Blonde Moment - Baiona, Spain Blog 6

Baiona - a really welcome and lovely stop-over.

Thursday was spent washing the boat down inside and out. Fresh food was bought and enjoyed and each time another Rallyer arrived we downed tools and welcomed them in. Paul and Roy managed to re-hoist our headsail whilst Dee rinsed the salt off it after its unscheduled swim in the Bay of Biscay! Everyone feeling pretty exhausted after the crossing.

Friday the last boat arrived and we were all bused to Vigo to have our passports stamped. Laundry was the order of the day but we finished with a Welcome Sangria on the terrace of the prestigious Yacht Club overlooking the bay followed by an enormous feast in a local restaurant.

Saturday most crews went to Santiago de Compostela but having been twice before we decided to walk locally and repair bits and pieces on the boat. Roy hired a mountain bike and explored slightly further afield. We have just about caught up on sleep and the ground has stopped swaying when on land!

Sunday it rained all morning but the sun came out in time for the much anticipated prize giving. To our great surprise we won 3rd place in our class - surprise because we had lost so much time with the headsail and we had motored far more than the skipper would normally because of said sail being missing.
We then enjoyed a lovely meal in the clubhouse meeting some of the crews we had missed in Plymouth.

Today we joined an organised trip to firstly Santa Trega Hill with lovely views across the Mino River to Portugal and the Celtic remains of a settlement and secondly to the El Folon mills. There are 67 preserved water mills and during a 2 hour walk up through woods and steep, rocky hillsides we saw many of them. It has been cloudy all day and a perfect temperature for walking 17-18 degrees. This was followed by a really leisurely 2 hour lunch in a converted millhouse tasting lots of local specialities - all delicious. A great day out!

Paul and Roy have gone to the skipper's briefing for tomorrow's sail South to Povoa so time to fill the water tank and tidy up in preparation for departure...........

PS - departure delayed from Tuesday to Wednesday when hopefully wind more favourable.!