Author: Paul and Claire

Antonio in an act of amazing generosity had his brother deliver a bottle of wine to us. It was produced on their family farm and was casked in wooden barrels in 1890. This was then bottled 40 years ago. So the 120 year old wine was opened this evening and that in itself was a fantastic treat. The result is a wine of light golden colour, with the aroma of port, yet an ever so soft and smooth touch on the palate. It delivers several flavours in sequence and finishes with a light cognac taste. Thank you to Antonio and

The first person we met in Peniche was Antonio onboard an adjacent boat. We wanted to double check the depth at our berth. We were immediately invited onboard and perhaps to join him on his friend’s boat to head out to a fascinating island, Berlinga. We got talking and Antoine then declared that he would make us all a Paella which was not only very generous but anyone cooking a large diameter Paella on calor gas will know how difficult that is. Antonio and Josef brought the completed dish round to our boat and we had a great dinner. Josef

We have completed our Camarinas to Peniche leg of 256 miles which took us 43 hours due to a slow start. Winds then picked up and blew constantly from the N or NNW at 14-22 knots. We ran at about 160 degrees gybing 4 times as we either closed the coast to the east or the shipping lanes to the west, about 30 miles offshore. No noticeable change in sea state whether in 150m depth or 2000m beyond the shelf. A confused sea with swell at 90 degrees to the wind blown waves kept forcing us on onto our beam

After departing Coruna we made 7.5 knots under sail – for an hour! After tacking ever slower a few hours later the wind tailed off to another 4 knot headwind so we made for Corme. Anchoring in Corme is like anchoring on a roundabout within a harbour with the centre completely full of marine farms. There is about 100m of useable sea between the fish farms and the beaches or rocks so it’s a case of picking out a spot deep enough within the doughnut ring to anchor. We arrived in darness and left in fog so have no idea

Like living in a Dolphinarium as we were surrounded by fins this morning; too many to count. Reckon we are the attraction for the dolphins rather than the other way around. We are currently hard to trace as marine traffic AIS relays rely on volunteers to pick up the signal and pass it on to the web; I guess nobody in the Ria is doing that at the moment.     Looking north at anchor in Viveiro           The marina entrance to Viveiro                   Octopus from the Pulperia