boats are decorated and they pick up lots of people in the port.

At 9 o’clock we leave O Grove. There’s no wind and the sea is like a mirror.

Mighty Mitsu pushes us out of the Ria de Arousa. We have been in this beautiful Ria since May 28th. So that is about 6 weeks! And we still have a feeling we could stay here much longer…

We pass Illa de Ons and also the Ria de Pontevedra. We need to fly out of Porto soon and it is much shorter/easier to get a bus connection in Vigo.

We pass Islas de Cíes. They look beautiful, we might come back for these islands.

Then we make a Port side turn into the Ria de Vigo.

We anchor at Enseada da Barra. This is a nude beach, quite famous. We don’t go ashore, just enjoy the nice beach from our anchorage. We do not have a problem with nudity (actually Wim likes to have a sun bath nude, on board, in our privacy 🙂) but we don’t feel the urge to show our nude bodies to others nor feel the need to look at others. Contrary of the hundreds of people on this popular beach…

The day starts with lovely weather, and breakfast and coffee in the cockpit. Our favorite start of the day!

But… During the morning the weather changes. It gets cloudy and the wind picks up from the South. This bay is open to the South and waves start building up while we are close to the beach, on lee shore. Our anchor holds well but the heavy pitching on these waves is no fun. We decide to hoist anchor and dive deeper into the Ria.

After rounding some mussel rafts we have a broad reach and we unfurl the Yankee.

We anchor at Moaña bay. The first time, our anchor drags and we re-anchor. Again, it drags. But just as we consider to re-anchor it holds very good. Hm, we’re a bit close to the boat Müggele (we know them from our stay in Viveiro) but for now it’s okay.

The sky is very grey and the clouds cover the tops of the hills. There’s some rain showers but the wind is dying down.

In the evening, the sky clears and we enjoy the view around us. It’s very different from Ria de Arousa: the big city of Vigo at the opposite side and built-up area all around us.

When we wake up it’s a bright sunny day. While the sun rises we see the moon at the opposite side.

The moon. She’s so beautiful!

Sher has bought some white vinyl fabric and magnets to cover the decksalon windows for the sun on hot days. She starts cutting the window shapes.

That protects us from the sun! But it will be improved…

Today, we move into the marina Moaña. We have reserved a berth here for the next 2 weeks because we’ll travel to the United States on July 19th. We want to be here a few days to prepare Dione IV for our absence and to check if everything is okay in this marina. We tie her up with as many dock lines and fenders as we can and hope she will be safe here!

Today, it’s a festival day: El dia de virgin Carmen. Carmen is a Mary-like saint and she’s the patron of the fishermen here. All fishing boats are decorated and they pick up lots of people in the port.

First, there is a procession from the church to the port. A statue of Carmen is being carried.

Bagpipers play the same tune over and over.

Hundreds of boats are waiting to follow the sea-procession. The fishing vessel for Carmen is nicely decorated with green branches from the trees on the hills.

With a lot of manpower, the statue of Carmen is transferred from the procession carriage to the roof of the fishing vessel.

When Carmen is on board the ship, everybody applauds.

Thousands of little flags everywhere.

There she goes! Out to sea.

The boat with Carmen is followed by all other boats.

For this guy it was all a dream 😄

The boats make a tour across the Ria for a couple of hours. Probably Carmen sends her blessings all over. All the people on board of all boats have food and drinks and cheer. Late in the evening all boats return into port and the festivities continue until late night in the bars and restaurant.