Sailing in the Rías Baixas, Galicia

[charliea]

Hello everyone

Although it still seems a long way away I'm considering taking our BRE down to the Rías Baixas for the family summer holiday this August.

I'm trying to do a bit of preliminary research into the the area before forking out for the "Cruising Galicia" Imray guide.

Has anyone sailed in the area?

I'd be very grateful for any thoughts on it's suitability for a relatively novice sailor, advice on the pros and cons of the different Rias and any other suggestions/comments/recommendations.

Thanks for your help.

Charlie

[Graham W]

Charlie,

There was this post by Robin, not very long ago http://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/smf/index.php/topic,1520.msg11117.html#msg11117

I've been there in spirit many times (attached).  Completely irrelevant but I've also been on a successful wolf-watching expedition in the area, land-based, of course.

[charliea]

Thanks Graham, Robin's description all sounds very positive, I can't imagine how I missed it when he first posted it.

I think we'll probably go for around 18 days so I'm keen to break it up a bit for the boys, wolf watching would definitely fit the bill, I'll have a google.

Charlie

[Robin]

By coincidence I have just returned today from a winter visit to see how the boat is. I had a most interesting time using my Spanish - reasonable in bars and shops - in a boatyard where not a word of English is spoken. I found a large box of beer brought fluency to all. Still, the boat has been very well cared for although she looks very tiny on her trailer amongst vast cruisers on their cradles. The marina still contains a mixture of heavy Westerly's, nice looking classic sloops and a couple of smoothy French multihulls.
I would be very happy to chat to anyone who wishes to visit the Rias. My sailing's been so far confined to Ria Pontevedra largely due to inexperienced crew/children but with rather more hardcore crew coming this year I plan to go further afield. Ria Arousa is certainly bigger and looks interesting. I have local
The issue that occupies me the most is getting there if you leave the boat - no direct flights if you are away from London - and the usual problems of always needing something you've left behind. I am lucky to have local family whose sheds are filling with sailing detritus. I have yet to need the services of a serious chandlery - but bits and bobs are available locally in most areas, and repair work is of a good standard and very cheap compared to here.  There are more serious facilities in Vigo I believe.
Even in January it looks appealing after grey and cold UK.

Robin
- While I think of it, since re-stringing shrouds and a few other things I have struggled with lee helm in light airs . Mast rake looks reasonable but I am assuming need more unless i am missing something?

[charliea]

We've just returned from the holiday mentioned above having had a great time. Below are a few random notes that might be of interest to anyone considering the area.

We sailed for 14 days. Wind was primarily northerly, usually somewhere between 7 and 14 knots, but gusting upto 20. We stayed ashore for a couple of days when it looked too strong to be comfortable.

The towns were often quite busy with Spanish tourists, more pleasant to be around than the Anglo Saxon variety but it was hard to get into the posher eateries if we felt like a treat. In contrast the sailing was uncluttered, the largest proportion of traffic was local mussel boats tending their bateas (floating rafts used to farm mussels on the ropes suspended beneath them).

It was really surprising how few boats were on the water given that we went at the height of the August holiday season.

All harbours and marinas seem to be on channel 9. We usually failed to get a response from them when we requested a berth, only to find someone waiting for us on the pontoons when we finally motored in. Not sure if it was our poor Spanish but radio requests were only acknowledged once or twice. It was very unusual to see anyone dock in a marina without being met by someone to take their lines. The marina staff were invariably friendly and really helpful.  Marinas won't take advance bookings for visitor spaces but we only failed to get a spot once, in a particularly small marina.

All the marinas wanted passport details and proof of insurance cover. Some also required a registration number that all the Spanish boats displayed on their bows, they were happy to accept our MIC number.

They were all between €10 - €15 a night for a BRE. Strangely the cheapest was in Pontevedra, where the marina was part of a very polished kayak training centre. Pontoon fees there included use of a very sophisticated looking gym if that is your thing. Pontevedra is well worth a couple of days sightseeing, particularly as the marina is near the middle of the old town.

August is peak holiday season and nearly all the towns were hosting funfairs that stayed open til midnight, This wasn't a problem once our kids have got used to the idea of an afternoon siesta and late nights. This is compulsory as we ate ashore most nights and nowhere started serving food before 9.

We started at Vilanova in Ria de Arousa, we saw public slips all over the place but Vilanova marina locked up our trailer in their yard and had lots of public parking. However it has no visitor spaces so we spent our first night around the corner at Vilagarcia. After a few days in Ria de Arousa we sailed around into Ria Pontevedra. Arousa was definitely our favourite so we returned there quite quickly after visiting Pontevedra town. Our most adventurous sailing days were the ones spent sailing between the two Rias.

The locals seem to use the Windguru weather forecasts, which were pretty accurate and included a sea state forecast which is useful if you leave the shelter of the Rias.

Bateas seem to dominate with Ria de Arousa when you look at a chart but in practice they don't seem so widespread when you're on the water and are easy to sail through.

Many beaches that looked as though they might make good overnight stops were cordoned off by yellow swimming areas. We generally anchored a little off the beach and swam in.

Don't assume you'll be able to buy paper charts when you arrive, we only found one chandlery that had a large scale local chart in stock. Everyone either using a plotter or their phone. We were able to buy the Navicarte chart for Arousa but couldn't find anywhere that stocked the one we needed for Pontevedra.

Ria de Arousa	Navicarte E20 Muros - Sanxenxo
Ria de Pontevedra	Navicarte E19 San Vicente del Mar – Bayona

The Imray Guide Cruising Galacia had useful information on each of the towns although it is now ten years out of date, we got the impression that most of the marinas had been enlarged and/or updated since the descriptions had been written.

The drive from Santander to the Rias was about 7 hours so we broke it up with a stop at Santiago de Compostela. Google found us a great caravan campsite on the outskirts that was happy for us to sleep on the boat.

https://www.campingascancelas.com/en/

On the return ferry we met UK holiday goers who had received spot fines for not displaying red and white striped square at back of trailer, although we got away with it. They'd also been asked to prove they had insurance cover for braked trailers.