EBAY TO RODNEY BAY
which provided good holding. As night fell
the winds continued to increase,
accelerating over the mountain range in
front of us. I had yet to climb the mast to
replace the slides but with the wind
gusting and Twenty Twenty constantly
flailing from side to side on the anchor
chain we waited for another day.
When eventually replacing the broken
slides, I inserted extra ones at intervals so
it would be easier to replace them in
future. I also tied cord at each slide to stop
the track bowing out should we be put in
the same situation. During my mast climb
we were visited by local fishing boats
decorated in ribbons, with decks full of
people celebrating a Saints Day. They
circled us as I sat on the spreaders taking
photos as they sounded their horns and
cheered – it was something nice to
remember about Finisterre rather than just
our experiences of a few days before.
With Portugal in sight we proceeded
south, calling at San Vicente del Mar.
Anchoring off the busy beach because the
marina was full, we used our bathing
platform for the first time. Not to swim
from, just to sit on, our legs cooling in the
water – gin and tonic in hand.
Fog was now becoming a regular
feature delaying our departure to Baiona
by a few hours. I’d managed to finish
installing the radar during our stay at A
Coruña, so this would be our first chance
to test it out.
As the fog lifted and the sun broke
through we had dolphins all around us to
lift our spirits. Our delayed departure
meant we’d not make it to Baiona until
around 2030 so we decided to anchor
overnight in the harbour.
Following a leisurely breakfast in
beautiful, warm sunshine we headed into
the marina for our first experience of
stern-to berthing. This was going to be
interesting as Twenty Twenty does not go
backwards in a straight line.
Having called them on VHF, one of the
cheerful marineiros was waiting for us and
waved us in to a space. With the wind just
right we approached slowly, passing the
berth then turning away to bring our stern
around. Into reverse we glided gently into
the space with a little help from the guy on
the boat to our side and a pull on the stern
lines which we had thrown to the pontoon.
I was so pleased I couldn’t hide the
broad smile on my face as Jan and I
congratulated each other. Our smiles were
soon to be wiped off as we were told he
had put us in a reserved berth and we had
to move. Protesting, I warned the
marineiro that it wouldn’t go that smoothly
again as he pointed out a berth just three
spaces further down. I was right. A note in
my log reads: ‘Must Practice Going
Backwards!!!’ But on the bright side we
were among other ARC boats.Arrival in Portugal
Viana Do Castelo was our first Portuguese
port and marked an important waypoint as
it was to be our final mainland European
country – our jumping off point for the
Atlantic islands and the start of the ARC.We set off for Porto the next morning where
we discovered the most welcoming marina
ever. We spent a day in Porto, finally
starting to unwind and enjoy the places we
were visiting. We continued south stopping
at Figueira da Foz, Nazare and Peniche
and visiting Lisbon for the day as well.
We began to plan our final Portuguese
leg to the Algarve and Lagos, rounding yet
another Cabo. Cabo De Sao Vincente, like
Finisterre, has a reputation: high cliffs,
strong winds, big waves. We reefed down
in plenty of time and the waves raced past
us as the wind swirled around but we were
in control as we watched the dolphins
surfing in the waves at the side of us. As
we headed for the anchorage we knew we
had regained our confidence having
tamed the Cabo, well at least this time.Mainsail sliders snapped off under
pressure rounding Finisterre
Twenty Twenty with spinnaker hoisted
and flying into the nightNEXT TIME Pete and Jan cross to
Madeira before starting the ARC in
Gran Canaria and learning to deal with
gear failures at sea.