We left Algorta Monday 14th July. At 8 a.m. In the morning I took the dinghy ashore to pick up Aisling and Jorge, who were accompanying us for the day. A quick safety briefing on lifejackets and essential equipment, and by 9 a.m. we were on our way. Just a short 20 mile hop to Santoña, almost a fifth of which was exiting the massive natural harbour that is navigable all the way up the river to Bilbao.
The bay at Santoña is beautiful, and from a cruiser's perspective, an excellent anchorage. It is surrounded on all sides by land, offering protection no matter which way the wind turns. The only problem being finding a spot that has deep enough water. We had lunch on board and the girls lay on deck in the sun while Jorge tried to show me how to use my fishing gear. I confess, I have yet to catch a fish.
Aisling and Jorge had a bus to catch back to Algorta, after leaving them off we stopped in a shop. “No hablo Espagnol” I explained to the lady as I pointed to the bread. We paid, and then to impress her; “Eskerigasko” the closest I could manage to the Basque for “thank you”. From the tone of her reply together with the occasional Spanish word I knew, I understood I was getting a gentle scolding along the lines of “you say you don't speak Spanish, but then you talk to me in Basque and this is not the Basque country, the Spanish word is 'gratius'”. The Basque country was behind us.
On Tuesday morning we set off for Santander, another thirty miles westward. We had no plans to visit the city, so we just got ourselves sufficiently into the natural harbour to be sheltered from the swell, and dropped the anchor in hard sand off Playa de la Magdelena. We went ashore just for a few groceries.
Wednesday we were on our way once more, destination San Vincente de la Barquera. We were about an hour underway when we received a text from David and Inger in “Luna”, an English boat that we had met in La Rochelle. They had also arrived in Santander on Tuesday, having come directly across Biscay. We had just missed them. In San Vincente we stopped in a café that had free internet access, and we took the chance to check our email. The menu of the day, a 3 course meal including wine was offered for €11, we ate. But we dallied too long, when we went back to the dinghy the tide had gone out & we had to wade through the mud to relaunch.
Thursday we anchored in the harbour mouth at the beautiful fishing village of Tazones, just 11 miles short of Gijon. If you're ever thinking about going there by boat, watch out for the lobster pots in the harbour entrance which are marked not with buoys, but with a barely visible piece of floating rope, ready to grab your propellor.
Friday we arrived in Gijon. After five nights at anchor, a marina offers a nights sleep without having to get up and check our position, plus shore side showers much more capacious than Aragorns cramped one, plus shops, bars, etc. Luxury!
Reverse gear has been playing up, and as we docked in the marina it gave up completely. Fortunately an alert Frenchman in a neighbouring boat spotted our difficulty and saved my blushes by grabbing our bow as we came in. Friday evening is not a great time to need a boat mechanic, but the marina got one for me. Still, it'll be Monday before we're going again, longer if we need parts. No harm, we'd planned on stopping here for a few days. Just so long as the repair bill doesn't break us.
Copyright © Pat Egan, 2008, All rights reserved.
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