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Nimrod's Adventures
  • Sailing Nimrod
  • Sailing Nimrod

Nimrod's Adventures

🧑🏽‍🦱🧒🏻 Bart & Bel
⛵ Nimrod
🌎 En route Les mer
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  • Sailing NimrodNimrod's AdventuresReisende
    11Absolutely took us more than just 1 shot11

    Ribadeo

    26.–28. aug. 2024, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    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?😉

    🐟    Les mer

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    2

    Ria de Viveiro

    28.–30. aug. 2024, Spania ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    Rain, rain and when you think it's about to clear up a bit, some more rain. That sums up our stay in Ria de Viveiro. We thought we would only spend one night here. But when we woke up and it was raining even harder than the day before, we decided to stay another night. We barely ventured outside. Once to the supermarket on an evening stroll, since we needed some fresh air after staying inside for so long. And once more to discover the old part of Viveiro a bit. Which, unsurprisingly, turned out into another rainy adventure. After walking around, hiding beneath our umbrellas, for a while we stumbled upon 3 bronze Heralds of the Holy Encounter. Since medieval times Fransiscus monks, the heralds, parade through Viveiro's streets to announce the start of Semana Santa (holy week starting with Good Friday). Apparently, this is all celebrated quite widely in Viveiro. Large sculptures of the last supper, judas, the virgin Mary, etc are carried through the streets during a procession. We were able to see some of the sculptures in an open exposition. We found a video of the procession, it does look quite impressive (https://youtu.be/NN3X_XiKclY?si=gKLszSq2qHepyU6r). Although the hoods have a bit too much of another resemblance in my opinion...

    When we entered the Ria of Viveiro we were accompanied by a French boat Siga Siga, who we have been seeing in most of the harbours we've been to since Gijón. They took the sweet sailing video and pictures of us!    Les mer

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    Cedeira ⚓

    30.–31. aug. 2024, Spania ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    We are finally at anchor again! After many more nights in marinas than we anticipated, planned and budgeted we are finally on our own again. Well sort of, there are a handful of other boats in this bay. Among which are videographers of the Siga Siga and the Swedes from the Dreamcatcher. I haven't spoken a word with the Dreamcatcher, but since we were both in Cudillero at the same time we have been waving very enthusiastically each time one of us arrives or leaves.

    There also appears to be another festival. You have got to give the Spaniards credits for the amount of festivals they hold throughout the summer. Unfortunately, for us this means tuning of the instruments and setting up the sound systems from around 16 till 20 p.m. and a full on party until the late hours. I think I still heard them some time around 2 a.m.

    I would almost forget the sail, well another motor journey actually, to Cedeira was a wet one. The first 3 to 4 hours it was pouring rain. Very glad we hadn't put our sailing gear too far away.... Luckily, it stopped after the first couple of hours, but the sun still hasn't shown herself to us yet.    Les mer

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    Ria de Coruña ⚓

    31. aug.–4. sep. 2024, Spania ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    We are anchored in the Ria de Coruña. We thought we would arrive here around the 26th of July. With our detour along the French and Spanish Biscay coast it took us a good month longer to get to A Coruña. Oh well, it has been quite the journey. We'd almost forget that we have already been cruising for 3 months now!

    The first two days in this well protected bay are wonderful. The sun's out, the wind is off and we are trying our sup surf board for the first time and pull out our dinghy since we don't even really remember how long.

    We walked up to the light house to look at our Nimrod anchored below in the bay from up high. And treated ourselves to some delicious Magnums 😋🍦

    On our last evening in the bay we met the Simon Hendrick (Mirjam, Edwin and Philou (5)). They welcomed us onaboard for a borrel. Some face paint had just transformed Philou into a unicorn and we promised that the next day I would try to turn her into a unicorn once more.

    Our last night at anchor was very rolly and we didn't sleep too well because of the large swell that was still found its way to us into the bay. We left our rolly spot quite early to dock in the marina to get the boat guest ready since Tim would arrive later in the evening! After a big clean up we went into town and did a bunch of groceries. Afterwards a face painting session was long overdue. Even though Bart and I had secretly discovered a very rare treasure, a unicorn horn!!, Philou requested to turn into a mermaid princess. Of course, I obliged. In the end we revealed our treasure to Philou and the horn made the outfit. After the face paint session the ice was broken. While asking if we would stay want to do the face paint was very scary. After the princess mermaid unicorn transformation, Philou was climbing all over us and would have "played" all night with us if she could. Very cute.

    We also enjoyed our adult time with Edwin and Mirjam as they again welcomed us on aboard for a borrel and dinner this time.    Les mer

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    Corme-Porto ⚓

    4.–5. sep. 2024, Spania ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    With our additional crew member Tim we move on from A Coruña to Corme-Porto. It's another cloudy and gray morning and there is quite a lot of swell. Even though we prepared Tim with some seasickness medication, unfortunately the sea strikes a bit too strong for him. Tim's down... Sea 1 - 0 Tim.

    Unfortunately, for Tim the sail is a long one. We do have one potential plan B along the way, bird island Sisarga. However, once we get there we see that it's a very rolly anchorage. That won't be a great place for Tim to recover. So we continue the trip. Luckily, Tim is able to sleep a bit inside. For us, the sun starts to come out a bit, it's lovely. Somewhere along the coast Bart(holemeus) passes his "own" tiny little island Isla San Bartolome. At some point we're also surrounded by a lot of Portuguese war ships again.

    When we sail into the bay of Corme-Porto, the swell fades out. Tim dares to venture outside and is able to enjoy the gorgeous surroundings with us. Corme-Porto is a small fishing town, but we decide to stay on board for the evening.    Les mer

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    Camariñas ⚓

    5.–6. sep. 2024, Spania ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    A short sail today, about 20 nm to Camariñas. How will Tim fare today? We've found a replacement for our autopilot! Tim steered today. He kept us on track, manoeuvring around the 20m line to avoid orcas, and the steering kept the seasickness away💪🏼 We have a new score ladies and gentlemen: Sea 1 - 1 Tim!

    The sail, who we were kidding, motor tour and half hour of sailing, was another one along a gorgeous coast. Somewhere along the way we must have lost our fishing gear (paravane and most of the hooks) either due to a very big fish we didn't catch or possibly a rock. Very unfortunate, but I'm sure we can replace them somewhere.

    We anchored in the bay of Camariñas. I went on a little paddle board adventure and discovered a potential bonfire spot on a beach for later that day. First we went into the town of Camariñas, but we returned rather quickly since there wasn't a lot to see. After dinner we loaded the dinghy and went to the beach. Starting the fire with a magnesium stick, some vaseline and cotton pads didn't work so well for us yet, so we reached for some more extreme tools😅

    We had a lovely evening together, enjoying a triple beer we still had from France and roasted some, probably a bit too many, marshmallows.    Les mer

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    Muxia

    6.–8. sep. 2024, Spania ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    We spent two days in Muxia. On day one we left our anchorage very quickly after breakfast. I don't think we had even finished our morning cup of tea yet. Why? Because it looked like there was going to be a small rainless window we wanted to take advantage of! We were able to do so for almost the full hour it took us to get the anchor up and motor to the other side of the bay. Just before entering the marina of Muxia it started raining again. Luckily we were prepared in our full on sailing gear.

    Tim treated us to a delicious lunch on a (covered) terrace downtown. We tried Galician style pulpo (squid) which was delicious among some other raciones. At the end of our lunch the weather started to get a bit better! We took this moment to walk to the Santuario de la Virgen de la Barca.

    "According to local legends, the apostle James had been preaching the gospel in Hispania without apparent success and, demoralized, thought he would give up. At that moment, while he was praying at the spot where the temple stands today, a stone boat appeared in the sea and in it was Mary who consoled him, encouraged him and ended his mission in that place, asking him to return to Jerusalem. Later he left the remains of the boat in place, which are rocks with peculiar shapes that are found in front of the temple" (Wikipedia).

    On day two we did some boat jobs. Bart and Tim replaced the diesel and oil filters. As a result they also had to vent the engine. Which after some struggles with one nut (bout) also worked out well! To recover from the hard work Tim treated us to another delicious lunch❤️! Afterwards the sun delighted us with her presence and we enjoyed a lovely evening and night on our Nimrod.    Les mer

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    Finisterre (the end of the 🌍)

    8.–9. sep. 2024, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    We have made it to Finisterre! Finisterre, in Galician called Fisterra, is a mythical place on the rough Costa da Morte. The name of the village comes from the Romans who saw the village as ‘the end of the world’. Today, Finisterre is for many pilgrims the end point of their camino, where they celebrate their rebirth by watching the sunset and the ritual burning of their clothing. We didn't do either of those, but we did cruise by the coast.

    The cape indeed is a gorgeous one to pass. Luckily, as we travel by boat, we had plenty of time to let the beauty of it all sink in. Tim, again, was also feeling well and was able to enjoy it all with us. New score Sea 1 - 2 Tim!

    Upon arrival we already heard music coming from the town. For a couple of days the town of Finisterra has been celebrating three of its maritime patrons San Roque, Virgen Carmen and Santa María. On Sunday we arrived for the last bit of the party. Apparently on Friday it starts with a procession, again of sculptures depicting the patrons, on the fishing boats! Which explains why all fishing boats were looking so festive.

    By the town we were ready to go into town, the music had ended and, as has become a ritual, it was siesta time, even for the carnival. After a short stroll through the town, we soon returned to the boat. I went on a little paddle boarding and swimming trip and Bart and Tim tried their luck with some hand made fishing gear. They actually very quickly caught a couple of fish. But these were just for fun, not so great for dinner.

    After our actual dinner Bart and I went back to the "main stage" as the music had picked up again. After a quick dance we returned to the boat and left the local 70+ population enjoy their party 😉    Les mer

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    Portosín

    10.–11. sep. 2024, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Today is our last trip with Tim. Over the last week he has matured from a mere sailor (matroos) when we started to our trusted coxswain (stuurman). Our destination, the closest harbor to Santiago de Compostela: Portosín. Tim, again, steers us in the right direction. After a couple of hours cruising in the sun we arrive at our destination. Which brings us to a final score of Tim 3 - 1 Ocean 🏆!

    Unfortunately, it is another holiday today. Pretty much the entire town in shut down. We do however find some of the most delicious ice cream we have ever had. At the beach we had some fun with some rocks before heading back. As we walk back to the harbor we decide to close off our festive week together with some drinks at the "rooftop bar" of the harbor. We don't just have an amazing view as we see our Nimrod down below in the harbor. But I also spotted a dolphin swimming in the harbor! The boys didn't believe me though... I definitely saw it.

    The next day we dropped Tim off at the bus stop and we did some much needed groceries before we departed for our next destination: Corrubedo    Les mer

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    Corrubedo ⚓

    10.–11. sep. 2024, Spania ⋅ 🌬 20 °C

    Even though we have already passed the Costa de la Muerte (Coast of Death), as so many ships have sunk here throughout history, navigating these coasts is still quite tricky. We constantly have to make navigation decisions. Why? You may ask. Because of the killer whales (orcas) that are migrating north along th Portuguese and Spanish coast. Along the way we have learned that every sailor has their fears or challenges. For us, for now that still entails the chance of meeting orcas again.

    Current advice to limit the chance of an orca interaction is to try to stay as close to 20m of water as possible. Here comes the tricky part. The coast here is well known for the numerous rocks laying along the coast. On top of that within a matter of seconds and meters the depth of water can go from 5 to 20 to 40+ meters. Add to that the ocean swell (waves) which makes you don't want to be too close to the coast either. And another aspect we have to take into account of course is the wind. Which obviously gets less strong the closer we get to the coast.

    All of this combined makes that we constantly have to choose between wind, waves, rocks and the 20m line. For us this means we sail much more into the rias and bays than other boats do to try to stay within 20m of water, while still looking out for rocks. When you look at our routes compared to other boats you can clearly see that we cuddle the coastline a lot more than other do. We did so again on our short trip to Corrubedo.

    We were actually able to sail quite a bit to our anchorage at Corrubedo. Just before the Ria de Arosa. Unfortunately, the wind mostly picked up by the time we arrived... Which meant that the first couple of hours at anchor were quite windy and rolly. But after a while the wind calmed down and left us to enjoy this gorgeous anchoring which we shared again with the Simon Hendrick. We were anchored so close to the Atlantic Ocean, it was very cool! The sights when the sun set and when we woke up the next morning were absolutely gorgeous. Even though we started the next day pretty foggy again.    Les mer

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    Combarro ⚓

    11.–13. sep. 2024, Spania ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    In our last post we explained a bit about our coast hugging tactics when we are on the way. On our trip from Corrubedo to Combarro we were mostly able to do the same. Except, we had to cross the Ria de Arousa and therefore cross through 50-70 meters of ocean. You might wonder why we didn't just go into Ria de Arousa to avoid all this. Especially since this Ria is supposed to be very pretty.

    Well, in this Ria there have already been several of orca sightings and even some attacks over the last couple of weeks. On top of that this Ria is very large and therefore it would also take a long time to get past this Ria. That's why we decided to cross this Ria and skip it. We didn't have a lot of wind at the beginning of the trip. Luckily when we were getting closer to Ria de Arousa the wind picked up a bit and we were able to roll out the jib to assist the engine. Just before we would cross the Ria we collected all the goods we would use to scare away the orcas in case we would see them. A peddle to bang on our swimming ladder in case they get near; but mostly, fireworks we can throw in the water the moment we see them to hopefully discourage them to get any nearer.

    On we went right across the ria. We couldn't go over it. We couldn't go under it. Oh no. We've got to go through it! The moment we reached about 40+m of water we added some extra engine power to power through. No sight of any orcas. Luckily.

    After the "crossing" of about 30 minutes we were able to fully sail again! So we hoisted the main as well as the jib and enjoyed a lovely sail to Ria de Pontevedra. Somewhere in the middle of the Ria the wind decided to turn off again and we did the last bit on the engine again. We made this trip with the Simon Hendrick again. They left a bit later than us but somewhere along the way they hade over taken us. When we arrived at Combarro we were met by the local group of dolphins in the Ria. Later on we unfortunately discovered that local touring boats feed the dolphins. Which explains why they don't feel the need to leave the ria anymore.

    After trying to get closer to the dolphins in our dinghy the Simon Hendrick came over for some drinks. Shortly after Square One (Kiki and Harmen) another Dutch boat come onboard as well. We decided to meet up later on the beach to make another bonfire. Which turned out to be a big success again. Before we realized the clock bells only rang once, and it wasn't to announce a half past.. We decided to return to our boats.

    The next day we explored the town of Combarro. Which is a very cute, but therefore also very touristy, yet mostly just Spaniards, old fishing town. In the town there are still a lot of granaries. Some sort of elevated sheds where back in the day grains and other foods were stored. They give quite a funny sight to the town. We decided to stay for another night at anchor before moving on to Ria de Aldan.    Les mer

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    Ria de Aldan ⚓

    13.–14. sep. 2024, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    It was only a short sail from Combarro to Ria de Aldan. Ria de Aldan is actually a small ria within the larger Ria de Pontevedra. Kiki and Harmen (Square One) had recommended this Ria to us and we are very glad they did. Not only is this a very protected anchorage, there are also a couple of gorgeous small beaches in this Ria. On our way in we already discovered these.

    After a bit of a workout walking uphill and through a bit of a maze of a town, we found a beautiful beach! We were almost, except for one lady, the only ones there for quite a bit of time. Someone had also taken the time to build a swing. Naturally I had to try this swing. You don't often get to enjoy a swing with such a view. We did go swimming for a bit, but the Atlantic water is pretty cold. If it's 15 degrees Celsius, we found a warm spot.

    Afterwards we decided to treat ourselves and go out for dinner. Of course we had to have a drink first and wait close to 2 hours, before we could order dinner at 8 pm at the dot. Unfortunately, for me before dinner started my IBS (irratible bowel syndrome (PDS)) decided to ruin the party a bit. But luckily I have gotten better at accepting it and we were able to finish a lovely dinner of tortilla, ensalada mixta, calamari and some local pork dish. We even made it to another festival after dinner. Every year, if there is some money left from the Santa Carmen party (see our Finisterre post), Aldan organizes a mussels festival. Mussel farmers from all around bring in their mussels to compete against each other. We're not sure if the mussels were free, but the amount of mussels present was immense. Of course the cheesy Spanish band was present as well. Overall we had another interesting stay here.    Les mer

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    Moaña ⚓

    14.–17. sep. 2024, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    It was another short trip from Ria de Aldan to Moaña even though we moved on to the next and last Ria Baixa: Ria de Vigo. The last couple of weeks we haven't had any luck fishing. This time we did, we did big time! At first we didn't even know what we had caught. After asking some help from other vertrekkers (cruisers) we discovered we had caught ourselves a sea bass! And a pretty big one even. While we were sailing towards Moaña we discovered that the other 7 or 8 Dutch boats that were anchored in Moaña were going to have a BBQ at the beach. And we were invited to join as well.

    Now the question arose, what are we going to do with our sea bass? I can be quite particular when it comes to food. Yes, I like to share food with others. But, we had also finally caught a fish since weeks and not just a mackerel, but a big ass sea bass! I didn't like the idea of bringing our bass to the bbq and ending up having only just a few bites. Bart on the other hand wanted to bring the sea bass. Even though that would mean he would have to tell people we wouldn't share our sea bass or maybe just a little bit. This dilemma turned out to be quite a learning experience for us.

    It really taught is how we are both used to very different types of vacations. Bart enjoys meeting a lot of new people, making friends and doing things together with friends or people we meet along the way. I on the other hand enjoy discovering new things with the two of us. And I do enjoy hanging out with our people, but I prefer to do so on a smaller scale and not as frequent. That's how we used to spend our vacations as kids with our families. Now we need to navigate to make sure both our needs are met. And not doing or doing things can disappoint, fatigue or sometimes even annoy one of us. After the bbq we had a good conversation about this and knowing this about each other makes that we are able to make better decisions about what to do or not to do.

    Day two was quite a social day for us. On our way to the bbq the rope to manually start the outboard motor got stuck. In an attempt to repair it a teeny tiny spring and another piece went overboard into the ocean and were lost in no time. Herman and Hella of the Kolibri told us to come over and see if they could help us out with the parts. Unfortunately, they couldn't. We were however able to help them with their fishing gear and we had a lot of very good conversations. Going over for a cup of tea, since we still don't drink coffee, turned into a couple of hours. Herman and Hella were even able to help Bart out to wind up the spring of the outboard motor before we went back to the Nimrod.

    Since this day was flying by, we quickly had to move into the harbor because the WoL was already almost there. The day before we had been able to convince them to go a bit further into the ria so we could see each other again. I think we hadn't seen them for about a month. But finally we were reunited again with our good friends Mariëlle and Willem. We had been able to convince them to come to Moaña with the promise to cook them dinner 😉 But Mariëlle was very quick to offer to return the favor fhe next day. Which means we didn't just get one lovely evening together but two! It was very nice to catch up with them again.    Les mer

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    Vigo

    16. september 2024, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Since we weren't able to fabricate our missing outboard motor parts with the Kolibri, we took a ferry across the ria to look for them in Vigo. We also needed some other spare parts for the Nimrod. We arrived around 10:15 in Vigo and it took us a good half hour to get to the Yamaha dealer. At first we stood in front of a locked door, but fortunately this turned out to be some sort of garage. Thus before losing all hope of being able to use the outboard motor again any time soon, we walked a bit further and found our heroes. Lucky bastards we are, they had two of the teeny tiny springs and the last plastic thinghy we also needed. We were so happy!

    On our walk back we did some shopping for me. Bart told me I should treat myself to some nice and good bikinis because I normally just get whatever I can find as cheap as possible 😬 It took us a couple of stores but eventually we found some very good ones!

    Afterwards we continued our search for spare parts for the Nimrod. We needed some parts for our toiler, a relay for our windlass (anker lier) and a piece of aluminium but rather a replacement for a part that connects our beam to our topping lift (kraanlijn). We had two options for a boat shop. One 30 minutes away and another an hour away. We decided to first try our luck the on closer to us. Of course, we arrived some time during siesta. We did however walk by the shipyard of Vigo. Therefore, we past all types of mechanics and handy men along the way to the boat shops. In broken Spanish and a bit of English we were sent from one to another, to another, to another for either the aluminium replacement or a piece of aluminium. In the end we found out we had to try our luck at Emega.

    On our way to Emega and at some point the boat shop farther away, Bart saw a potential replacement part hanging in the shop window. We walked in, but nobody answered our entrance or call. So we continued our march. When we finally made it to the boat shop, it was still closed, but it should open in two minutes. Knowing the Spaniards we decided to take a little stroll through the old part of town just around the corner. When we returned the shop was open! Even better, they somehow had the relay for the windlass! They tried to help us with the aluminium piece as well, but that turned out to be too tricky.

    Pretty satisfied we started our journey back. We hadn't found Emega on our way to the shop, but I think just after taking some pictures of the big shipyards I said "Hey Emega"! We rang the bell and a very friendly man let us in. Again in broken English and Spanish and some drawing we were able to explain what we needed. It was going to be quite difficult for them to make the part, without having the original there. We then asked him if we could just have some aluminium to try to make it ourselves. Of course he said and he took us into his workshop, if was very impressive. They truly are experienced craftsmen. We found a piece of aluminium that pretty well seemed to fit our needs. Our new friends must have enjoyed our enthusiasm to try and make the part ourselves, because he let us leave with the aluminium without asking anything for it. So kind.

    Things got even better when we passed the shop window with the part again and this time we saw some people inside. The elderly man didn't speak English but probably his son did. And together we were able to get the part that seems to fit our beam pretty well! He was even able to drill a whole in it for us, which saves us a bunch of work! Our trip to Vigo turned out to be quite succesful! Except for missing the ferry about 3 ferries later than we anticipated ahead and having to wait another hour before we could return to Moaña. But oh well, we are absolutely not in a rush!    Les mer

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    Islas Cíes I ⚓

    17.–18. sep. 2024, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    It is only a couple of miles from Moaña to Islas Cíes, an island group and nature reserve, just of the coast of Ria de Vigo. Yet, it takes us a couple of hours before we get there. There is a little bit of wind so we decide to sail for as long, but also very slow, as we can. When we arrive we are welcomed "to paradise" by the Kolibri and a handful of other Dutch boats (Audrey, Marije and Lotus). We quickly lower the dinghy into the water and attach our outboard motor, which works again!, and make our way over to the Kolibri.

    We haven't sat down properly yet or we are asked to tell them about our orca interaction. It is nice to be able to share our knowledge, but it also gets a bit repetitious to always be the ones that "had an orca interaction". We stay for a couple of drinks and good laughs before we go home to the Nimrod. When we do our last round around the boat before going to bed, we discover that the moon looks like a blood moon, but it shouldn't. We quickly realize that the effects of the more than 100 wildfires razing through Portugal, most of them close to Porto and Aveiro, and northern Spain have reached us as well.

    The next morning the severity of the wildfires is even more imminent. As Nimrod's deck is covered in ash; the sun is shining but doesn't let any warmth through; and it feels like we are in the middle of a hazy sandy cloud. As we write this footprint, 4 days later, some of the forest fires are still going on. Luckily some of them have been put out. Unfortunately, 7 people have already been killed. The European Copernicus satellite service said that over 15,000 hectares were scorched and a combined 13 kilometers of fire fronts were detected as of Tuesday night. It added that an area home to 210,000 people was exposed to the fire risk.

    For us the wildfires meant we would delay going further south down the coast towards Portugal, Porto and further on. And that we would spend a couple of days on these beautiful islands. We first walked around almost the entire islas Faro and Monteagudo. Due to the smokey air the colors of the Islas weren't as beautiful, as they could have been. But the smoke also added some mysterious atmosphere. Since it is a nature reserve, they try to maintain the local flora and fauna and get rid of the invasive exotic ones. We saw a lot of eucalyptus and mistletoe, so they still have quite some work to do😅

    We enjoyed being in nature and a forest again. We probably walked about 10km again to see almost all sightseeing points and to go up to the highest lighthouse. The views were amazing, despite the smoke. When we returned to the boat we decided to move across the bay to Isla San Martin because we should have better protection against the wind and swell over there. We had quite an eventful time at Isla San Martin. You can read all about it in Islas Cíes part II.    Les mer

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    Islas Cíes II ⚓

    18.–20. sep. 2024, Spania ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    We woke up to the sound of boat engines, generators and Spanish shouting. Bart first stuck his head out of the window and to his surprise saw that we and the Lotus (Henk and Sylvia) were surrounded by about 10 small fishing boats. They were still a couple of meters away so we decided to embrace this interesting start of our day. A few minutes later I also stuck my head out of the window, and greeted the Spanish fishers with an enthusiastic "Holla", which they apparently found hilarious. One of the boats, with two young guys, was getting closer and closer up to the point that their navigation light was getting stuck in our sea rail. They also tried to tell us "no te puede estar aquí", you cannot be here, at least that what I thought I heard. The first thing I thought, will I think you cannot be here, since fishing is not allowed in Islas Cíes. At least, so I thought. Turns out traditional fishing is allowed!

    Even though we had to right to anchor in the spot we were in, since we had an anchoring permit, we decided to move Nimrod a bit. We weren't just surrounded by the fishers and their boats, but also a lot of their ropes. Anchor ropes and fishing ropes. Just starting the engine and lifting up the anchor wasn't that easy. We first had to make sure our anchor, anchor chain, keel, rudder and our prop were free of ropes. We moved Nimrod a good bit further away from the fishers. We quickly decided to move once more. Not because of the fishers, but shallow waters this time. After moving twice we were satisfied with our new spot.

    We took our dinghy to visit Lotus. First, we took a little detour to have a little chat with our young fisher friends. We were filming them and they were filming us, because the situation was quite funny and unusual. Turns out they fish everyday all around the rias from 8 till about 2 pm. The two of them are a team and share their daily catches. They fish for almeja rubia (blonde mussels). They use very long poles with a sort of basket attached at the end. They wiggle the poles across the sea bottom. When they bring the baskets back up, they catch between 5 to 15 mussels. They have to throw the small ones back in. A sort of inspection boat goes from one boat to another to inspect whether the mussels are big enough.

    They let me try to fish as well and it was very heavy. It wasn't a big success. We asked them if we could buy some mussels from them but that wasn't possible. We went back to the Lotus. The evening before we went over for a drink and end up making dinner together around 10pm and didn't go to bed until 1 am. You could say we had a good time together. Lotus had chosen to stay at their anchor spot, as the fishing boats around them were still quite far away. Until they had a rope going under their boat that seemed to be stuck. The fishers asked if they could move, but they couldn't because of the rope. Bart first jumped into our dinghy to push them away but that didn't work for long. Henk had to go into the water to untangle the rope and anchor buoy that apparently had gotten stuck under the boat. They were free as well.

    Some time later when we were back on Nimrod, we heard from Lotus they had been able to buy some mussels. We tried our luck with two older fishers whose rope was surrounding our Nimrod. They didn't seem to have time for it, but did speed over to the last fishermen still fishing and they disappeared. We thought we had lost our chance at mussels until the last man standing come over to our boat and he was willing to sell us some almeja rubia! He brought out a secret stash which he was willing to sell to us. He also had a couple of really big ones laying on deck, but those he was going to keep himself, he told us with a big smile.

    We spent the afternoon on the gorgeous beach of Isla de San Martino. We already went over earlier that day closer to low tide when the beach still consisted of shells. Later in the afternoon we enjoyed a lovely sandy beach because of the higher tide. The water is still freezing here, so I only went in for a quick swim. Since the beach was quickly disappearing we went back to the boat. Henk and Sylvia joined us to make a feast for dinner with our super fresh seafood. Their mussels were a lot bigger and white, while ours were a bit smaller and red. We ate the big ones as our first course and made a sort of spaghetti vongole with our smaller ones. Both were absolutely delicious and we had another fun night together with the Lotus.    Les mer

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    Moaña ⚓

    20.–21. sep. 2024, Spania ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    We're back in Moaña. With the forecasted wind we rather stay in the ria than exposed at the Cíes islands. We actually wanted to go to Cangas because we hadn't been there yet, but Moaña was (supposed to be) a better shelter.

    This trip mostly was a good test to try out using our radar because it was a very foggy day. At the most we could see 100m ahead of us. We were also fully clothed in our sailing gear since it was also a very rainy day. Bart made a bet that when we would drop the anchor the rain would stop, unfortunately he was right...

    We did spend a very nice and quiet night in Moaña again. We also got some more good pictures of the mussels banks (regular black ones) that are very numerous in this Ria. For generations mussels have been a main source of income for the local fishermen.    Les mer

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    Baiona ⚓

    21.–22. sep. 2024, Spania ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    This day was a Bart and his .... day

    Bart and his 📣
    It was another foggy day to get from Moaña to Baiona. This time we were lucky if we could see 50m ahead of us. We heard other boats in the distance use a fog horn. So Bart also brought out our, let's call it traditional, fog horn to announce where we were since we couldn't see any other boats around us.

    Bart and his ⛵
    We were tipped by Square One (Kiki and Harmen) who had arrived a day before us in Baiona to visit the paradores (castle walls) of Castelo de Monterreal. From there we had a beautiful view of the ria de Baiona, the harbour and our Nimrod in the distance.

    Bart and his 💣
    Up until the end of the 19th century Baiona was the main city of trade until Vigo took over. The first ship to return from the new world, la Carabela Pinta, arrived in Baiona in the 15th century. As a result, the city of course had to be protected. A lot of canons, some dating back to the 1800s, are still present on the paradores.

    Bart and his 🥩
    Behind the promenade are some very cute smaller streets where a lot of smaller stores, bars and restaurants are hidden. Bart spotted his first piece of picanha. We probably wait till we're in Portugal to get some.

    Bart and his 🏎️
    The dinghy takes us everywhere. It's our ride. An outboard motor has been stolen here before, so we secured two locks to prevent this from happening to us. We also used a long rope to the dinghy to the stairs because of the upcoming tide. We didn't take into account that when we would come back that the stairs would also be flooded😅 Bart came to the rescue though. And we were able to go to Square One for some drinks and eventually home.    Les mer

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    Viana do Castelo

    22.–23. sep. 2024, Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    We are in Portugal! From the moment we turn left out of Baiona onto the Atlantic Ocean we are surrounded by fog again. All the way even into the port of Viana do Castelo. Without any sight and barely any wind this makes for a very boring trip. The most exciting part is that we get to change our Spanish courtesy 🇪🇸 for a Portuguese one 🇵🇹, somewhere halfway along the way.

    Since we barely have any sight, I spend quite some time on our bow this time, to spot all the fishing pods as soon as possible to make sure we are able to maneouver around them in time. When the pods start to appear less frequent I started my first Portugese lessons on Duolingo. Very happy to know leite 🐄🥛, which we don't drink, carra 🚗, which we don't have, but also the so far impossible to pronounce pão 🍞, which we do love to eat. Luckily we are able to pass all of the pods, without getting stuck in it's nets or lines. We did however lose another paravane and some other fishing gear to the pods, rip ✌🏽.

    After arrival in the port of Viana do Castelo the fog finally disappears. It was quite an experience to sail into a new port without any clear sight of the pier or any of the buoys that are supposed to guide you into the port. As we move further into the port the fog slowly disappears and a very cute, except for the heavy industry that basically comes with any sea port here, town appeared to us. Once we are cleared by the marinero we venture into the town. We have one mission, find the bakery that sells apparently the best and most delicious some sort of Berliner pastry. Yes, we are also very surprised by this. But no we can't tell you what is what like, since unfortunately the bakery for some undefinable reason was closed... We didn't want to settle for a not so delicious supermarket attempt at the Portugese Berliner pastry. So after strolling around town for a bit, but without a clear goal which made Bart lose interest rather quickly, yet mostly because we were both pretty tired after being so alert all day, we returned to our Nimrod.    Les mer

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    BeforeAfter

    Leixões

    23.–27. sep. 2024, Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    After just one night in Viana do Castelo we already moved on to Leixoes. Why so quick, you might wonder. Well for the last couple of weeks one low pressure zone after the other has been hanging around the Portugese west coast. This doesn't only mean that we are left without any wind on many days, but also very strong winds at some points. It was forecasted that during the night of Tuesday to Wednesday up to 45 knots of wind were about to hit land coming in from a southestern direction. We wanted to make sure that we would arrive early enough in Leixoes, the more industrial and much cheaper harbour of Porto, to get a good spot. So, we left Viana do Castelo to move on to Leixoes.

    After such foggy days, we were treated by a gorgeous sunny and windy day! It turned into a beautiful 🌞 s out and sails out kinda day🥳. Of course, we still had to zigzag around the fishing pods. When we arrived we were told we had to stay on the visitors pontoon since all of the other berths had already filled up in the harbour. Maybe the next day some boats would move on and we could take one of their spots. We hoped this would happen, since the visitor pontoon is, as it is often, the first pontoon when you go into the harbor. This time the visitors pontoon also was faced right into the direction of where the wind would come from. Yes, there are 1,5 piers, as they're still building the most outer one, protecting the harbor, but still. This spot did not look like it was going to be a great one to ensure the coming storm.

    The next morning it was raining a lot, so we spent the first half of the day inside watching Industry and the Bear. Once it cleared up we decided to spend the rest of the day in Porto. By bus or metro we should be able to get into the centre of Porto in about an hour. As we walked over the pontoon towards the land we discovered two spots had opened up at the end of the pontoon. We looked at each other, turned around and quickly moved our Nimrod into a more peaceful berth. Feeling even better we went into Porto.

    While we were away a young Danish couple (Oskar and Ana) and their crew had slipped into the other free berth next to us. We had already met them shortly in Finisterre. We meet so many other Dutch boats along the way, that it is very nice and refreshing to meet people with different nationalities once in a while. They had just come from their anchor spot on the Duoro also to wait out the storm before leaving to Madeira. We spent the day doing some boat jobs. We finally finilazed installing the watermaker, so now we can actually use it to fill our water tanks and we stopped the watermaker pipes from leaking. Fixing this took us about the whole day 😅 But, it works now so we're happy and satisfied. As it was getting later, the wind started to pick up more and more.

    After a nice chat with Oskar and some dinner we walked back to our old spot on the visitors pontoon to see what it looked like over there. We couldn't have been happier to have moved spots. Wow. It looked like the ocean swell had fully made it into the harbor. The boats docked further out of the harbor, but also the pontoons were moving up and down like crazy. Another young couple (Artemis) who had taken our old spot, we trying hard to secure their boat again since one of the cleats had been ripped off the pontoon. We offered our help but they said they had it under control. We went back to our Nimrod. I tried to call my parents for the third time that day, we had continuously been interrupted, when Bart told me that the Artemis needed help because they were going to switch spots. They already had 3 people on board, but could use our help to prevent the boat from crashing into the pontoon, as they would be pushed against it, and to tie up their lines. Once they were safely docked we all grabbed the extra fenders we didn't need ourselves to make sure they would also get through the night without damage. Luckily, all three of us did.

    We spent one more day on the harbour because the ocean was still recovering from the storm. We didn't feel like going out with up to 3 meters of waves. Instead we did some more boat jobs: we installed the relay that we got in Vigo, tightened the sea rail again and made an attempt to forge our aluminium from Vigo into a topping lift holder (the beam project). Two out of three were successful, pretty good score.    Les mer

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    Porto

    24. september 2024, Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    It is always quite nice to be in a city again after spending a lot of time in more remote or small town places. We found some really nice warm pastel de nata and walked around the older parts of Porto. We really like Porto. There's a nice vibe in town and all the colorful buildings and orange rooftops make it very charming. We also treated ourselves to some drinks, I enjoyed a very good Porto Tonic (white port, tonic, a cinnamon stick, mint and orange slice) and Bart had some beers. For dinner we went to a place looking out over the Douro (river) which more looked like a football canteen than a restaurant. We we had a great and cheap dinner at an awesome spot. Somewhere during dinner it had started raining again so we had to walk to the bus stop in the rain.Les mer

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    Duoro (Vila Nova de Gaia) ⚓

    27.–29. sep. 2024, Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    As we were getting closer to Porto the last couple of days, we, but mostly I, looked very much forward to anchoring on the Douro, not just on our boat, but on our own home, in Porto. As the weather hasn't really been in our favor it didn't look like we were going to do so. One thing we have to consider as we cruise along the coast of Portugal is that many of the harbors and the entrances (barras) leading up to these harbors can close due to big waves. Meaning we are not able to enter or leave a place. As we were making a plan for the coming days the Duoro Barra had been closed for a couple of days now. The Aveiro Barra however, about 35 nm further south, had opened up again. We decided to give it a try. However, this could also mean we would turn around again again since the waves were still between 2 and 3 meters.

    We left Leixoes, hoisted the sails, stuck our nose out and quickly turned around again. No wind and still massive waves. We would wait this one out. We went back into the port and dropped our anchor. For the first couple of hours we waited to see if the Duoro had openend yet, since that would be a trip of only 3 nautical miles. Unfortunately, no luck. After reading for a while we decided to try and fix our beam problem again and this we were succesful! First aluminium bending, I always knew I would turn out to be an earthbender, project, done! By this time we had forgotten about the Duoro, but Bart checked for a final time: "it's open". Let's go.

    Anchoring on the Duoro also meant we would finally meet Esmee and Dante of the Nova Mahea, one of the few other, even younger 😉, vertrekkers. We had very briefly met on the Vertrekkersdag in March, but a handful of boats has been telling them and us that we should realllly try to meet each other because we would have such a good click together. Well, I don't know what they were thinking...

    No, I'm just kidding. We had a really fun evening together. Even though we have had lovely evenings with all of the other very friendly people, it just is different with fellow young ones. At first we thought we would move on to Aveiro the next day, but we rather spend a really fun evening together with the Nova Mahea, some more time in the Porto area and as it turned out a very fun very Dutch borrel with the Nova Mahea, Lotus, Ella and Audrey. During the day Nova Mahea was very generous to serve as our private dinghy taxi to take us to land. We walked about 40 minutes to the main thing of Vila Nova de Gaia (on the southern bank of the Duoro): port houses. No tasting, or way too expensive tours for us, but we did have a good time walking around and having lunch in the park. We even bumped into some cool street art.

    It is quite bizar to be anchored on the Duoro, in Porto, in Portugal and to be surrounded by 4 other Dutch boats. It does however make for some very fun evenings. While hundreds of tourists on boats paid hundreds of euros to quickly go up and down the river on their sun set cruise. From the Nova Mahea, we were able to take some beautiful pictures of our home, the Nimrod, peacefully anchored on the Duoro as the sun was setting. It is still surreal this is our life now.    Les mer

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    São Jacinto⚓

    29.–30. sep. 2024, Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    From our anchorage at the Duoro we moved on to São Jacinto. The bigger town on the other side of the river, is probably a bit more well known: Aveiro. Since there is an electricity cable hanging over the water, it prevents sail boats from going into the Aveiro side of the river. We had a very quiet night here, especially compared to our stay at the Duoro where we always had to keep a watchful eye for the current of the river.

    The trip to São Jacinto was also very relaxed. We have decided to move further south at a bit higher pace, to try to get on the good side of the low pressure zones. So far we're happy with this decision.    Les mer

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    Bart blending in perfectly
    All different seasons in these trees were pretty cool though

    Figueira da Foz

    30. sep.–2. okt. 2024, Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    It's only been a couple of days, but the both of us already don't remember how our trip from Aveiro to Figuera da Foz was. If we had to guess it was probably another motor sail one. Along the way Bart has been in contact with Tjeerd and Marieke from the Ella. The both of us are trying to get on the good side of the low pressure zone further south. We invited them over for dinner and since we still have a lot of tomatoes we start with some bruschetta followed by a tomato, walnuts and burrata risotto. A very tasty leftovers meal 😋 and a very nice evening together.

    The next morning we set an alarm for 8 a.m. to see if there was going to be any wind so we could move on. Unfortunately, there wasn't any. The day after there should be some wind especially later in the afternoon. We decide to turn off the alarm and turn around for a bit more sleep. After 2 hours I woke up a new person ready for the day. Bart had already been awake for at least an hour 😅. We explored the town of Figueira da Foz for a bit. Compared to the other cities and towns we have been to, Figueira da Foz felt a bit neglected. A lot of the buildings and streets could really use some renovation. Furthermore, since we are getting closer to the surfing Valhalla 🏄🏽, the widely stretched beaches are accompanied by lots of high(er) rise buildings and tourist accommodation and attractions. Foz, as the locals seem to call it, isn't our town. We return to Nimrod to watch the Rings of Power (prequel series to Lord of the Rings), it's nerd time 🤓.    Les mer

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    Nazaré

    2.–3. okt. 2024, Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Today we placed a bet and we went all in 🃏. We bet on the fact that we wind would shift from a south western to a western direction. The shift should would start further down south around noon. For us, it would probably shift around 2 p.m. According to the predictions 2 o'clock turned into 4 o'clock, which turned into 5 o'clock, which in the end turned out to be 7 p.m. By the time the wind had shifted we had already spent close to 45 of nautical miles tacking and we were almost there. We think in the end we motor sailed about 50 instead of the 35 nautical miles we set out. We definitely lost our bet. Oh well, we have to try it every now and then.

    It does mean that we are now officially in the Valhalla of surfers: Nazaré. We mostly hoped there would be any of the magnificent waves by the time we arrived. The waves here are so big because there is a big trough (trog) very close to the beaches of Nazaré. Which makes that within less than a mile the water depth goes from 150+ to 20 or less. Since we arrived in the dark we were extra happy there weren't any big waves when we entered the area. Instead we were welcomed by another fog party. But we made it!

    The next day we went into town a bit before setting off to Peniche. There is supposed to be an escalator that takes you literally up town. Since we were covered in fog again, and expected we wouldn't be able to see anything anyways, we skipped this one. The parts of Nazaré we saw were very much accommodated to the summer surf tourists again. Also, as most of the towns we visit, a lot of the town's history lies in the fishing industry. And they seem to have a bit of a cat problem. Since we saw so many stray cats, who are able to stay in some sort of diy cat hotels. We didn't love it, so back to the Nimrod we went for another day of cruising.    Les mer

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