21 August: La Costa del Morte
To be met: the deadly coast with a much more frightening name than we experienced it.
We stayed in La Coruña until wind and waves had settled. Many other yachts were following the same weather forecasts and drew similar conclusions, resulting in an armada leaving the port on Monday morning, on the 8th August. Our courses were all set first west and then south, heading for the Costa del Morte, the coast of the dead.

We left port just after our friends Axel and Eva on their Hallberg-Rassy 43 “SID”, who had decided to also leave this morning. Merely having left port, to our surprise, we met several boats who had just left before SID and us, returning again from sea. After the 10th reunion with boats we knew, we started to wonder why they all came back again. We sailed in hearing distance to one of them, asking for the reason for them all to return to La Coruña. "Fog" was shouted back to us. We had obviously not taken into account the fact that if not wind and swell were against us, fog could be. Surely, we had some mist in La Coruña, but to call this fog would be to exaggerate, we thought, and continued following in the wakes of SID.

Not many minutes after our enquiries to the returning yacht, the visibility did worsen. Not much at first, but soon SID disappeared into the gray mass. Still visible on the radar, we could clearly measure the visibility. First we had half a mile, soon a quarter of a mile and eventually less than two tenths of a mile. This might not sound too alarming, but sitting in your boat, glued to your radar, starring at these dots on the screen, wondering if the echos you observe are on collision course or not, whether they are turning east or west, with you trying to correct your own course to avoid collision just to find a new weak echo close by, is all hard work and quite stressful.

Suddenly, it was just popping up out of the fog from nowhere, the brightly painted fishing boat in a wonderful white colour not dissimilar to the equally white fog. Not even navigation lights revealed its existence, since these were not lit. We had seen an echo, for sure, but it was so close to SID that they both had melted together into one echo, due to our small 2 kW radar, where objects close to each other sometimes can be difficult to distinguish. SID was passing it closely on its starboard side.

When you suddenly see a white hazard, drifting in a white pulp, it takes a couple of seconds until you realize that this actually is neither fog nor SID but a fishing boat. A scary experience.

We pulled the helm heavily to starboard disliking the situation just as much as the returning yachts must have done. We decided to also sail back into La Coruña, soon meeting new boats leaving port now asking us why we were returning. Visibility closer to port was again much better and did not reveal the fog which was to be met further out. SID followed us back at first, but decided soon thereafter to go on, nevertheless. With their 4 kW radar, an experienced crew and an improving weather situation as they thought, they had the situation under control. We kept in contact with them via VHF and learnt that visibility now was improving to some half mile out at sea.

After a while, we gave it a second try and left port once more, motoring in a steadily improving weather situation, heading for Camariñas as a first step.

The notorious Cape Finisterre was left for the following day, when we rounded the cape totally becalmed by engine in perfect visibility.

The light house welcoming us to Camariñas, now at nearly perfect visibility.
Friendly sailing along the Costa del Morte
Galicia, with its numerous “Rías” is an unspoiled and very charming area of Spain. As the Spanish answer to the Norwegian Fjords, the Rías are cruising areas on their own, perfect for daysailing and anchoring. Marinas are being built in a fast paste and each year new full service harbours are opened up for the increasing number of yachts visiting the area. Meanwhile, it is still possible to anchor outside the marinas or in one of the many anchorages, taking the dinghy into the welcoming towns.

We hopped from Camariñas via Muros and Portosin to Combarro and further south to Bayona in short, pleasant day-trips. Other towns would certainly also have been charming, since one place seemed to outrange the other.
Local fishermen in the Ría outside Muros.
Looking at the Galician harbours we visited, Combarro was one of our favorites, being an unspoiled old fishing village. Anchored outside the breakwater, we even enjoyed our first really warm swim in the sea in 21 degrees C (70F), primarily thanks to the fact that Combarro is placed at the very end of a Ría with shallow waters. Generally, water temperature is not really inviting for any longer swims along the coast, since the Atlantic swell and tides seldom allow for any higher water temperatures than 15 deg C (60 F), while air temperature finally were above 30 deg C (85 F).

Portosin with the sailing masts barely visible in the far background behind the palm tree.
From Portosin, we took the bus to Santiago de Compostela, the final destination for countless pilgrims walking hundreds of kilometers through northern Spain, passing cloisters, churches and ancient towns along the way. We did not really fit into these pilgrims having worked their way by foot to Santiago, sometimes spending several holidays during years to go on their pilgrimage. In one respect we could keep up with our walking companions: we had also made it to Santiago all by ourselves, be it on our own keel, and that we took help from a bus for the last few miles to the final destination Santiago de Compostela.

“James Bones” were to be found here, we said to our children, explaining that the holy relics were kept at this place. This was not just any James but St James, one of the twelve apostles, whose bones have been collected and carefully put in a silver casing thoroughly framed with an entire cathedral. St James, who is named St Jakobi in Spanish and Jakob in Swedish.

A firm housing for the relics of St Jakobi
The over dimensioned cathedral, making you feel small and insignificant as a human being.
For Jessica and Jonathan, this was a piece for our onboard “Regina-school”, soon to be commenced, while for Karolina and me, it was just as well a wonderful old city with beautiful architecture and charming atmosphere. We had a great day together with Axel and Eva from SID, who were still keeping the same sailing pace as we did and who also wanted to take part on our "school-excursion" to Santiago de Compostela.

For us, La Costa del Morte was met with great charm and calm, warm winds. The cruising ground deserved much more time and I understand the many French boats, who come here each year for their holidays. I wished we could have stayed longer.

The fact that La Costa del Morte not always is as cheerful as it showed up to us became clear when we, a couple of days later, studied the weather charts back for Cape Finisterre, now showing daily gale winds. By that time, however, we had already passed the Portuguese border and were enjoying the unreserved Portuguese people, who really wore their heart on their sleeves.

Inexpensive, friendly and growing within Europe, Portugal deserves an own story to be continued.