A Coruña... rest and recuperation

The cry of 'Land Ho!' went up at 10:16 GMT on the morning of the 26th October. Skipper, 1st mate and deck hand Niall had made the crossing of THE bay whiteout so much as a hint of it's reputation. This brings our voyage total mileage to 613 nautical miles.

As we approached land we wondered how far ahead of Tormalind, an Estonian boat which left at the same time as us and who we kept pace with until the second night of the crossing when we suspect that they reduced sail for the night which we did not! We have an advantage in that we can reduce our fore sails without having to leave the safety and comfort of the cockpit whereas Tormalind have to venture out and manually remove one sail and bend on another. maybe they were just tired of us being in such close quarters!!? Thanks to the wonders of modern telecoms we were able to put out a request to the Tin Tin WhatsApp group and sure enough the answer came back that they were about 27nm astern.. Satisfying for us! (Photos will be added when I am able to get a good and consistent wifi service... )

We made a consistent 8+ knts from 8pm on the 25th right up until we got close enough to land to get in a wind shadow. We took the opportunity to sit in the welcome sunshine and admire he rugged coast from Cabo Ortegal, rounding the corner at Cabo Prior and again at Cabo Prioriño before entering la Coruña and finding a berth at Real Club Nautico de la Cornña.

After a bit of a tidy up and sit down enjoying he lack of motion we took a stroll along the seafront, it was about 1700 local time people were coming out, dressed smartly, to promenade, with an ice cream, or sit in the last of the day's sun, drinking a small beer or coffee with friends. We joined in, and had a beer before entering the quest for a Santander bank where Paul has a special deal reducing commission charges on cash withdrawals. A bit more wandering and indecision and we eventually sat down outside a backstreet bar and asked for the menu. We decided that actually we just wanted tapas which turned the friendly waiter rather sour.

On Thursday we waved Niall off on the bus to the airport. Niall passed his trial with flying colours and will be back on board for the Atlantic crossing along with his friend and Paul's son-in-law Kyle. As we waved Niall off, Paul and I headed straight for an ice cream before Paul went in search of a painting spot and I returned to Tin Tin for tidy and social media catch up.... I modified the fridge layout to allow he baskets to be taken out more easily and after lunch and siesta, I walked to the nearest 'effectos navales', chandlers, and bought a Spanish courtesy flag which we didn't seem to have brought with us and a couple of extra pulleys (you can never have too many of them!!). What I thought would be a quick trip to a supermarket took far longer than anticipated so I returned to Tin Tin rather late and without another ice cream :-( I produced a Macaroni cheese supper and we watched Spanish TV, before some passage planning to get us to Tenerife by the 12th Nov.

Tomorrow we set off on a long passage to Porto where we should arrive on Saturday afternoon if we get going soon after 8 tomorrow morning. Sadly it may be a long motor as the forecast is for very light winds. The new engine may well have been run in by the time we get into Porto.

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