We left Cudillero aiming to get all the way to Viveiro, a sheltered marina deep inside the Ria de Viveiro close to the most westerly tip of Spain. However, the light wind rapidly grew in strength and, coupled with a 4 metre cross swell, the rough motion rapidly became tiresome. We changed the plan to head to the closer port of Ribadeo, but even this became impractical in the worsening conditions. After three hours or so of increasing discomfort we opted to dive into Luarca, a convenient fishing port en-route. A massive harbour wall protected the outer harbour where the visitor’s berths were placed, but there were only four of them and we had to wait for an Irish flagged boat to depart before we could manoeuvre into position. The mooring system was, again one that we had not previously encountered. Four substantial mooring buoys were anchored to the sea bed to tie up the bow line, but the stern had to be tied to the harbour wall by rowing a line ashore. Fortunately we had bought a 200 metre line at the 2014 Southampton boat show in anticipation of shore moorings in the Mediterranean. Bert did the honours of taking the line ashore and clambering up the 40 feet or so of ladder to tie off on the bollard. all secure, we nevertheless had a rocky night of it as the big swell came into the outer harbour.
Moored next to us was “Snorkel” a much smaller boat that had taken a longer route across Biscay and was staying in Luarca for a day or two to secure their mast which had worked loose. They had to do some serious sailing as their engine/fuel tank combination could only give them 12 hours motoring at speeds as low as 3 knots. We later watched their progress on the AIS with interest and they reached the Mediterranean long before we did.
During the afternoon, we took the tender into the town, which was much bigger than it looked with a pretty inner fishing harbour. We found a good internet connection at a bar called “La Gaviota” where we also had some great tapas. On the way back Bert managed to lose the kill chord for the outboard motor.
Sailing Synergy 