Moana, Ria de Vigo then Ensenada de San Simon

Wednesday 26th August

Spending a few days in the Ria trying still to sort out our permission to visit the Islas Cies. This is harder than getting a Galapagos license! In actual fact the process is not hard, just not well documented or publicised. None of the UK pilots or almanacs seem to have it and even much of the Spanish advice has been a wealth of misinformation. A kind lady at Cangas marina called Bea rang the Parcs Nacionales on our behalf, took our documents, photocopied and faxed them through for us - now a waiting game. This gives us the general navigating permission. Once we get that, we have to apply for the anchoring permission (fondear) for the specific days we want - difficult as dependent on weather forecasts (they are quite exposed) and we are now keen to get to Bayona and thence across the border into Portugal.

Updates when we get a better connection....