Bye Bye Baiona

After A Coruña and 2 day-trips along the Costa de la Muerte we're now in Portugese waters on our way to Cascais, near Lissabon.

After a very peaceful sleep we woke up in the marina in Sada on Saturday. After some delays to get my 20 euro deposit back from the marina entrance entry card (mañana, mañana…) we were still able to leave at 09:00h. We had about 50-55 miles (95 km) to go to Muxia, our next stop. And after that another day trip of 70 miles (125 km) to pass the famous Cabo Finisterra (“end of the world”), along the Costa de la Muerte. The final resting place of many ships, crushed against the rocks in violent storms 😬. That's the reason we're only sailing during daylight.

We stayed away from the rocks and jibed downwind, reaching some nice speeds with humming rudders!

Muxia is a nice quiet village we arrived in around 18:00h, just in time to try out our washing machine for the first time! Until the upgrades in Roda de Bara (solar panels, lithium batteries and any other upgrades I think about during these days) we require shore power (220v from the marina) to run the washing machine. As a precaution I closed the blackwater value, expecting to prevent the soapy water from being discharged into the marina. While we were enjoying our beers to celebrate another successfull part of this trip, we heard water coming out from under the boat… So I learned another thing about the plumbing of the boat.

After yet another great dinner we hit our beds earlier than last night. As we needed to be prepared for the mighty Finisterra…

Luckily today we have our trusty PredictWind app. And exactly as expected Finisterra would be “end of the wind” today. So we motor-sailed. Meaning that we keep the sails up in hope of a bit of extra speed or the opportunity to burn a little less diesel while remaining at the same speed. About all day we had the engines on, all the way to Baiona, which is near Vigo and one of the last harbour before Portugal. So plenty of time to nap in the sun or take a shower. We had some company of a small group of dolphins, we spotted them some hundred meters in front of the boat while we we sitting on the foredeck. They swam towards us and did a 180 to swim in formation with us! But before I could get my camera they had to jump to another meeting.

I did manage to take some other video footage:

Just before Baiona I lowered the mainsail and Eus videocalls me on Whatsapp. Starlink is really great! Great fun to see and speak to my family while underway. While we're chatting another group of dolphins pops up at the bow, and I could show them live!

This time we had dinner on-board and were finished just in time to dock in Baiona. Baiona is a bit larger village than Muxia, with a large castle overlooking the bay of Vigo. We saw a great sunset before we enjoyed a cocktail in a busy alley.

Next up is Cascais, about 30 hours, so we'll be at sea tonight and arrive tomorrow evening. Bye bye Baiona!

If you have any dying questions, I'm happy to answer them in the next post! You can easily reply or comment on this email.