Rounding Finisterre - the End of the World

A Coruna to Viana do Costello

We decided that we had seen a brief weather window for the next leg of our trip and this leg was quite a daunting one in that we needed to get around the headland (top northwest corner) of Spain and around past the notorious Finisterre Rock.  Finisterre is renowned or notorious for fierce storms and seas and indeed the Romans thought it marked the end of the world.

Lagoon 45 passes by us 

Stock photo of Finisterre - it was dark!

As we left the dock and raised the sails we had our first minor rigging issue.  The shackle at the end of the boom came away and we also managed to break a rope clutch on the reef line.  After some maneuvers and work, managed to replace the shackle and rig a temporary solution for the reef line.  We were then able to make way.  The winds were not too cooperative so we were motor sailing, but making progress.  During the night as usually is the case, the winds clocked on to our nose and we had to drop the sails to avoid flogging.  We motored on through the night.  The sea state was not pleasant at all and progress was slow but steady.  Hard to say what our speed was as the boat slowed to less than 4 kts going up the big disorganized swells, then raced to 7 or so on the downhill side.  Winds stayed in the high teens, to low 20s with occasional bigger puffs.

Unfortunately it was dark as we rounded the notorious rock, but we had a sad reminder of the fierce nature of the seas.  We heard announcement of distress calls in Spanish and English.  Unfortunately a fisherman had been lost overboard and all mariners were asked to keep a look-out.  We saw search and rescue operations in progress - a 230 ft long boat appeared on the scene from somewhere.  The announcements continued through the night until we were no longer in radio range of Finisterre.  

As daylight came, it was cloudy with some rain.  The coastline was changing to smaller hills.  We decided to pull in at Viana do Costollo in Portugal - we had made it beyond the end of the world and were ready for some rest.

Viana do Costello

The marina is located on a river and since our plan was to stay just one night we stayed on the reception pontoon.  The weather was settled and this was ok.  The town of Viana was very friendly, neat and well decorated for Christmas, with piped music throughout the town streets. 

Definitely a roman flavor to this town with great architecture and quaint streets.  They had even put out the red carpet for us!

We wandered the streets, visited some extremely ornate churches; of course we found a bar or two and then scoped out a restaurant for dinner.  Getting used to the European way of things with timing of meals etc is a bit different.  The town tends to close for a long lunch around 1 pm, then again, things start to close at around 4pm and the restaurants start to open at 7pm.  But we are slowly figuring this all out!

We had a wonderful dinner at "Three Pottes" which we found a recommendation for.  It was excellent - the crew all shared Fondue before turning in for a well needed rest.

Povoa da Varzim (Dec 22, 2018)

After and overnight stay in Viana, we headed south with the goal of making Porto.  Unfortunately the seas were very disorganized and while not huge, we were crashing and slamming in the pouring rain with winds around 20.  It supposed to get better after Finisterre!  What's happened!!!

Making very slow progress in the churned up messy seas, I elected to cut our day short and try heading in to Varzim - its always good to have a bail-out plan!  The entrance was a little tricky in the high swells with wind from the south.  We were surfing in on rollers reaching up to 11 kts in speed.  We made it in ok and found a spot in the marina.  First we were told the marina was closed, then we were offered a discount to stay!.....i am not sure what the initial confusion was but the people are nice - another great town, but more of a summer seaside resort I would say.  Not so picturesque as Viana, but still seems great.  We will do more exploring tonight.  We did have perhaps our best meal of the trip so far last night at a restaurant called Theatro - very much recommend this place if you make it to these parts!

Downtown Pavoa de Varzim