Ria de Muros

Hi everyone,

We spent four nights in Ria de Muros.  Two on anchor and two in the Real Club Nautico Portosin marina.  Overall it's a very pretty Ria and well worth a visit.

Zen Again in Ensenada San Francisco

Throughout our visit the gradient wind was from the NE.  Each morning there was a light E land breeze.  At around midday this was replaced by a local W sea breeze.  Then in the early evening a stronger sea breeze came in from the NE.  We reckon this is the sea breeze from the north coast penetrating inland and to the west coast.

On Saturday we dinghied ashore and went for a walk along to the local village.  There are boardwalks along much of the shore and the sandy beaches are very clean.  Most shops were closed since it was a holiday but the cafes were open.  We had a very nice lunch at a fish restaurant overlooking the anchorage.

Zen Again at anchor (over sand bottom)

Lunch overlooking Ensenada San Francicso

After lunch we returned to Zen Again and motored around to the anchorage east of Muros marina.  The bay has a set of viveros - floating platforms used for fishing.  There are a lot of them throughout protected Spanish coastal waters and they're unlit.  Areas containing them are shown on charts.

Evening in Muros anchorage

Muros anchorage is over 'sea lettuce' weed and mud!

Looking over the Viveros back to Muros

On Sunday we motored over to Portosin marina in windless conditions.  On arrival we were directed to a berth and helped with our lines.  A massive dolphin escorted us in.  We found ourselves next to a British yacht Island Girl and US OCC yacht Juanona.  The following two evenings featured sundowners aboard Island Girl and Zen Again.

Track from Muros anchorage to Portosin Marina

Entering Portosin Marina

Nice long finger jetties

We spent our time in Portosin exploring the town and doing boat chores.  The town has a good supermarket and laundromat.  The town square is nice with several cafes, restaurants and bars.  Not many visitors due to Covid but all the eateries were open for business.

View from fishing harbour NE towards marina

The RCN club has full haulout facilities and an active sailing scene.  There were quite a few yachts going out for local sailing on Sunday.  On Monday we visited the office to pay the bill and meet Carmela the OCC's Portosin Port Officer.  Carmela had been very helpful via email while we were still in the UK, confirming we would be welcome to cruise Galicia.

We enjoyed another round of Estrella Galicia (_the_ local beer) at the RCN restaurant.  All of the RCN clubhouses we've visited have been magnificent, and welcome visiting sailors.

View from the very nice RCN clubhouse

RCN burgee in the clubhouse

The weather forecast for the coming weekend shows a cold front passing over the area.  We sailed south from Ria de Muros to Ria de Vigo today to position ourselves for our exit from Atlantic Spain after the front passes.