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.
We woke up especially early today with the plan of getting to Vigo and a new marina early to prepare for our guests.
But looking out of the windows, we were met with walls of fog.
We waited a while, but set off in fog anyway with the fog horn at the ready, lights on and a lookout on the bow.
The fog continued to be patchy until we reached Vigo.
There are many ports in and around Vigo, and we went for the cheapest, that we could also book through the Navily app, to make things easy.
Guests
Warren and Daisy arrived in Porto last night, stayed in an AirBnb for the night and will be in Vigo after a little coach ride for noon and a short taxi trip.
The coach was €30 for both, and the taxi ride was only €12 + tip. Not bad considering the change of country due to our plans changing.
Soon after they arrived we headed to stock up with provisions for the coming week or so.
This trolly picture was either taken by Warren or Daisy, you pick, they both look the same
Relaxing was done and @wozzletron made a delicious grilled nectarine feta cheese Mediterranean salad for dinner, on the side of Kathryn’s fresh sourdough loaf for dinner, with a spot of wine.
The fog was thick here this morning. Big ship fog horns blasting in the background. We could barely see the boats around us an hour ago, now the sun is breaking through and we can see the beach that we are anchored off. Time to head to a marina in Vigo to pickup out first guests, let’s hope the fog continues to clear as we head south!!#fog #sailing #sailinghannahpenn #sailinglife #foggy #foggymorning #flatwater
Get ready, this is an exciting one, Galley tour time!
Welcome to Hannah Penn’s tiny kitchen. In this little corner of the main saloon we prepare all of our meals (jokes, there is a table in the saloon that we use too, or when it’s a bed we put a board on top!).
Galley, with cover boards on
You’ll notice various kitchen items missing in the picture above, that’s because they are all covered over with boards to keep things tidy, and make the space more useful during the day. Also the fridge is just out of shot to the right.
The boards get stowed alongside the galley, and the kitchen area then looks something like this.
Galley, with cover boards off, revealing kitchen things
The main features of the galley are:
2 burner stove
Oven
Grill
Instant hot water heater
Fresh water sink
Fridge
Stowage
This is mostly powered by butane gas which we occasional buy from shore in 4.5kg bottles. (Currently we use Calor, but as we have left the UK we will need to change that soon)
The fridge box is old, but the compressor is brand new and fitted during the 2022 haul out. It’s hidden behind this door to the right of the main galley area. Keep and eye out for the fridge upgrade post in the future..
This is not an original Camper and Nicholsons galley, it was renovated by the previous owner of Hannah Penn about 12 years ago. However the Vaillant water heater is original, still going strong 50 years later.
Vaillant water heater
The sink drains straight into the sea, so we need to be careful about what we put down the sink. For this reason we use diluted eco friendly cleaning products, such as Ecover for washing up liquid, and Oceansaver and bicarbonate of soda for general cleaning.
The sink had 2 taps, both for fresh water. One was hand operated, the other electric pump operated, but we have removed the hand operated tap for now, in preparation for installation of a new salt water tap which should allow us to conserve some fresh water while doing the dishes.
Galley sink uncovered, and surrounding area.
Behind the sink we also have 2 sets of bilge pump controls for our 2 bilge pumps, and a gas alarm.
The galley is full of compartments for stowing things in, most of these contain kitchen related items or food:
Big cupboard beneath sink for large pots and pans
Draws for cutlery and utensils
Cupboards above stove for spices and staples
Dedicated plate, bowl and mug holders
Large compartment accessible in the worktop to the right of the sink for easy access food
Fridge for the cold stuff
Under the oven… Various toolboxes…
The galley also has one of the windows from the saloon, so while your cooking you can gaze out to sea… Still wish it opened though, maybe that’ll change in the future.
Many more jobs were done in the morning, more shopping, stowing, cleaning, deck scrubbing, washing etc.
From Zoe
We made some friends on Instagram who we then also met in real life as they were moored just a few boats down. Introducing @sailingvesselzoe. Also planning on making their way toward Canada on their Hallberg Rassy 36 called Zoe. We should be continuing to sail around the same area for the next few weeks, so hopefully we will cross paths again.
To Nude
As we said yesterday, we are now aiming for Vigo for the 3rd of August (2 days time), so want to progress down the coast a little more.
We already looked at some anchorages a few days ago, so continued down to the south, and headed to the last on the list.
We both also managed to squeeze in some time for work during and just after the sail. (Adam will talk about the internet setup in a blog post soon)
We arrived at the anchorage surprisingly early given our track record for the last few hops. So we headed on to the beach (Praia de Barra).
Today I started working again 10 hours a week
#remotework #remoteoffice #digitalnomads #beachtime #Travel #sailinghannahpenn https://t.co/GcoKTVwnox
from http://twitter.com/addshore
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"Fun" day in a marina, washing all of the things… Deck, clothes, bedding, etc…We will be back at anchor tommorrow, but until then, here is what it looks like at night.Wind picking up, hope people have their halyards secured! (Oh wait no, I head them all banging…)Check out today's blog https://sailinghannahpenn.co.uk/?p=506#liveaboard #sailinglife #sailinghannahpenn #marina
After Adam doused the bed in the saloon in salt water, we needed to do some laundry. We also didn’t have much water left on board (7.5 inches left of 25) so rather than use up the last of on water it’s time for a marina!
A short marina call & journey
We could actually see the marina from the anchorage. We also looked up the Marina in the Navily app. it’s says they have somewhere to do laundry, hooray! So the main next steps are 1) make sure they have space and 2) head over there…
Only 500m so no map this time
As Captain, Kathryn had the task of calling the marina, but not before preparing some phases incase there was no English speaker.
Do you speak English?
habla usted Inglés?
Can you speak slowly, my Spanish is poor.
Puedes hablar despacio, mi español es pobre.
Do you have space available today?
Tienes espacio disponible hoy?
eleven point five meters
once punto cinco metros
three point two meters
tres punto dos metros
the draft is one point six meters
el calado es de uno punto seis metros
The phone call went well, and we were all set for arrival at 11am, which was 25 minuites later! So anchor up, and on our way.
We switched roles for this little journey with Kathryn running around on deck doing anchors, fenders and lines while Adam took the helm getting us away from the anchorage, through the harbour entrance and into the slip.
You can see our old anchorage in the background of our new slip.
Hannah moored up in the slip
Paper work down, passports scanned, insurance emailed over and €32 paid we were all set.
Wash everything
Task 1, wash all of the things. It turned out that there was no laundry room at the marina, so we had to do this onboard, but with plenty of fresh water.
A sheet being washed in the sink
We also used the fresh water to wash the salt off the hull from yesterday morning, along with a quick deck scrub and also rinsing all of our water gear.
Everything was hung out around the boat. At 34 degrees it was would be dry in no time.
Hannah covered in things drying
Plan Q & Supermarket run
We are preparing for guests. The plan has changed slightly. We will no longer be aiming for Porto for the 2nd August, instead aiming for Vigo. So not Portugal, but Spain instead, and just a little way south of where we currently are.
This is primarily because anchoring in Portugal seems like a bit of a pain, and we think our guests will have more fun if we spend the first week on the west coast of Galicia, Spain. Lots of fun anchorages etc.
This is probably plan Q, we have lost count.
We will be eating 2.5x the ammount of food when we have 5 people aboard, so time to stock up a bit.
As said at the end of day 40, we were in a new anchorage with only 1 review. It turns out it was a bit rubbish for the conditions we were in, and it was a bit of a rockey night.
Moving anchorage
You can see in the picture below, these were not exactly glassy conditions.
Choppy water in the anchorage
We were up early because of the rocking, and decided to head off before breakfast in the direction of a shortlist of better anchorages based on the conditions.
The wind was having quite a “mad one” and flipped the dinghy over while we were beating through wind waves that were breaking over the deck.
Dinghy upsidedown out of the back cockpit window
We sailed using a mixture of Genoa and mizen, leaving the main down, and the first anchorage we passed looked great so headed in.
Much more pleasant location in these winds, I expect we will be here for a day or 2.
Boat jobs & relaxation
Let’s skip the boat jobs part and just say that Adam managed to drench the inside of the boat with salt water while trying to wash the deck (the window was open)…
We tried out the water, it’s still quite cold, but went and found the anchor with our wetsuits on.
