Ribadeo

What a lovely 9 to 5 Monday we had. We were able to sail all the way from Cudillero to Ribadeo, just on the jib! We would love to have more Mondays like this.

Along the way we see the mountains getting smaller and smaller. We're also discovering, to us, new species. A Portuguese invasion seems to be happening here in the Galician part of Biscay. Along the way we saw lots of Portuguese men o' war!😱

They look a lot like jellyfish, but after a quick search we discovered they are actually siphonophores (neteldieren). Even though they look like one organism, apparently they are some sort of colonial organism. And consist of multiple organisms called zooids (these different types of zooids fulfill specialized functions such as hunting, digestion and reproduction, and together they allow the colony to operate as a single individual(wikipedia)), who knew. To us they look like really cool jellyfish that seem to be sailing on top of the water. Hence their name 'Portuguese man o' war', as they resemble old school Portuguese war ships.

To enter the port of Ribadeo we had to pass under a very large bridge. Luckily with plenty of room for our mast to go smoothly underneath. Along the way we had a bit of a war ourselves. Another boarlt, Good Golly, had left Cudillero at the same time we did. From the moment we found out we were both going to Ribadeo, of course it turned into a race. Our Nimrod unfortunately was a bit too heavy for the lights and especially when the Good Golly put up another genoa, we knew we would love. Although, we caught another bonito. Sooo.... did we really lose? After a lovely sushi dinner Bart went for a beer at the Good Golly with Christoffer and his crew. It is nice to be able to hang out with some peers for a change😉

The next day we walked up to Illa Pancha, at the tip of the cape of the bay. We even went for a nice refreshing dip in a gorgeous small bay. Later in the afternoon we explored the town of Ribadeo a bit. Of course we managed to arrive before the end of the siesta again. But, this mostly meant it was nice and quiet out on the streets. The town itself was much bigger than we had expected. There even was a "Indiano district", barrio San Roque. The first wave of returning emigrants (from America) in the 1870s chose to settle in this area. All these houses, exuberant or unassuming, are inspired by then-trendy American architectural models (Turismo Ribadeo). They looked quite misplaced in our opinion. They do however really brighten the town.

You get to guess once what we had for dinner?😉

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