“42:46.59N 9:03.38W”

1007 Miles since leaving Sandwich

We have arrived in Muros and the weather is fine.

Saturday 10^th September 2022

                              Up and at em!!, as keen as two squirrels in a nut factory we had Spectra ready for sea in no time at all and cast our lines off in the pouring rain before 0800 on Thursday morning.

Goodbye Caraminas!!

With cloudy skies, patchy fog, and a steady wind on the nose driving drizzly rain into our faces all day we suddenly realized that we were living the dream. It was an engine run all day with the wind staying light and consistently on our nose all of the way, added to that a 2 meter swell left over from the high winds earlier in the week made the journey a necessity rather than a joy. I did put the mizzen sail up the whole way and the staysail when the wind would allow it which helped to steady the rock and roll as Spectra wallowed along with the swell hitting us on the beam before crashing onto the Spanish coastline a couple of miles to our left. Enough of this doom and gloom, we did have some highlights. Dolphins came over to play regularly and I managed to catch a picture of one jumping for joy when the sun came out to show its face. We also sailed past a sunfish, a shark and no Orcas which is a good thing, more on that later. We also got a few cheery waves from occasional fisherman as they tended their pots in open boats bobbing up and down on the swell.

Suns out and the dolphins pop up to check. Like us they haven’t seen it in a while.

Around lunchtime we passed Finisterre (Fisterra in Galicean, how international am I?) and you guessed it the fog nearly hid it from us, but we did manage to get a picture. Once passed the most westerly point in mainland Europe we put a bit of east into the course, more to convince ourselves that we have passed a milestone than was strictly needed but you have to make the effort don’t you.

Cabo Finisterre glimpsed through the fog.

And again, as we head another 2 degrees to the east.

The only other highlight from the trip was that I ran the water maker for an hour and, clues in the title, it did indeed make 50 litres of lovely fresh water during the hour. Not that we needed the fresh water of course, all you had to do was lie on your back and open your mouth if you wanted a drink for most of the trip but its nice to take the opportunity to test these things before you need then for real. We made pretty good progress and were tied up in Muros by 1530 in brilliant sunshine and enjoying a different view.

Hello Muros.   Two views of Muros from our berth in the marina.

And one from inside the winding back streets of this picturesque little harbour.

We met up with Pedro the harbourmaster who was here in 2014 for our last visit. He is still as friendly and welcoming as before and jokingly worked us a discount on our harbour dues. No discount for me because of Brexit but double discount for Norma as she has an Irish passport and has to live with Mr Brexit. If you’re giving me 20% off the listed price then you can call me Mr Brexit all day long, €37 a night including electric, water, and WIFI, less than half what Lymington charge and a much better view, happy days.

Our freezer is still broken and I have ordered a new compressor from Slovenia to be delivered to Muros marina, what could possibly go wrong with that plan I hear you ask.

1.       I had to pay by bank transfer, which is a pain and cost me £25 for the privilege.

2.       The Slovenian company then said because of Brexit I had paid from a UK account, so it had to be delivered to the UK.

3.       I pointed out that I purchased a meal in town yesterday and paid for it from a UK account and the waiter didn’t post it to the UK first. 

4.       They then agreed to post directly to Spain if I changed my invoice address to a Spanish one. Not sure what happened to the strict Brexit rule there?

5.       They also cancelled the original order and asked me to put a new order in with €21.67 added to it to cover their bank costs, due to you guessed it Brexit.

6.       I got them to confirm that the extra €21.67 was the final and full amount extra that I would have to pay and that they would send it directly to the marina in Spain.

7.       They did and I placed another order and will no doubt have to pay for the transfer again.

8.       As soon as the bank transfers the funds, they say they will send the part with a 4-5 day delivery time. Personally, I can’t think of a single reason why it wont run smoothly this time.

Of course, once I get the compressor, I will have to find an engineer to both fit it and gas it, but that’s another problem for another day. This morning (Saturday) we threw the last of our freezer meat away.

Yesterday morning (Friday) I was up and about doing my morning pottering on deck when I noticed a titanic struggle happening 20 meters away on the harbour wall. A local guy was trying to haul a very big and very angry looking octopus up the harbour wall that he had caught on a landline. I went over to offer moral support and take some pictures see below.

Fresh Octopus anyone?

We have met up with Ray from Ramsgate who has been based out of Muros in his yacht Becs since the last time we were here in 2014. He is looking very relaxed and seems to be enjoying life in the Spanish sun, well for six months of the year anyway. He told us that so far this season 4 yachts have been brought into Muros with rudder damage caused by Orcas. The worst one being a Maramu that had large parts of its rudder chewed off and damage to its steering gear which has kept it here for a couple of months awaiting spares and repairs. Gulp, I really don’t want to meet up with the Orcas.

Well, that’s about it for this one. Of course, we were shocked by the sad news that the Queen had passed on Thursday evening. The next morning, I wasn’t sure of the protocol but felt I should do something to mark the event and so I put Spectra’s ensign at half-mast. While doing that two people from different foreign boats in the marina came over and said they were sorry to hear about the Queen dying.  Interesting that they both said. “The Queen” and not, “Your Queen” which speaks volumes on how she was seen globally. As the day progressed, we must have had 5 or 6 other yacht crews and a couple of people in town also expressed their condolences. I’m not sure if the half mast thing is correct but I’ve done it and it feels right so I will leave it as is until after the funeral whenever that will be.

As a final note on this subject, I received a mail from the commodore of the Ocean Cruising Club this afternoon who I thought expressed some rather fitting sentiments with a nautical leaning I have repeated them below.