|
News
from Caladh
Ribadeo
to A' Coruna
After a pleasant few days in Ribadeo we were keen to make more
progress west to Viveiro, a small town about 30 miles down the coast.
The Spanish coastal forecast was for SW winds of force 3-5 and while a
south westerly wasn’t as useful as an easterly, the winds were not
expected to be strong and for all but the last part of the passage we
would be on a north westerly course. Initially we left in almost no
wind and motored in bright sunshine for two hours along the coast,
accompanied for some time by a large school of about a dozen
dolphins.
Eventually the wind filled in but from the
north
west rather than the south west. This was not good as we had no useful
making tack, so we motored on for a while. However, as the wind
continued to strengthen and the sea built up, we were making very slow
progress under motor. The wind was blowing about force 4-5 but was
strengthening all the time so we put a reef in the main and began to
sail. Over the next few hours the wind strengthened to force 5 gusting
6, then force 6 gusting 7 and a very rough and confused sea built up.
It was a hard and wet passage, close on the wind almost all the way
and it took us four hours to beat 12 miles around a large headland to
approach Viveiro. In the last few miles the sea eased as we came into
the lee of the land and we were able to bear away and romp into the
ria at Viveiro. We tied up in the small marina with much relief and
enjoyed a well deserved gin and tonic!
A couple of useful lessons were learnt. Firstly, the combination of
a hot day and high headlands seems to produce a strong afternoon sea
breeze, increasing the wind strength by up to two forces more than
forecast. Secondly, beating to windward on this coast is not much fun,
as the combination of fresh winds, big seas and high headlands make
for challenging sailing.
We therefore spent a pleasant week in Viveiro, waiting for the high
pressure to strengthen and the winds to come back round to the north
east. Viveiro has an attractive old town, pretty river valley and a
sandy beach. The marina facilities are rather basic, with communal
showers reminiscent of school days and very unpredictable opening
hours, but opportunities for provisioning were good. We eventually
left Viveiro just before 7am on 25 June with the shipping forecast
predicting NE force 4-5 occasionally 6 for a 60 mile passage along the
coast to A’ Coruna.
Again we had
no wind early on in the day but by lunch time it had freshened to the
promised NE 4-5 from dead astern. There was a large 2-3 metre swell
coming off the Atlantic but going with it made for a fast time. We
remained about 5 miles off shore to avoid the various off lying rocks
and shoals that litter the coast and it was only as we were about 10
miles off A’ Coruna that we bore away onto a broad reach and felt the
strength of the wind that had by late afternoon built up to force 5-6.
We had a lively sail into the ria at A’ Coruna, passing the harbour
wall 10 hours after leaving Viveiro. |
