Bumble Bees on the way to Baiona

3rd - 5th August

Firstly Happy Birthday to my Big Brother Nick........ nearly 50 hey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I left Muros next day, I'd lost 3 days in A Coruna and I want to be in Lisbon by the 19th to see Debbie. Well I had a beautiful sail all the way and even a little race with a single handed French boat, which I just lost, dolphins everywhere, diving seabirds in fact everything except a whale and a sunfish which are the two creatures I long to see. Anyway off to Baione,Bayonna, a town I wanted to see as it was the first port Columbus landed on his return from discovering the New World....they have an exact replica of his ship the "Pinta" and I spoke to his shipmate and told him you should try it in a Sadler 26....that's real sailoring!!!!

On the promontory there are some medieval fortifications and a superb parador, sort of government run 5-star hotel designed to generate funds to take care of historic buildings a bit like if the National Trust turned Lyme Park into a hotel.

I'm spending two nights here before I set off for Vianna do Castella in Portugal so today I walked around the various monuments including a walk to the top of the highest hill to see the "Virgin in the Rock" a fantastic view and confirmation if my tightening trousers had not already made it clear that sailing is not a sport to keep you trim........... I must stop nibbling all day.

Surprising fact…….if I said what was the most common insect to land on the boat when it's say 5 miles off shore you probably wouldn’t say the bumblebee and yet this insect which I’ve always thought was aerodynamically unable to fly first appeared about 8 miles south of Newlyn and the weird thing is that you can see them quite along away off and its was flying north i.e. from France so could it have flown that far?.... who knows. They have since appeared off La Rochelle, crossing Biscay and twice today and no it’s not the same bee!