The Spanish Rias

19th July - 20th August

Wow!  The Spanish Rias are beautiful.  So many beaches and little fishing harbours, tapas bars and great people.  We started off going to Corme and Camerinas, both of which are north of the Finisterre Peninsular.  Not quite into the Spanish Rias but heading that way.

Matt & Anna came to see us in Corme for lunch, which was a lovely surprise as we didn't think we were going to see them for a long time.  Lunch was delicious with scallops & garlic prawns.  There are few shops in Corme and a lovely small fishing harbour.

Camerinas is a slightly larger fishing town where we anchored and went into a marina.  We were there when the Spanish Galicia were celebrating the Feast day of St. James (Santiago de Compostela) with decorated boats hooting their horns, cannons being fired and Celtic market stalls- it was wonderful to be a part of something that is so bright & colourful.

We love the siesta's the Spanish have every afternoon.  Although it can a bind when everything closes up if you need something between 1pm & 4.30pm, it does mean the tapas bars become busy with everyone having their lunch-break & siesta time.  It also means that the day's feel so much longer because you stay awake later as everything is open so much later than we are used to in the UK.  Every day is a Sunday to us, it's brilliant.



This Atlantic coastline is very pretty.  Although it has it's pitfalls like the Great Atlantic Swell, which can catch a lot of people out, including us (more on that another time), when you are sailing along you would be pretty unlucky to not see a pod of dolphins and maybe a family of Pilot whales and if you're offshore a bit more you may even come across one of the many gigantic whales that swim in their own ocean.  The Atlantic Coastline itself is very rocky so makes for a very scenic sail and holds many surprises within the beautiful Rias.

It's very easy to spend weeks in the Rias as every one has many small anchorages or marina's if that's what you want.  Most of the villages are lovely to wander, some of them are a bit run down but that just adds to the beauty of the place.
Plenty of supermarkets & launderettes and the obligatory Spanish Fiesta creating a lively noisy but happy place to be.