Exploring the northern coast of Spain

From the north of Portugal we sailed to the north of Spain, and arrived in Baiona in the evening. The first sigth of Baiona is the castle which you can see on the top of the peninsula. I had google a bit before arriving and knew there was a trail around the peninsula, so that trail was a plan for the next day.

Baiona

We anchored in the bay outside the marina. It is a big difference between low tide and high tide so you need to bring a long rope to take the dinghy ashore. But luckily there are stairs you can jump on to!

The anchorage in Baiona.

We walked through town, which is not much to see. One of Columbus` ships, Pinta, arrived here in 1493 and was the first place to receive news from the discovery of America. You will find a replica of Pinta here, but unfortunately they had siesta when we had time to visit.

Many nice buildings, but the cozy street you will find behind this buildings.

A long promenade along the sea. On the top of the hill you can see the monument which was our first goal for today.

The castle. It is now a hotel inside it, but it is still possible to walk inside the walls. We found it most interested to walk around it.

Nice view to the isle of Cies, which says to be a very beautiful island with one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. We wanted to go there, but since it is a national park you have to apply and it can take days to get the permission. Today, over a month later we still haven`t got it…

Martin Alonzo Pinzon, the captain of the ship, Pinta.

We didn`t walk the “normal” way up to the monument, but followed the main road a bit before we took off up in the hill. I think not many people using this path but it was worth it!

When we came up to the hill there was a park and many people bringing their kids here. You will see these three krosses, but we have no information about it.

Here is the park. There are a couple of trails to walk up here. We came up from the seaside on the right side.

The monument from behind. As you can see it is possible to walk to the top.

And from the front side. As you can see from the person on the balcony, this monument is huge. The name is Virxe da Rocha, that means Virgin of the Rock. It was build in 1930 and are 15 meters high, and represents the Virgin holding in her right hand a boat-viewpoint which is accessed by an interior spiral staircase made of stone.

You have to pay 2 EUR to go inside. Don`t do it if you are afraid of small rooms. This was a bit claustrofobic…. The stairs are so tight that you almost can`t fit in… You can`t go up there until the people has come down, because it is not possible to meet people in the stairs, and the balcony is really small.

It was worth it. You will get the best view towards Baiona.

The castle on the peninsula and behind that is the bay where we are anchored.

It was a bit warmer that day than we expected, so I got wet on the hike…

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We took another trail down to the road.

After the monument it was time to walk around the castle. Right where the trail starts you will see this small house. It is a small and restaurated Horreo, which is a typically granary from this part of Spain.

There is a small beach there, I think it would be amazing to go there to see the sunset!

Many people are using this trail the whole day!

Me enjoying the view!

We could see huge Hydrangea everywhere along the peninsula, and specially here on this place – Monument for Virgin Carmen, who is the patron saint for all sailors.

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A perfect view for a sailors patron!

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When the tide is coming in you can have a swim here!

Walking back to town!

There is a beach in front of the castle.

After walking around Baiona for a couple of hours we went back to our sailboat and sailed to Praia de Barra, on the northern side of the fjord. We knew that our friends in Amica stayed there and it would have been nice to say hello again. We met them at Vulcano island in Italy, but we had contact with them much longer than that. They are from Netherlands and have two kids onboard. The evening over there was amazing.

The next morning we decided to go ashore to hike on the peninsula. This is a really popular spot for sailors. Most of the beach are for nudists so if you like walking naked it is perfect for you!

The trail is along the sea and we could see many people walking there. Now it is perfect temperature to walk all day.

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The view to Isle of Cies

There were different types of trails, like here, a gravel road.

Faro de Punta Subrido

From the lighthouse above and down to the next beach it was sticky bushes, so I would be nice to wear long trousers, which we didn`t.

You need to walk for a while to come to this beach, so not many people here.

A couple of beaches between the lighthouses.

And the Heather is amazing with this purple colour!

Walking to the next lighthouse on Faro de Cabo Home.

Faro de Punta Robaleira, with Isle of Cies in the distance.

The westcoast of Spain can be rough and we were discussing if we should sail further north that day or not.

And we did. We realized we didn`t had the time to get the permission to go to Isle of Cies and the weather forcast was perfect to sail north. We sailed first to Barra Beach to hide from the wind and waves.

The next morning we sailed to Ribeira to do some shopping. If you are anchoring close to the beach it is in a short distance to Lidl.

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And on Lidl we found shrimps! Jummy!

We sailed further north to the anchorage of Louro, or San Francisco if you like. They are close together. Here we met the Finskou family from Sailing Prosperity. We have followed their Youtube-channel since before they left Rogaland/Norway in February this year. We first invited them over for waffels and later they come over for lasagna. The girls said that both was better than their mothers… hehe… I am not sure if she will make waffels for them anymore 🙂

They are on their big adventure and we are looking forward to follow their journey!

Celina, Katrin, Karoline, Thomas and Victoria

Here are their youtubechannel, take a look! (this is from a couple of weeks before we met them)

Early next morning we sailed further north. We had a plan to sail to the small harbour in Malpica de Bergantinos, but when we came there we finally got the wind and it was better for us to go to La Coruna, because we needed fuel.

In La Coruna we only anchored for a night, filled up with diesel and continue our journey. La Coruna is a city where many sailors arrive after sailing the bay of Biscay.

Ribadeo

We had a overnight in Punta Galino, a really good sheltered bay, with huge breakwaters. After that we sailed to Ribadeo, where we met the Norwegian couple Lisbeth and Endre from Nefertiti. They also have a Youtubechannel, check it out here:

Ribadeo lies in a river so there are much stream in and out, and it can be hard to dock. But luckily we got some help. This is one of the places we could have stayed longer.

A little bit outside the city center you will find many good shops, like Lidl. So we walked through the streets on our way to Lidl.

We were looking for heating element to our hot water tank, and after walking from store to store we got it! Many places here they don`t speak english very well, so we need google translate and photos.

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Between city center and Lidl there were farmers land.

Lluarca

We finished shopping (more than we expected) and sailed further east to Lluarca. This harbour is veyr sheltered by two breakwaters, but can be a little bit rolly. Here we tied to a mooringbouy and had a line to a ring in the breakwater, made for visitors. We were only two boats there. There are 5 bouys but not all of them are good.

I had a plan to go ashore here, but in the morning it was foggi and we decided to sail further on.

Close to the village there is a huge garden, it would have been nice to see that!

Aviles

We thought our last stop in Spain would be here, in Aviles. Aviles lies also in a river and there you will find a German harbourmaster who welcomes you. He lives in a boat in the marina so he is almost always nearby.

We only went ashore to do some shopping before we left the river to sail to France…

But Hey!! This is not France!!

No, it`s not! After 6 hours out in the bay of Biscay we realized it was to much wind and too big waves, so we tacked and sailed east to shore again. The next possible harbour was Ribadesella, which also lies in a river, with a really tight inlet. The guest harbour was fuel so they told us to tie to one of the other boats (but max 2 boats outside eachother), but no one wanted us to tie on so we used a lot of time before finally a nice couple from Netherland said we could tie to them (the harbourmaster had told them earlier that no one should tie to them, but now he told them it was ok for a night).

Ribadesella

But what a place!! I am so glad that we decided to turn the boat back to Spain. This is really a hidden gem! When we woke up next morning it was beautiful weather and we could anjoy the view towards the mountains.

But the fog threatened to come….

In the morning it was on and off…

But it made some dramatic photos.

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Finally we got the message that we could stay until evening in this spot, so we could go for a walk. The boats nearest us (where we are standing) is the guest harbour, and our boat is to the right. The green land between us and the boats is not visible in high tide, so you have to be careful here!