A Coruna Part 2
Hector writing:
To paint a little picture, I am sitting writing this off a sandy bay, where we've just dropped anchor. Its just passed 2000 and the evening sun is shining off the water, the word idyllic comes to mind.
Since my last update in Aber Wrac'h, Biscay then a heavy dose of socialising in Coruna has taken place. Biscay was a great adventure, Andy kept me right during what I have since been told by others was a somewhat plucky voyage for someone with my extensively limited sailing experience. We operated a 6-6-4-4-4 watch rotation, so the first day watch ran from 0800-1400, the second 1400-2000 and the night watches 2000-0000, 0000-0400 and 0400-0800. This worked excellently, and whoever came off watch at meal times cooked and the new watch cleaned, allowing for some social time between the solitary hours.
There was a moment of wildness that made it difficult for me to get much sleep on one 0000-0400 off-watch. I'd gone down below at midnight after some good winds and nice sailing to tiredly reemerge at 0400 to an equally tired but totally soaked through Andy and two reefs in the main-sail. After we exchanged roles, I was kept awake by the water racing over the side decks, the salt spray whipping my face and the rolling and pitching of Atlantis as she made her way forward through the oncoming waves. Very awake.Then my unease was forgotten as the moon broke through the dark sky, illuminating a strip of sea and the oncoming tumble of the waves, in that moment, surrounded by a wild nothingness, I couldn't help but grin. I would have whooped had I not remembered Andy sleeping below. That was a rare moment.
Coruna was a gem of a place, where we stumbled across a gem of a restaurant. The type of place where locals leaned drinking beer outside and the owner, with open arms, made you feel like one of the family. She had a dog, an old black lab called Mia, who pottered around the room. Over several visits we ate squid, razor clams, fried breaded brie, grilled pork and unbeknownst to us at the time, pig's ears. Aside from this, I was made to feel at home by the other members of the RCC in Coruna for the meet. We arrived in the city at 0600 on Thursday and, after an hour catching a wink of sleep, headed for a much anticipated shower. Between the boat and the short walk ashore we'd been stopped for three different conversations by friends of Andy's, all there for the meet, illustrating the openness of the RCC community. Perhaps it would have been better had we managed to shower first as I have looked and smelled more presentable. It was a weekend of food, drink and a lot of good conversation for which I am very grateful to have been a part of.
I did manage a bit of healthiness amidst the weekends activities, a good long run around the headland where, hilariously, a TV crew tried to interview me as I ran along a beach like the cast of a pale and much less muscular Baywatch. The interview wasn't overly successful due to me not speaking much Spanish.
There are so many things of note for me to try and get down before I forget them, the last of which I think I'll include in this installment was the festival to St. Someone last night, which involved a beach full of fires, fireworks and locals in high spirits. Some crew arrived the day before on the boat next to us, Robin of Cowes, who were ages with me so it was with bleary eyes that we all stirred this morning to say goodbye to Coruna.
During the course of writing this the sun has set and Fiona made us all falafal balls in a tomato sauce - yum.
Andy afternote:
We could be alone in the world but actually we're in Ria de Camparinas just north of Cape Finisterre.