We spent another full day at the north end of the island, Cies, in a small anchorage, again the only boat. Around 4 in the afternoon, we pulled anchor and made way up into Ria de Pontevedra. We went all the way to the top of this Ria and anchored just off the small village of Combarro. The ancient fishing village was built out of all granite and surrounded by vineyards and lovely homes. The old village was really a sight to see. Tight winding streets right along the water front with small stone houses and each place had a small granite shed held up on stone pillars.
At first we thought these were some kind of a mosoleum for the dead, but this didn’t make sense. Each house had its own shed detached, and at the top was always a cross. After some investigation we were told these were used by the fisherman to keep food stores and tools in. In the past they were used to store grain and food supplies. We were off the mark just a bit. We stayed here two nights and enjoyed some great walks and nice dinner at one of the seafood restaurants. This lovely little lady sold me some wine and fed me some home made cake.
Our next stop was back outside of this Ria to another of the national park islands, Isla Ons. We arrived around 5 pm to another lovely white sand beach backed by rolling green hills and pine trees. We spent the night here but had a miserable swell and the wind put us side ways to it all night. After a fitful sleep, we both got up and decided to leave immediately and make our way up into the next Ria just north, Ria Arousa. Here there are a multitude of places to see so we plan on spending the better part of week in this Ria. As I write this, we have just arrived and are visiting a small fishing village, San Julian. We are anchored amongst the fishing fleet and from the anchorage the town looks charming.
We decided the next morning to make the short trip around this small island to anchor on the other side in the VERY busy fishing harbor. We anchored amongst the many mussel boats that work the viveros, these are rafts that are moored to the seabed and are all over the ria. In fact you have to dodge the many eyesores that are all over the Rias. The good thing I suppose is that this is sustainable farming that only does good for the environment as these mussles clean the pollutants from the water. In the morning and early afternoon this little harbor explodes with activity, the large mussel fleet coming and going and the hundreds of skiffs go out clamming.
From San Julian we slowly sailed our way to the end of the Ria, with a 5 knot following breeze and the headsail. We ended up in a town that was not so nice so early the next morning with a wind shift to the north, and again light winds we raised the headsail and made our way to Porto Cariminal. We anchored just outside of the town marina along the beach. The town sees little tourism as there is not much to see here, however it has many amenities we needed, like quality grocery stores and laundry so we decided to stay a few days. Unfortunately, the first night we were here, after getting ready for bed around 10pm, Jessica on her way into the bathroom somehow walked right into the door frame, or atleast her right foot did.
I could hear the snap and her shriek gave away the fact that this was more than a stubbed toe. As she was doubled over in pain, she mumbled this is serious, we need to go to the hospital. We ended up hobbling into the dinghy and made our way to shore and had the local barman at the marina cantina call us a taxi. He was very helpful and aided in getting Jess up the dock and into a taxi. Fortunately the hospital was only 8km away and the emergency room empty so we could be seen right away. The Xray showed a dislocation of her middle phalanx and a complete fracture of the proximal phalanx. Ouch. A few tears later the sympathetic ER doc had done a quick reduction, re Xray, and we were back on Cadence by 3am.
June 3, 2017
We decided to stay put her for few days to get the healing started and will be on our way again to the next Ria when the weather turns in our favor. Our plans have changed, no hike to Santiago De Compostela, and more relaxing time aboard. No big thing, we will back to regular life in 4-6 weeks if all the healing goes ok. I guess this will be a good time to do the little projects that only made the To Do in the Future List. Like change the hour meter in the tach dial, add whip stitch reefing marks on outhaul, maybe even a sewing project.
