Christmas New Year 2007/08

We had xmas day in Baionna Spain with the English pipe smoking guy Geoff.  It poured and was really windy, and we all huddled in his 26ft boat and enjoyed a bottle of bubbly and a few reds. It was one of the best Xmas days we have had in years despite the close quarters.

Christmas lights in Baionna

He had left the pontoon for the anchorage, and we were supposed to drive over to him in our dinghy, and practiced getting in and driving on Christmas Eve, but to our disappointment, he moved back to the pontoon Christmas morning because of the weather.  Lucky as it would have been a very wet and choppy drive.

We got the sailing instructor (Luis) to help us get to Cascais on the coast near Lisbon. He hoisted the sails as we left the harbour, even though there was very little wind.  We motored until 11pm and then sailed for about 14 hours and lost the wind again, but it gave us our first real go at the sailing thing for real.  We left Boxing Day morning and arrived midnight the 27th.  Luis was a really nice guy and loved cooking and taught me how to make a Spanish tortilla as well as do a bowline, which I still completely forget after 60 seconds.

Matt’s new  $4,000 laptop decided to join the boat and stop working, so we spent a week on the boat calling and waiting for HP to collect it.  By then the Lagoon dealer had re-opened and we spent another 2+ weeks waiting for them to co-ordinate all the repairs.  Being boat bound really starts to get on your nerves, but we did get out a few days and saw the sights of Lisbon and Sintra and the biggest Casino in Europe at Estoril.  We had a fairly quiet New Years Eve watching the fireworks over Cascais and the Marina, and then hit a bar until 4am. 
We had an interesting New Years Day.  The marina said a big wind and swell would come in over the breakwater and asked us to move to a more sheltered spot.  We asked for assistance at 20 knots, and 4 nervous hours later when the wind had got to 30+knots they arrived to help us move.  We were both shaking, but with a dinghy pushing us off the pontoon, we made it around, to be greeted by a very rich Portuguese man who owned a 60” motor yacht (it uses 150 litres of diesel an hour compared to our 5 litres).  He even had ducted vacuuming and a cleaning lady on Fridays!  The wind and rain howled for 3 days, then we moved back to our private (only boat on the pontoon) spot.

A Coruna (La Coruna) Spain (December 2007)

Ah Coruna – I might as well spell it differently as everyone else does. This was our alternative port of call on the Bay of Biscay crossing – “easy to get into and the bars are good” we were advised by our skipper – oh yeah and it’s before the corner. It was with this in mind that I convinced Karen that an over night stay is probably warranted for this town. I did some research – well limited really – and found out it also has the oldest operating lighthouse in the world (Damian told me that too) and a very nice old city.

So after a 4 hour bus ride via Vigo we arrived in A Coruna and the first thing Karen saw was Cortes de Ingles  – Spain’s largest retail chain and we had to go shopping for pillows????? From there we walked to our hostel – Hostal Residencia La Provincia – quite a walk and we probably walked further than we had to due to a nice pair of jeans and stilettos that appeared to be going in the right direction. We arrived at sunset and the non-English speaking receptionist showed us to our room, provided us with soap and left us to it. The rooms were clean, with some nice sketches decorating the walls and when we came back to the reception –the full nativity scene (looked like all of Bethlehem) was being constructed by the receptionist, her daughter and her daughter’s daughter I assume.

We then commenced our night time exploration of A Coruna. My research proved accurate – there was in deed a nice old town, starting at the Square of Maria Pita (for the inventor of pita bread, she seemed like an angry woman with the sword and all) and the Principal Palacio and of course churches such as Santa Domingo and a full on ham shop. The shopping was also interesting particularly El Beasto – In service for the sick – one for you to investigate Andy…..

We then hit the bars – these were interesting but we were not yet into the Spanish lifestyle and they were just opening when we got there. The first was popular with some interesting decorations on and behind the bar – still life vs soft porn.

The second bar we went to was a bit more interesting – it was in the old part of town and was just opening. The walls were covered with cartoon like Tin Tin and art work from the clients and the beer  (Galacia Estrella) came out of a celtic woman. There seemed to be a real affinity with witches in this area, which we are still trying to understand.


The next day we walked the city and took in the sights of the Park of Hercules that surrounds the lighthouse.

Interestingly enough, Karen was not the first person to renovate with the lighthouse having an extended life with four different facades.

I can still recall seeing it as we passed the city on our initial passage across the bay, so I really didn’t care what it looked like but was just glad it still worked.