Highlights – the overview
Next stop is Ribadesella in the province of Asturias. We have to time the entrance to this harbor carefully at high tide as waves can break across the entrance (which is VERY narrow). So we leave at first light to give us enough time to get there at the right time. We have a beautiful view of San Vicente de la Barquera and Los Picos, the high mountains, as we leave harbor, with a first dusting of snow on the peaks! Our cruising friends Harm and Ilona on s/v Watertuin are heading the same way and take a few lovely photos of Dione IV as they pass us.
We approach Ribadesella. We have a sharp lookout for breaking seas at the entrance. We have decided if we see white water we continue another 10 sea miles to the port of Lastres, which has its entrance at the south and should be well protected from the NW swell.
But although the sea breaks heavily on the rocks left of us and on the beach to the right of us, the narrow entrance is surprisingly calm!
We surf in on a big long wave. Even with the engine idling, we do 7 knots, riding on the wave! Spectacular!
We moor alongside of the visitor’s pontoon. Together with Harm and Ilona on the yacht Watertuin, we are the only visitors here. We love sailing in low season and avoiding the crowds and high prices!
We have a lovely view over the river to the town of Ribadesella and enjoy a beautiful sunset, lighting the buildings with a glow in the warm evening light.
The next morning, we have coffee with Harm and Ilona before they continue on. We’ll see them again, as we will follow the same route.
We walk around the bay and climb up to the hill we passed when entering the harbor. We have a nice view over the estuary with our girl in center of it 🙂
The views are amazing!
Over the next few days, we take scooter rides in all directions. First we head north up to a little family-owned bakery reported to have delicious cookies made from the local Asturias butter, then along the river to the east, along the coast to the west, and finally up and around to the northwest. Wim knows by now to be prepared to stop for cute critters and fig trees along the way. 🙂
On our way down to Ribadesella, we visit the north side of the river bank and the Mariner’s monument. Wim thinks this anchor might be a good addition to Dione IV and tries to move it. 🙂 After this, we sit on a terrace and have a ‘Sidra’: the local drink. Apple cider. In fact, during our scooter ride, we saw many apple trees. So that’s what this drink is made of…
Well, honestly spoken, we don’t like it all that much, but we had to try it while here. It’s pretty sour and harsh but it’s nice to sit on this terrace on this lovely sunny and warm day, watching the Spanish families have lunch.
When we get back on Dione IV around 5 o’clock, Wim has an ‘Alhambra’ beer in the cockpit 🙂
Wim: “I am such a lucky guy! All the years I was in Fryslân, we always had a Friday afternoon beer, after work. In summer, sometimes somewhere outdoors. But by November 1st, certainly indoors. And in Fryslân, I never did any outdoor paintwork after September. Here, this morning on the 1th of November, I did some paintwork and I have an afternoon beer in the sun, in de cockpit! So, I’m here at the right place at the right time. With my sweetheart Sher. What a lucky guy I am! I bet you can see that on my face on this picture!
We are loving our scooter outings and can’t get enough of this beautiful countryside! We see these medieval houses all the time here. We guess the cattle/animals were underneath in winter and the people living on the first floor, kept warm by the cows?
Tomorrow, we move on to Gijon. The weather will still be nice and we want to spend some time in Gijon (you’ll read all about that later). We enjoyed our stay in Ribadesella so much! It’s a lovely port, gorgeous area, nice people, we had gorgeous summer weather, delicious Rioja wine, it couldn’t have been better!
The Captain’s Log (T+123,124… 133) – the complete story
October 28 – to Ribadesella
Today looks like a nice day to move further west. The rain has gone, it will be sunny, and there’ll be a light breeze from the south in the morning backing to the east in the afternoon. Our destination is Ribadesella and we have to enter there at high tide, which is around 2 o’clock. Ribadesella is a tidal river and the estuary is open to the North-West. A big swell is currently coming from the North-West, so the ebb flow from the river against the swell can result in dangerously breaking waves at the entrance. The distance is 30 sea miles so that will take us 6-7 hours.
That’s why we depart at first daylight: 0730h.
When we leave the breakwaters, we keep a good lookout for breaking seas. It is low tide and the river’s current is flowing out to sea. And, since there’s a big swell, that might be a potential problem. Before we left, we said: if we see white water, we’ll turn around!
But everything looks quiet and we clear the breakwater without a problem. When we look back, we see a surprise! Because of the rain yesterday, the highest peaks of the mountains of Los Picos are lightly covered with snow! Beautiful! The first snow on the mountains this season.
When we’re out at sea, the sun rises behind us. There is a big, long swell. We estimate the highest waves around 3m but they are very long, maybe 50-100m. So, these are ‘hills’ of water that don’t bother us.
There is no wind, so our Marvelous Mighty Mitsu pushes us West. We have our mizzen sail up to provide some stability against the side-to-side rolling on the waves. We have a lovely view on Los Picos in the rising sun:
Again, we are impressed by the beauty of this coast! The views change all the time: green hills, steep rocks, valleys with rivers. And all of that with the majestic backdrop of the mountains.
By the end of the morning, the winds increases to 8 knots so we unfurl our Yankee but we keep the engine running to maintain speed.
Our friends on the Dutch sailboat “Watertuin” have also left San Vicente and pass us.
They take some great pictures of Dione IV in the big swell! Thanks Harm & Ilona! When we are at the bottom of the waves, you can only see our sails:
We pass the cape ‘Punta Canto de Palo Verde’ and this cape has a high, steep rock wall. The swell breaks vigorously against this wall and sprays 20 meters high. Very impressive. Also, the swell bounces back and generates an extremely confused sea, shaking Dione IV around. Wim sits at the helm and in the wild movements of the boat, he’s lifted of the bench sometimes. So, he’s wearing his deck vest and attaches the safety line.
Once we pass the cape, the sea calms down a bit and the coast looks very impressive!
We approach Ribadesella. We have a sharp lookout for breaking seas at the entrance. We have decided if we see white water we continue another 10 sea miles to the port of Lastres, which has its entrance at the south and should be well protected from the NW swell.
The breakwater should protect us from the swell once we’ve rounded that. We round it as close as we can.
But although the sea breaks heavily on the rocks left of us and on the beach right of us, the narrow entrance is surprisingly calm!
We surf in, on a big long wave. With the engine idling, we do 7 knots, riding on the wave! Spectacular!
Behind us, breaking waves:
Once we enter the river, the situation is tranquil.
What beautiful scenery!
We moor alongside of the visitor’s pontoon. Together with the yacht “Watertuin”, we are the only visitors.
We have a lovely view over the river to the town of Ribadesella and enjoy a beautiful sunset, lighting the buildings in evening light.
October 29 – we stay a few days in Ribadesella
We have decided to stay in this lovely place a couple of days and we report to the marinero. Another form to fill in with a lot of data. We have left the province of Cantabria and entered the province Asturias, so they want to know all details about us again…
Dione IV broke another record yesterday: she’s further West than she’s been before. Her most western point was the rounding of Brittany but we’ve passed that line now.
That’s why she was moving so much yesterday: it had nothing to do with the waves, it was her excitement of being further West than ever 🙂
We have coffee with our cruising friends of the “Watertuin” and say goodbye to them. They will move on while we’ll stay here. But we’ll probably meet again, they’re on the same route as we.
In the afternoon, we take a walk along the boulevard and view the surf.
Then, walk around the bay and climb up to the hill. We have a nice view over the estuary with our girl in center of it 🙂
The views are amazing!
October 30 – scooter ride in the hills
In the afternoon, we take a scooter ride into the hills. It’s a beautiful countryside! We go uphill and takes a lot of power from the scooter’s batteries and Wim’s scooter has warnings about high motor temperature so he kick-steps to help the motor a bit. But there are numerous viewpoints to stop and let the scooters cool down!
After a while, we reach the village of Sardalla. Sher has read that there is a family business baking delicious cookies. We visit them and buy some cookies. They are lovely and give us a warm reception… and the cookies are really delicious! Galletas de la Abuela means “cookies from the aunt” in Spanish.
We continue the narrow roads which go up and down. There’s hardly any traffic so that’s excellent for a relaxed scooter ride. Going downhill, the scooters regenerate energy from braking on the motor so the batteries keep doing fine. Every now and then we stop to enjoy to enjoy the amazing views.
Via the little village of Ardines, we reach the high cliffs above Ribadesella. A magnificent view!
We we get down into Ribadesella again and we try a visit the prehistoric caves of Tito Bustillo. Regretfully, they close for the winter and these are the last 2 days and all ticket are sold out. So we visit the accompanying museum and see a photographic glimpse of the caves. This is supposedly one of the top five sites for prehistoric cave drawings in the world and is a world heritage site.
October 31 – more scootering!
In the morning, we do some provisioning and after lunch we get on the scooters again. We drive along the other side of the river but after a few km’s, there is no bicycle path any more and it’s a busy road. So we decide to bend off into the hills. Again: what a beautiful countryside! We drive on narrow roads uphill and downhill through little villages until we reach the coast again.
On our way down to Ribadesella, we visit the north side of the river bank and the Mariner’s monument. Wim thinks this anchor might be a good addition to Dione IV and tries to move it. 🙂
On our way back to Dione IV, we sit on a terrace and have a ‘Sidra’: the local drink. Apple cider. In fact, during our scooter ride, we saw many apple trees. So that’s what this drink is made of…
Well, honestly spoken, we don’t like it all that much, but we had to try it while here. It’s pretty sour and harsh but it’s nice to sit on this terrace on this lovely sunny and warm day, watching the Spanish families have lunch.
November 1 – more scooter riding
Another beautiful day! Warm (20-25 degrees C), sunny and no wind. In the morning, Sher does some food shopping and Wim does some paintwork on the decks. We have some little damages here and there and that needs to be treated before they get rusty.
In the afternoon we take the scooters out for a ride at the hills West of Ribadesella. Again: what a lovely countryside!
When we get back on Dione IV around 5 o’clock, Wim has a Friday afternoon ‘Alhambra’ beer in the cockpit 🙂
Wim: “I am such a lucky guy! All the years I was in Fryslân, we always had a Friday afternoon beer, after work. In summer, sometimes somewhere outdoors. But by November 1st, certainly indoors. And in Fryslân, I never did any outdoor paintwork after September. Here, this morning on the 1th of November, I did some paintwork and I have an afternoon beer in the sun, in de cockpit! So, I’m here at the right place at the right time. With my sweetheart Sher. What a lucky guy I am! I bet you can see that on my face on this picture 🙂
November 2 – another day and more scootering in Ribadesella!
We were planning to leave today and head west, but decided to stay another day… why rush? It’s a sunny day with no wind again. In the morning, fog is coming in from the sea. It stays just behind of us.
We are in an aquarium here… schools of thousands of fish pass by everyday with the tide.
We go out for some shopping and we see this car 🙂 Apparently, other people like cute donkeys as much as Sher does!
In the afternoon, another scooter tour. We just can’t get enough of this lovely area!
We see these medieval houses all the time here. We guess the cattle was at the basement in winter and the people living on the first floor, kept warm by the cows?
No, we were wrong! It’s a prehistoric carport! 🙂 🙂
Looking for?
Fresh figs!
And they are delicious!
Tomorrow, we move on to Gijon. The weather will still be nice and we want to spend some time in Gijon (you’ll read all about that later). We enjoyed our stay in Ribadesella so much! It’s a lovely port, gorgeous area, nice people, we had gorgeous summer weather, delicious Rioja wine, it couldn’t have been better!
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