We anchored at Baiona for one night and continued to Vigo early the following morning, to meet a friend of ours, Kathleen, who would be joining us on the boat for a few days.
We stayed one night at the Real Club Nautico de Vigo, an excellent sailing club and marina in the centre of the city. The following day we sailed up the ria and under a bridge to find an anchorage in the Ensenada de San Simon. With excellent shelter, great walks ashore and a small bar on the beach we decided to stay a couple of days.
The weather looked good for a short sail north to another ria, but we decided to anchor at the Ensenada de Barra before sailing onwards the following day.
Heading north, we missed the Ria de Pontevedra, and enjoyed a wonderful sail along the coast which is sheltered from the Atlantic swell by several islands. With a bewildering choice of anchorages in Ria Arousa we sailed to Pobra do Caraminal at the northern end of the ria. With numerous old buildings in the town centre and large supermarket right next to the anchorage, it was a good place to stop.
With strong northerly winds forecast we searched through the pilot guide for a more sheltered anchorage. We chose the Playa de Barrana near Escarbote, a long sandy beach with pine covered hillsides. Here we collected, cooked and ate delicious mussells that covered the rocks along the shore.
We stayed for three nights before sailing to the entrance of the ria and anchoring at Playa del Coroso near Santa Uxia de Ribeira. This was a good anchorage, but a very busy tourist beach, so we took a trip in the dinghy to explore the nearby town and fishing harbour at Palmeira.
With calm seas and light winds we decided upon the challenging pilotage through Canal de Sagres to leave Ria Arousa and sail north to Ria de Muros. This involved weaving our way past numerous shallows and rocks, guided by charts, plotters and navigational buoys.
