11 September 1992 Santander Marina to Santander Beach
We left the marina in the middle of the afternoon. We stopped off at a fuelling berth in a fishing port. While I was filling up the tank it overflowed (probably because of back pressure). Diesel went everywhere. They wouldn’t take a credit card and we didn’t have enough pesetas, so we ended up paying in US dollars at an outrageous exchange rate – cost us an extra £15!
We then motored out to anchor off the Playa de Magdalena Beach, which is beautiful.
12 September 1992 Santander Beach
We had a great day on the beach and then motored back to the marina in the evening to get my wash bag that I had left behind. We went back and anchored off the beach again.
13 September 1992 Santander Beach to Gijon (Day 1)
I worked on the boat sorting out the second anchor cable while Glenys took the boys to the maritime museum. When they came back, we went to the beach again for the afternoon.
We left the anchorage at half past seven in the evening bound for Gijon 100 miles along the coast. We motored for about two hours then had a nice 10 knot wind to sail.
All was going OK until just before midnight when we hit some sort of fishing buoy. The rope for the buoy had caught around the rudder or propeller and we were dragging it along. We hove to and I pulled in the buoy and as much rope as I could. The water was about 150 metres so there was a lot of rope. The rope seemed to come clear when I had a lot of slack, so I dropped the lot in and the buoy disappeared into the night.
I was very worried that the propeller had been damaged, so when the wind dropped about two hours later, we did a lot of praying before turning on the engine. Thankfully all seems well.
14 September 1992 Santander Beach to Gijon (Day 2)
We arrived at Gijon just after lunch. Unfortunately, it was low water and there are a lot of nasty looking rocks on the approach and it is quite tight. We berthed on the nearest pontoon in 2.7 metres of water.
We looked around Gijon in the afternoon.
15 September 1992 Gijon, Spain
Glenys did jobs on the boat and I took the boys to the beach.
16 September 1992 Gijon, Spain
I did various jobs on the boat, including changing the engine oil filters and oil. We went to the fuel dock and filled up with diesel. We met Andrew and Sara on a Princess 33 (power boat) who were en route to Tenerife. They had crossed the Bay of Biscay from Brest. I was quite shocked to find out that they had stocked up with diesel in jerry cans and then just thrown the empty jerry cans overboard when they had used the diesel.
17 September 1992 Gijon to Ria de Ribadeo
Craig’s 3rd birthday and the poor lad has a swollen gum above a tooth that has gone bad. Glenys went into town to get a dentist to check it out and they gave him some antibiotics.
We left Gijon at dusk, bound for Ria de Ribadeo. It was a nice passage with light winds from the west, but we had to tack a long way offshore. This added about 25 miles to the journey. We ended up motoring for 11 hours of the 17 hour journey. The entrance into the river is pretty tight and exciting because the route passes close to and parallel to some cliffs.
We tied up on the town quay next to “Bonnie Day”. There was quite a steep rusty ladder up to the top of the quay, which gave us a few anxious moments with Craig.
18 September 1992 Ria de Ribadeo
We had a day recovering from the overnighter and went into town to a very touristy restaurant where we had the worst bottle of wine that I have ever tasted. (Don’t trust Neville & Margaret’s recommendations.)
19 September 1992 Ria de Ribadeo
We took the dinghy across to Castropol and chilled out in a small bar overlooking the estuary. We had calamari and vino tinto for lunch – brilliant. Brett drove the dinghy across for us.
20 September 1992 Ria de Ribadeo to Ria de Barquero
We left Ribadeo Quay at about half past eight in the morning, motored under the bridge and out to sea. We had a really nice 6-7 knot reach for three hours, Los Farallones Islands/rocks are rugged and the Ria de Barquero is lovely. We anchored off the Punta del Castro which is an idyllic cove with white sand. We had a late lunch at about four o’clock and went to play on the empty beach. I put out two anchors even though it was fairly calm.