La Coruña and Camariñas
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La Coruña
La Coruña has been a wonderful place to stay for a few weeks! Very kind and open hearted people, really doing more than you ask for to help out and the town is such a epicentre of creativity - walls covered in graffiti, music and theatre events, art, furniture, architecture and street art etc. Apparently the town was home to Pablo Picasso in his early life and perhaps his spirit still thrives in La Coruña!
When we arrived we had already decided that it would be a great place for Janne to fly back home from, to see his family and sort out some business. The cost of a berth spot is cheaper in Coruña than the rest of the North Coast of Spain and you get a discount for staying longer periods - plus we found a cheap flight for him from the local Airport!
Before Janne left we met a Swedish group delivering a Najad Yacht to someone in Croatia. All of them we’re around age 70 - happy bunch of people out on their big adventure. :)
The following weeks of solitude was well needed for me (Jens) I spent many of the days just diving into books i haven’t had time to read and contacting some folks at home and abroad via Skype/Facetime. At first i didn’t meet many people since the locals generally speak poor English and my Spanish is terrible. But as time went by and i explored the city i met more and more people both local citizens and other yachties in the Marina.
I got invited to a bar with live music one evening by a local - real fun and quite different from what i’m used to back home. Wish i had met them earlier! :) Having local friends is the best way to experience a new place!
The weather was quite unsteady during our visit in La Coruña, but for the most part the weather has been satisfying. The mornings were quite cold though so i was thinking to myself a few times perhaps i should wear wool underclothes for my morning walks. Cold mornings turned into hot days - spent the days planning future sails, reading books, taking photographs, listening to podcasts and meeting new people.
Janne's return
When Janne finally came back he kindly brought with him a cold from his grandchildren. The cold struck me instantly since i had been out to a bar the night before. Had quite a few beers with the people there and went to bed late in the night. Think my immune system wasn’t prepared to combat a cold at the time.
We met a well-known Swedish yacht/motor boat designer and his wife who invited us over for something to eat and a glass of wine one evening - had a great time with them!
We also met a group of 3 young Swedish guys on a Vega yacht heading to the Caribbean and another small Swedish yacht with a young couple on-board heading to South America.
Before Janne showed up there was two British yachts next to Fragancia - one lone sailor who had just been pensioned off work and were in a real blissful state of joy, so happy to finally fulfill his sailing dreams! And on the other yacht there was a group of 3 relaxed young men playing music, blogging and making video snippets of their sail southward! Hope we’ll see them again ‘down the road’.
We decided to stick together with the other two Swedish yachts and we are aiming to meet up with more people in Porto or Lisbon - if we can get there in time!
Camariñas
The sail to Camariñas went smooth, practically no wind so we had to go by motor. Calm sea, light breeze and a beautiful sunset accompanied us on our short jump Southwest. Camariñas is a small town with only 6000 inhabitants. There are not that much to do around here and it has been strong gales/light storm here so we have been mostly inside or hanging out with the other Swedes in the Marina. Done some laundry and cleaned the deck/exterior and some inside cleaning as well.
Early one morning during the storm we woke up thinking this movement can’t be normal - the boat was moving in a circular motion instead of the usual 'back and forth'. Put our heads up and saw that Fragancia had pulled off the entire bridge we were tied too. Both had to get dressed and go out in really strong winds with quite high waves to deal with the situation - before we were done we were covered in salt water from head to toe. :)
We will sail South tomorrow 7th of October to Ribeira. Might do another jump the day after that because another storm is approaching so we won’t get to far this time around either. Unless Ribeira prove to be a cozy place then we might just stay there until the weather settles again.
