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Peniche, Portugal Sept. 22, 2005 Hi Folks, We are anchored in this industrial/fishing harbour, with our next stop near Lisbon. We had problems in our last marina at Figueira da Foz, as rather than take our passport photocopies to the marina office, Judy took her passport to the office and was then directed to the customs and immigration office at the reception pontoon. There she learned that her time in the Shengen countries of the EU had expired as she was only allowed 3 months and her passport was stamped into Italy in February, 7 months ago. I was OK as I was on my British passport. The officials were quite co-operative about the situation, but indicated she needed to exit the Shengen countries to renew her entry into them. She initially thought she would have to fly to Morocco or Turkey, but was informed that England, although in the EU, was not a Shengen signatory and going there and returning would be sufficient. So that’s what she did. She got a RyanAir flight from Porto to Stanstead in London, leaving Figueira da Foz at 1530, train to Coimbro and on to Porto and bus to the airport, leaving at 2120 to arrive in London at 2350. There she would enter England and wait in the airport until the next departure for Porto at 0640 where she would then be stamped into Portugal for another 3 months in the Shengen countries, to then take trains and bus back to Figueira da Foz to arrive at 1530 next day – a 24 hour marathon costing 280.00 Euros. However, she did not want to take any chances in case of being barred from Madeira or the Canaries, where flights out to England would be more expensive. So we are legitimate. Had we known the three month limit, we could have applied from within the Shengen countries for an extension. This marina at Figueira da Foz was the first which had immigration and customs as part of their reception office. Other marinas just had us fill out marina forms giving our passport numbers with no inspection as part of their sign in procedures. The people in Portugal have been quite friendly, and a fair amount of English is spoken here. We will be in Lisbon in a couple of days where we will pick up our friend Doug Caldwell before heading over to Madeira, 500 miles SW into the Atlantic. Oh yes, a “Happiness is …” situation; here in Portugal we can us our Vodaphone connect card to access the internet from on board, the way I hope to send this E-mail log. I will also attach a picture of the Cathedral at Santiago de Compostela for those of you on my pictures address list. I may get another log off before heading to Madeira, but if not, it will then be at least another week, as it will be a minimum of a 5 day passage across. All the best, Aubrey **************************************************************************** Log #36c La Coruna and Santiago de Compostela Porto After two nights at anchor in Cedeira we motored the 34 miles to La Coruna (A Coruna in Galician). En route we saw a pod of dolphins feeding. I have been entertaining the fish by trolling a line astern for a few days, with no luck, hauling it in if we sight any dolphins. I am not a fisherman. As we entered the harbour at La Coruna to check out the marinas and docks, an inflatable came out from Marina Coruna to invite us in. Our Almanac indicated the marina at the entrance had relocated to an inner basin, and we were surprised there was still a marina in this outer basin adjacent to the long breakwater. The chap indicated this marina was cheaper than the one that moved to the inner basin, but we planned to anchor for the night and said we might be back next day. We then headed further into the bay seeking an anchorage indicated in our pilot and almanac. We tried three times at the southern bay off the sandy beach stretch of Playa del Burgo, and the anchor would not hold. Frustrated, we went 2.5 miles (NE) diagonally across the ria to try to anchor at Ensada de Mera; again after three attempts, in deeper water this time, dragging up large clumps of seaweed each try, we gave up. Thank heavens for our electric windlass, as hauling so much chain by hand in futile anchoring attempts would be very exhausting. As it was, I was very frustrated at wasting over an hour trying to anchor, while of course the wind was increasing. So we returned to the main harbour to be invited again by the same chap in the inflatable to come to his marina. We went. It was a bit difficult even though he was on the pontoon to help us, as there was now a stiff cross wind, and we had to Med moor, hauling in on a slimy lazy line (a slime line as Sayonara describes it) trying to pull our stern upwind. Finally we were secured (43˚ 22.09’N, 008˚ 23.22’W), exhausted and frustrated two hours after we first poked our nose into harbour. Oh well, if you can’t take a joke… The marina was quite nice with good showers, power and water on the pontoons included with the economical 17.00 Euros per day for our 10 metre boat. Another facility provided was a laundry service whereby we delivered a bag of laundry that afternoon to the office and got it back next morning. The marina is also close to the Military Museum, Castelo de San Anton, and a tram service. We took the tram out to the Torre de Hercules, the oldest operating lighthouse in the world. It was built by the Romans in the 2nd century AD, and the basic structure is still in use supporting a modern electric lighthouse system. We walked to the top, but unfortunately that day was foggy. We could hear the mournful sound of the foghorn several hundred feet below us. This northwest area of Spain is Galicia, and retains the Galician language so that names and signs are often in both Galician and Castilian Spanish. The area was originally settled by Celts before the Romans arrived, and was little touched by the Muslim invasion of the 8th century. La Coruna is Spanish whereas A Coruna is Galician. We are more familiar with the Spanish names, but I will use both haphazardly. One of our purposes in stopping in La Coruna was to go to Santiago de Compostela, one of the most important Christian pilgrimage sites in Europe. The cathedral is the reported burial site of the Apostle James who was executed in Jerusalem in 44 AD (Sant = Saint, Iago = James, thus Santiago), and the grave was supposedly rediscovered in 813 AD by a religious hermit following a star (from the Latin campus = field, and stellae = of stars, thus Compostela). We arrived near noon, when there was a mass for pilgrims. The ornate roman/baroque cathedral was packed with pilgrims and tourists. [ A note from Annie Cook about the Camino and Walking the Pilgrim Road ] The pilgrims were of all ages, carrying their backpacks and bedrolls, decked out in hiking gear and boots. It was pleasant to see their enjoyment at achieving this quest, and more so when they reconnected with friends met on the trail, greeting each other with whoops of surprise and happiness, sublime smiles, and group hugs. Piles of hiking and camping gear, bedrolls, walking sticks, guitars, sweaters, water bottles and floppy hats; all were stacked around the bases of the tall granite columns of the cathedral. Even during the service there was much coming and going of both tourists and pilgrims. The cathedral was immense, extremely ornate with statuary, gold filigree flanked altars, coiled pillars supporting arched canopies, and gothic columns raising the eyes to the misty cavernous heights where the largest silver dispenser of incense swung ponderously the length of the transept on a pulley system, wafting the smoky musky fumes over the congregation. We went through the crypt, past the tomb of St James in narrow passages behind the main altar. The ornateness and fantastic religious symbols, statuary, and iconography reminded me of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem with all its Eastern Orthodox imagery. Santiago is the capital of this northwestern Galician province, and a university town, with ancient and medieval architecture befitting the princes of the state and church. It is also a touristy town. There are books on the Camino de Santiago (Camino means way, journey or pilgrimage) indicating routes from all parts of Europe, sacred sites en route, hostels and hotels that cater to pilgrims and histories of the pilgrimages of famous people. There is the Oficina de Acogida al Peregrino (a pilgrims’ reception office) which gives a certificate recognizing the pilgrimage for those who have walked at least the last 100 kilometres, or have bicycled the last 200 kilometres. We caught the train back to A Coruna and finished the day with an enjoyable visit to the Military Museum just outside our marina. It displayed, very artistically, weapons from the 18th to 20th centuries from all over the world, with hundreds of pistols, revolvers, and rifles indicating the country of origin and date of manufacture. I was impressed by the rifle display which included the famous Winchester 44 lever action weapon of the American west. There was a diorama of the Battle of Elvina, a “Dunkirk” type retreat in which General Sir John Moore was able to evacuate thousands of his troops in 1809 when Napoleon conquered the area in the early phase of the Peninsular War. Across from the museum, overlooking the harbour is Jardin de San Carlos, a pleasant park dedicated to the memory of General Sir John Moore who was killed in that battle and who is buried here. Incidentally it was from La Coruna that the Spanish Armada started off to try to invade England, only to be defeated by Drake in 1588. The museum also had a contour map of La Coruna with all the defensive forts strategically located, and models of the original forts. Castelo de San Anton, one of the forts, adjacent to the marina, is still intact, and we enjoyed a trip through it next day. In the marina we met several other British boats -- Cool Blue, Three Wishes, and Omar Khayam -- whom we were to meet periodically on our way down the Spanish and Portuguese coasts, as we were all going south. Judy meets all English speaking boats in whatever ports we are in, trying to exchange books. It provides a good opportunity to meet other boaters. Judy is a “biblioholic” consuming a book or two in a day. She gets desperate if she does not have something to occupy her mind. Her latest preoccupation besides reading and crossword puzzles are the Sudoku puzzles. She copies them from the newspapers or off the internet and has a special notepad which she carries in her purse to work on them in her spare time. We enjoyed La Coruna, the old town and the new. A couple of cruise ships were in harbour while we were there. We left after the fourth night for another 36 mile motor down to an anchorage in Laxe.
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