Apart from the glares from a Dutch contingent that clearly thought we had invaded their space anchoring was straight forward in the sand. Annie and I had each downloaded anchor alarm apps to warn us of any movement in the night. At £2.50 Annie’s is so complicated she still hasn’t worked out how to set it whereas my own £0.75p effort is a doddle. At least it was until I took the phone down below and when back up on deck the alarm went off as it thought we had moved a maximum 950 metres! However the current movement was still showing as only 20 metres so I reset the alarm.

Music can lull you to sleep. However, when it is Viva Espania and many versions of the same beat at 120 decibels sleep is more tricky. And this from a mile away where we had thought we might anchor! At 0030 we decided we had better give sleep a go but after 10 minutes both got up fretting that we hadn’t also set the onboard anchor alarms on the depth meter. Neither of us could remember how to do this of course so we had to dig out the relevant manual and work through what of course turns out to be quite a straightforward procedure. So, with more alarms primed than the Bank of England we turned in once more.

The following day we had a gentle sail up to Combarro - accompanied by the anchor alarm that we had forgotten was still on and couldn't work out how to switch off - (historic fishing village with grain stores that look like mausoleums that you may have seen in Annie’s effort) past the Spanish equivalent of Dartmouth Naval College and into the big marina.

After a couple of days site seeing we headed back down the Ria towards (you always put “towards” your intended destination in your log as plans may change……..) Baiona. This would mean close hauled in the forecast light breeze and so time to shake out the staysail that can be tacked without furling. Staysail and full main is a good combination in light airs but as soon as the breeze gets up you need to reef the main to reduce weather helm (can be explained if requested). And of course the breeze did get up and so we put one reef in the mainsail and all was well. Until the breeze died again and we took out the reef. Until the breeze rose again and continued rising until we had 25kts and two reefs in the main. At this point the boat was making 6+kts and I was very happy. Unfortunately the crew had had a sleepless night and combined with the motion of going upwind was very unhappy. A formal request to go into the marina at Porto Novo was submitted and granted. Nothing much to report on Porto Novo other than the first almost hot shower in Spain. I can only assume the Spanish don’t heat water thinking they live in a hot climate. Cloudy, wet and windy is not hot!!

On the technical front the boat is still not pulling well in reverse. I sent Annie over the side in Camarel so we know there is nothing wrapped around the prop. We both smelled burning when reversing out of Combarro so in Porto Novo I checked the fan belt, wiring, oil levels etc and all seem fine. Maybe it wasn’t us on fire but concerning all the same. 

An exchange of emails with the makers of the Duogen enlightened us on how to test its power output and, lo and behold, it is working! We tested the solar panel at the same time and that seemed not to be working………. Only the generator to fix now but as our manual for it is in Swedish sorting out the fault is proving more a test of translation than engineering ability.

And finally our insurers Admiral have been brilliant and already paid for a replacement Hydrovane to be shipped out to Lisbon for us, with a view to reclaiming the money from the perpetrator’s insurance company.