Logbook – Gijon to Luarca 14 Aug 19
With steadily growing winds the trip West from Gijon was entertaining. We started under engine until the breeze started to lift and by early afternoon we had all sails up and a reef in the main.
The sea breeze seems to build consistently every day and can be 25kts by 1800.
This creates a strong W, NW swell and so with limited range and a rising swell we decided stop early and as the light was falling in a harbour called lurch.
As we turned SW into the bay, the swell was on the beam making the sea uncomfortable. We expected the swell to drop as we came closer to the harbour but the relief didn’t really come. Normally I have over the helm to prepare the boat for aching but the well was choppy and holding a course was quite challenging.
Luarca is also quite a tricky entrance with several rocks on the entrance. The plan was to look for an anchorage to the NW of the entrance as indicated by both the pilot book and Navily.
But as we arrived, there was no place to anchor and a net was cutting off the potential anchorage to allow swimmers to wild swim.
Plan B was a set of mooring buoys to the SE of the entrance. Unfortunately these no longer lay in the harbour. Typically you tie to a buoy and then run a line to the shore. In this case and with little chance of another boat arriving, we anchored parallel to the wall with a stern anchor stopping us from swinging.
As was common to many of the harbours we entered this week, there seemed to be a festival ongoing. These started late in the evening and then continued until the small hours. Luarca seemed transfixed with 1980’s pop with a particular fetish for Jason Donovan. Apparently there are too many broken hearts in the world!!!
Another broken night’s sleep!