Gecko Shake Down Cruise Leg 2
Gijon to La Coruña, 12 November 2019
The second leg of the trip saw us heading west along the northern Spanish coast to La Coruña in Galicia. Jason left the boat and headed back to Barcelona leaving behind plenty of food in the freezer. There was no shortage of meatballs, that was for sure.
Pedro, Jim and I left Gijon at 16.30 and pointed the bows towards the Atlantic. The sea state had calmed down to “slight” (waves less than 1.25m) and we sailed up the coast through the night through rain and mist in force 4-5 winds and between 1 and 2 reefs in, motor sailing with one engine where needed.
After the Bay of Biscay, the calmer conditions were welcome and they gave us the chance to practice our reefing and to get to grips with the B&G navigation system, running watches of 2.5 hours which we ended up changing to 2 – just easier to work out.
All in all, a much calmer experience and we reached La Coruña, a distance of some 141 nm, in the early afternoon of the 13th November 2019, where we planned to tuck in before the next big blow hit. Coming in, the swell was sweeping into the bay creating some big breaking waves over a sandbank to the west of the bay. Pretty impressive to watch and one to avoid in a boat, you can see the Instagram clip below if you swipe through the videos.
After filling the tanks up with diesel, we booked into the Real Club de La Coruña and were shown to a fantastic berth right opposite the promenade in the centre of the city.
Gecko in La Coruña
We found another excellent coworking space to catch up on work while we were in the city Corworking. The weather was filthy again with plenty of horizontal rain and high winds (nice to be tucked safely into an all weather port), but we ventured out in the evenings heading first to a Galician tapas bar (Pulpo a la Brasa) and then to a Galician restaurant on the second night.
The weather continued to howl with waves smashing over the sea wall from the bay. No need to slip those lines just yet!
I can highly recommend the octopus and the clams in Galicia….delicious.
