Viveiro to A Coruna

Finally a decent day. Together with the other boats who had been holed up in Viveiro, notably “Patience” and “Penelope III,” who we would encounter later, Jac and I took Synergy down the channel and the Ria out to sea. In a favourable wind, force 5 occasionally 6, we ran the 57 miles to A Coruña in just over 8 hours, sailing most of the way and touching well over 7 knots at times. Mooring up in the marina we were greeted by an Irish chap who worked there. Weird! The marina was well founded and run in a big sheltered harbour. We were making progress again! In the evening we took a stroll into town and found a great, but rather expensive restaurant just off the Plaza Maria Pita, a very attractive square where we dined on Paella and wine, Jac’s favourite.

Impressive Harbour Control Office at A Coruna

Back streets of Coruna

Church in Coruna

Plaza Maria Pia by night

Plaza Maria Pia by day

2nd August 15 A Coruña

We decided to spend the day in A Coruña doing some jobs around the boat. Somewhere to the south of the city a serious forest fire was burning and a plume of smoke was rising. In the afternoon a succession of Canadair water bombers arrived, scooping water from outside the harbour and later from within to drop onto the fire which seemed to have been extinguished by the following day.

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3rd August 15 A Coruña

The weather had deteriorated once again so we stayed put and decided to go hunting for a yacht chandler. We assembled the bikes and made our way across the city to catch the shop just before it closed for lunch. Having purchased some stainless steel screws, some water purifier and a new kill chord for the outboard motor. After completing some boat maintenance work and having an evening meal on the boat we turned in for a very rocky night as the swell was penetrating deep inside the harbour.

20150801_175946 — Interesting advertisement for a dive shop, particularly as Jac had been bitten on the knee by one of these!

4th August 15 A Coruña

Day dawned with the Atlantic crashing over the massive sea wall and we were not brave enough to venture out in those conditions. Another day was spent sightseeing and trying to sort out a Spanish mobile phone to try to cut the costs of phoning the UK. Rather than slog back into town we thought we would leave it until we reached Bayona further on.