The final days

- July 27, 2018

Clammers in the anchorage at Muros.

We sailed lazily at least part of the way from the Ria Arousa to the Ria Muros y Noia. It was a beautiful day again, and there were loads of fishing boats out. Lazy relaxing sail.

We arrived at Muros in the late afternoon and spotted a yacht with an OCC Associates burgee. After wandering around the town, stopping for a beer, and finding a stall selling bread on this holiday feast day, we headed back and stopped by to meet Ian Moors, Caroline and Charlotte on the Beneteau Silhouette. They are new members of OCC en route to the Caribbean with the ARC this year. They were so excited to be qualifying as full members of the OCC. Nice bunch.

We spent a lovely night at anchor in Muros and were curious to see people clamming not very far from where we were anchored, waist deep in the water. It was a little disconcerting but we knew we had enough depth for some distance and when we pulled up anchor we were still in 40 feet of water.

The trip across to Portosin took all of about 1 hour and we settled in at the transient dock until they assigned us a berth. Aleria was to be here for a month while we flew home from Santiago de Compostela. Carmela and Carmen said it could be the next day that we would get into our assigned berth as the boat that was supposed to have left, was still there. We were fine with that.

A Belgian boat flying a Russian 'burgee' docked next to us. On board were three Russians, Alex, Tatiana and Sergei. I greeted them in Ukrainian with an OCC brochure in hand, telling them it was an organisation for people like us who sail the world on boats, and membership can provide a 25% discount. They were curious, and we managed to make ourselves understood. They were thrilled to hear a similar language as they have not been able to understand anything for weeks. Alex, the owner, told us our boat was much sought after in Russia and much more valuable than his boat. He was so thrilled he gave us a bottle of Russian Stoli, and we reciprocated with a bottle of albarino.

Alex had gotten our bikes ready so we were riding back and forth to the town and the beach. We had drinks on the stellar terrace of RCNP and dinner at our favourite restaurant nearby -- lobster in rice. Yum. The night was a bit rocky as fishing boats zipped past at all hours but I hardly noticed until rain splashing through the hatch woke me up.

I learned from Tatiana the next day that they are sailing a segment at a time because of work commitments, and they are heading for the Med. They have loved Majorca, Corsica, Sardinia and Croatia and intend to keep the boat there. I asked if they will go to the Black Sea, they said, no there's nothing there.

Meanwhile, we are still awaiting our berth. There's another boat in it that was supposed to be gone, but they can't even be reached. I'm getting quite agitated as I had wanted to be settled and relaxing not fretting and fidgeting. We fly back tomorrow and our taxi picks us up at 2. I will hate it if Aleria is not settled before we leave. I made sure we got here early so we could get everything set right. Very stressful now.

Alex, on the other hand, is making up story lines about three Russians orchestrating a rescue of spies accused of meddling in elections for his next novel. Their names? You guessed it.