Friday, September 02, 2005

Update from Corme

We had been in Coruna almost a week when we left yesterday. I think we needed that time to get over the trauma of our arrival! It was a lovely place to spend time though. We met a few other yachties including 2 Norwegian families - 5 on each boat and one boat was a Rival 38 like Kika; Veto. Unbelievable!

We had a great sail yesterday. doplins
10-15 dophins visiting Kika
The sun fish was quite exciting as Nick said, but then we were once again joined by the dolphins - about a dozen, but they stayed with us for over an hour and my back ached from peering over the side of the boat to watch their antics.

Dolphins off the starboard bow
Dophins off the starboard bow

They are amazing creatures who spied us from far away and then came diving at speed towards the boat to entertain us. We wondered what it is about us they bothered to go out of their way for? Maybe they thought we were a fishing boat and were hoping for a portion of the catch or maybe they just like to play.

Dolphin video

Another notable occurrence was the smooth operation of the wind-vane. It went like a dream for a couple of hours before some grub screws came loose, but it's nothing that can't be fixed. (Was it sabotaged by Nick as an excuse to get his hands dirty again? - I'll never know.) Anyway, we arrived in Corme late last night. Just one lit red buoy to help us. It was quite eerie as we really couldn't see what we were sailing into. It's always interesting when you wake up in the morning and realise you were much closer to the cliff than you thought or in this case, the mussel beds! We were the only yacht too, so had no-one to copy. It takes courage to say 'right lets drop the anchor here' when it's dark and you've never been there before. Nick and I have mastered sign language for anchoring (all polite - well mostly!) but it's redundant in the dark. We had to resort to stage whispers.
The day started misty and moist but soon turned into a scorcher. Most of the day was spent doing jobs - washing and the neverending wiring that needs doing. Then we got the dinghy out and went to a nearby beach for a swim and found a bar for a beer and some 'pinchos' (small plate of nibbles like chorizo and tortilla - delicious!) As we moored the dinghy, 2 more British yachts sailed into the anchorage and we had quite a nerve racking time watching them from ashore as they tried to anchor too close to Kika. They got it right on the third attempt! So now we are three!
Corme isn't pretty but the setting's quite picturesque. We may do another small hop tomorrow to CamariƱas - not too far down the coast and we can tell you another story from there.

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