Gull-winged down the Spanish coast all the way into Portugal yesterday, finally getting the Ghoster up (another head sail, left in the picture). We switched the courtesy flag just before dropping the Ghoster and turning up into quite a shallow river to drop anchor. We arrived a bit late so we ended up motoring in against 4-5 knts of tide / river flowing out in places, and at times only 1.5 metres beneath the keel. Anchored, checked in, and a lovely sunset.#sailinghannahpenn #sailing #portugal #sunset #ghoster #liveaboard #nic38 #camperandnicholsons
We headed back to our favorite, and the cheapest marina in Vigo (Liceo Marítimo de Bouzas) the day before Warren needed to catch his flight.
Land chores were the theme of the day with showers for everyone, multiple loads of washing at the launderette nearby, and a big boat clean.
For Warren’s last night, we headed for a fishy meal out, and boy were we in for a treat.
The next morning Warren headed off. We will miss him, his cake baking, and also his wonderful readings of The Hobbit.
Chapter 5 of The Hobbit, read by Warren.
We ended up servicing the engine, all filters, belts and an oil change. A job well done! 🧑🔧
Engine oil being pumped out into a bottle
We also went to every chandlery we could find in Vigo, only to find that the only money we spent was in the very first one. We managed to pick up a few small items, but not the large haul of deck caulking that we really wanted.
Leaving the marina we spotted Blue Note and passed the bag they left aboard Hannah over with a boat hook as we passed by.
Conveniently the fuel barge on the way out of the marina, outside Marina Davila Sport was still just about open (it closes at 10pm) so we topped up the tanks.
We sailed for about 5 minutes but had to motor most of the way across the river to another of our known anchorages, the same anchorage as Day 46 for some shuteye before trying to get down to Porto in a week. At least it was flat and pretty.
Just left our favourite marina in Vigo for the last time, spotted @sv_bluenote on the way out and have them the bag they left aboard via boathook. We managed to sail for 5 minutes, but there really is no wind out here, just a light haze, quite pretty though. Time to try and head south in what little wind there will be tomorrow. #sailinghannahpenn #sailing #sailinglife #vigo #liveaboard #liveaboardlife #sunset #nightsailing
Waking up in our anchorage, we found ourselves rocking violently from side to side after 10am. (This was due to all of the large ferries speeding past the area).
We had a little bit of this the night before, so we’re already expecting it. A quick spot of breakfast, and off we went.
We let captain Warren take command for the day, which lead to quite an interesting initial route. (Hence the name of this post).
A few wiggles, and a few accidental tacks, and we were out in the wind again, heading south toward Vigo.
Dolphins were quite a feature for the sail.
As was fishing, but once again no fish were caught (not having much luck this past week).
We headed to an anchorage on the north side of Ria de Vigo that we had spotted both Zoe from day 43 and Blue Note from Day 48 at on Marine Traffic.
We made a tasty egg fried rice on the way into the anchorage, so we’re eating moments after the anchor dropped
Zoe invited us all over for some drinks with Blue Note also attending.
We chatted late into the evening, even popping back to Hannah to continue until around 3am! All in all a very fun day, night and into the early morning!
As well as being full of food, day 49 was also still full of fog.
We woke up in the anchorage after a fairly rockey night’s sleep. Although the swell was from the west, and we were well protected from any direct swell, it seemed to rebound from the land and hit us from the other side too. This was particularly noticeable from 6am onwards. And after our late night, we were all quite hoping for a lie in.
I enjoyed this morning, but I could have slept longer.
Warren, 2022
Pancakes were the first order of the day. (They were all as healthy as the one below, honest)…
Kathryn and I decided to let Daisy captain us to the next anchorage, we set the target in Navionics, sat back and watches the chaos ensue.
With Daisy at the helm, Warren and Andrew were left to pull the anchor up on her command and get us moving along.
We were motoring until we came close to the mainland due to lack of wind, but it was enjoyably flat, and fun getting others to do all of the work.
Warren and I started fishing part way through the hop, ultimately unsuccessful, but Warren did snag the world, resulting in us doing a little loop to get uncaught from the bottom.
Shortly after, we headed to the anchorage.
We finally got the relaxing day we wanted as Warren read us 3 chapters of The Hobbit.
Warren reading some of The Hobbit
Dinner followed, and we used leftovers with many additions to make some cheesy enchiladas.
Following that we had a delicious meringue victoria sponge with hand whipped cream.
Mmmmmmmm aahhhhhhh mmmmmm oohhh yeaaaaa mmmmmmm oh god it’s ssooo good
Adam, after eating Warrens cake
This really was a day of food…
Time for an early night, finally. Let’s just hope the ferries that keep driving past causing chaos wake do actually stop at 10pm.
We made some new friends last night, bringing our evening drink round from 5 to 7.Thanks for coming over @sv_bluenote, hope to see you again!They even saw us in our anchorage yesterday too!You can find the write-up of our whole day online nowhttps://sailinghannahpenn.co.uk/?p=601#sailinghannahpenn #sailing #sailinglife #boatfriends #liveaboard
We all woke up a little late, and a little tired after our previous long day of sailing.
But wanting to make the most of the morning wind, we set off within the hour.
We wanted to move anchorage to avoid the changing swell and wind, and had also recently acquired a navigation permit for the nearby islands that are nature reserves, which we wanted to get a little closer to. (Guide for how to get this permit coming up soon).
As we sailed we applied for an anchorage permit which was approved instantly, so our anchorage was set :). (Also guide for this coming soon)
We considered looping the island, but this may have taken too long, so instead sailed across the top and back again.
We lost sight of the island half way through the sail due to the fog.
But thankfully as we neared the beach we wanted to anchor at we were actually in a nice and sunny hole in the fog. So after anchoring we headed to the beach.
Warren was cooking for the night, and we had a delicious Fabada cooked in the pressure cooker.
Suddenly, a knock a knock on the hull! Our neighbours from Blue Note had come over to see if we fancied a drink.
We took them up on their offer, suggesting they come back in 45 minuites after we had finished with food and packing things up.
A drink, or 4, were had.
We exchanged stories, and it turns out they had seen us at our previous day’s anchorage, and watched us picking Warren’s hat out of the water prior to anchoring.
Hopefully we will see them again soon as we all plan on being in Vigo on the 9th.
The wind for the first week of visitors didn’t look great, so we set out for a big day sail straight away.
We headed quite far north to where there should be some wind throughout the week.
The whole journey was beating into the wind, starting off a little swelly as we exited the river at Vigo, but progressively flattening out, with the wind steadily picking up.
A picture of the whole group during the hop up the coast
We ended up with a reefed main and Genoa before reaching an anchorage that we previously visited on day 41.
Just as we were preparing to anchor, with Warren on anchor duty (releasing the anchor), his hat flew off and landed in the sea, prompting a quick doughnut and hat grab with a boat hook.
Daisy cooked up a delicious dinner.
Followed by a giant syrup cake which we demolished straight out of the oven in about 5 minutes.
Syrup cake
We partied on into the night by playing a game of cards and going to bed.
Dinner on a boat Day 47…
Squid ink spaghetti with seafood and tomatoes by Daisy our guest
#sailinghannahpenn #onaboat #boatlife #food https://t.co/Uf0hBvVYNW
Dinner on a boat Day 47…
Squid ink spaghetti with seafood and tomatoes by Daisy our guest
#sailinghannahpenn #onaboat #boatlife #food https://t.co/Uf0hBvVYNW
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For the first time there were 4 of us aboard for the morning breakfast routine. Everything is different with more people, new spaces need to be found, more seats needed and extra beds created.
We got a taxi to see some of the city, aiming for some sort of festival, but we were a bit early for the party with the stage and fair still being set up. The views at the top of the hill were great, however.
The only sensible thing to do after being up high is to head back down low, so we walked to the closest beach which was in some sort of old military area where we saw the acronym ETEA everywhere.
A few ice creams and drinks later it was time to head back to the marina to prepare for our final guest arrival, Andrew.
As with Daisy and Warren, Andrew was flying to Porto, getting a coach to Vigo, followed by a taxi to the marina, arriving at 8:45pm ish.
We had prepared a grand paella feast for Andrews arrival and the completion of the crew for the next week.
Image of paella, courtesy of Daisy
Wanting to not spend a second night in a marina we also hopped across the river to an anchorage not too far away for the night.
