Saints, Sinners and the "Coast of Death"

A Coruña is the major city in Galicia, the northwest region of Spain. The Real Club Nautico A Coruña is conveniently located in the heart of the Old Town and the day we pulled into the marina the sun greeted us without a cloud in the sky. What a welcome omen for what was sure to be an enjoyable stay! After showers and a much needed siesta from our overnight sail we set off exploring the Old Town. The streets were narrow and cobblestone with boutiques, bars and restaurants and beautiful plazas in great abundance.
On one of our walks we discovered you may leave Texas but "Texas never really leaves you"! If you zoom in on the picture of the building with the banners it seems we just missed seeing the Houston Ballet. Along the perimeter of the harbor and coastline a walkway with small parks stretched for several miles. Every afternoon, after siesta, the streets and walkway were crowded with families and couples out for strolls. Our plans were to spend several days in A Coruña. Fortunately the rain clouds stayed away and we had sunshine the whole time. However it was good we planned an extended stay because offshore the winds howled nonstop at gale force levels. A Coruña is also a favorite stop on cruise ship itineraries and each day of our stay a different ship was docked just off our port. Unfortunately, try as we might, we could never get the attention of one of the drink boys to bring us an Umbrella Drink!
One our third day in A Coruña we took the train for the one hour trip to Santiago de Compostela, one of the most revered places in Christianity. Each year thousands of pilgrims trek several hundred miles across northern Spain by foot, horseback or bike to visit the town and famous cathedral, the burial place of St. James.
Many thousands more, like us, arrive by train. To quote travel writer Rick Steves, "The best destination in the northwestern province of Galicia, Santiago de Compostela might well be the most magical city in Spain. This place has long had a powerful and mysterious draw on travelers--- as more than a thousand years' worth of pilgrims have trod the desolate trail across the north of Spain just to peer up at the facade of its glorious cathedral." How could any self respecting tourist, or Christian for that matter, pass this up? Anyway the story of St James goes something like this. After the Crucifixion of Jesus the apostles spread out and brought his message to other lands. James chose northwest Spain and preached there for several years. After returning to the Holy Land he was beheaded but before his body could be fed to the lions it was rescued by two of his disciples who brought the body back to Spain and buried it in a secret place. His body lay undiscovered for 800 years when a monk guided by the stars and a vision discovered the grave and the local bishop proclaimed it to be that of James. From that the rest as they say is history. Santiago is Spanish for St. James and the Cathedral and town grew along with the legend. We enjoyed our day touring the city, it’s wonderful market
where we realized Spain was not taking the Swine flu epidemic seriously, excellent seafood and, of course, the Cathedral. The Cathedral is beautiful and inside is St. James’ tomb where he is enshrined in a silver chest. As is the custom, we said our thanks and a small prayer. And what did we pray for? Good health for our loved ones and safe travels for us for the winds were now in our favor and tomorrow we face “The Coast of Death”.
The Coast of Death, Costa de la Muerta, is the stretch of coast extending south from A Coruña to Bayona. It’s where the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic converge and is known as the Costa de la Muerta because so many ships have been wrecked along the rugged coast. How would we and Lone Star handle the two day journey? We slipped the lines at 10AM on May 5th and ventured out once more. We anxiously looked at the skies. Ok – so the sun was shining, the sky was cloudless and the most winds we encountered over the two day period was 10 knots which of course was mostly on the nose. A 2 day uneventful motor sail. The first night after a 54 nautical mile journey we spent a peaceful evening anchored off the fishing village of Camarinas. After a second day of mostly motoring; this time 75 nautical miles, we arrived in Bayona, just north of the Spain/Portugal border and were tucked in at the Montes Real Club de Yates by 5PM. The Coast of Death – conquered by yet another sailing vessel. Thank you St. James!

San Sebastian to La Coruña SPAIN

View San Sabastian to La Coruna SPAIN in a larger map

The Rain in Spain Does NOT Fall Mainly on the Plain!

We can assure you – whoever wrote those famous lyrics had never been to Spain in April or at least to the Northern Coast! It’s been a little over a week since our last update and there is a good reason why the Northern Coast of Spain is lush and green – rain.

On Sunday, April 26th we departed from San Sebastian in route to Zumaya. Zumaya is a small fishing village that is about a half mile up the Rio Urola and we were told it had an excellent marina for visiting boats. You would think a two hour journey would be a piece of cake. Well, in this case it was windy, on the nose, and rough with confused waves up to two meters. We decided to motor the distance and felt like we were on a trawler. Lone Star was rocking back and forth and on reflection we would probably have been a lot more stable if we had rolled out the main. That would have been so tough. We would have had to push two buttons, but what can we say. We’re Aggies.

Anyway after two rough hours and an exciting entry into the river channel we were once again in calm water and found Marina Urola to be quite nice.
That was fortunate and on Sunday afternoon the skies cleared and we enjoyed a Basque open boat rowing regatta. There were five or six teams from different towns rowing these open boats in races that were about a mile long. It was quite a festive occasion with carnival rides, vendors, and all the locals dressed in traditional Basque outfits.


As happens frequently our stay changed from two days to four because of weather. Sunday’s sun was the last we saw for four days. As the rains fell and gale force winds howled off shore we hunkered down safe and sound in the marina and enjoyed the local life of a small Basque fishing village. Our original plans were to bounce down the northern coast stopping a various inlets and marinas along the way. However, it was quickly becoming obvious that Mother Nature had other ideas. Since plans were to meet our daughter Jennifer in Lisbon on May 21st we had a limited amount of time and with the weather not cooperating we changed tacks.

The new plan was to make as much distance as possible when we got a decent weather window and then when we are stuck in a location to tour via train what we missed and wanted to see. So with the new plan in action on our 3rd day in Zumaya we used the new time to sample the Spanish train system for a trip to Bilbao and it was a fun experience. We were told that the Spanish train system is less than reliable, but we found it to be on time and quite pleasant. The trains here in Basque land are also narrow gauge, but are not at all like the one that runs in Colorado. They are modern and smooth.

The train to Bilbao (what would have been our next port of call) to visit the Guggenheim Museum was two hours followed by a 15 minute tram ride to the Guggenheim.
What an amazing museum. While the art inside is interesting, the real attraction is the building itself. The museum reminds you of sails billowing in the wind. Inside there are no straight walls – everything is on a curve.
Our favorite exhibit was outside in front of the museum and appropriately titled “Puppy”. Originally commissioned to be a temporary exhibit, it proved so popular it is now permanent – a 40 foot high topiary of a West Highland Terrier. Our favorite dog breed in all his/her/its glory. How kewl!

When the weather finally cooperated we departed Zumaya at 8:41 am on April 30th once again going out the Rio Urola. Our departure was considerably smoother than our arrival. Our destination was Santander a port 50 miles down the coast. Our plans were to drop the hook in a small bay just inside the harbor entrance so we could make a quick departure in the morning. The skies opened up the last hour of our journey and in moderate rain showers we successfully set the hook and were in the process of having our traditional celebratory beer when we heard the Santander Port Authorities hailing an American Sailing vessel anchored in the harbor. Uh-Oh! Correctly assuming the call was for us we responded and were told, even though the anchorage is clearly marked on the charts, that it was illegal to anchor in the harbor and we had to proceed a mile up the channel and take a slip at the marina. Back went the beers into the refrigerator and in what was now a driving downpour we raised anchor and did as requested. The marina it turns out was barely half full and we figured there was a definite scam going on to send business its way. Oh well, as it turns it was nice to be in a marina because the skies really opened up and the night turned quite nasty.

The next morning, Friday May 1, we departed at 7:05 bound for Gijon, a 76 nautical mile trip. The conditions for being offshore were great, but we started to wonder if we would ever be warm again. Of course if you consider we were at the same latitude as Boston, we should be cold!

We continued to be happy we had the diesel heater installed and it got a workout keeping the cabins warm. It was a beautiful day for sailing with minimal waves and light winds. After we got our morning weather reports we started discussing the possibility of skipping Gijon and sailing over night to A Coruña and around 1700 decided to go for it and settled in for what looked like a nice overnight sail. In this case it was a wonderful overnight sail and we were tied up safely in a slip at the Real Club Nautico A Coruña at 1240 on May 2. A Courña was to have been our final destination and where we had planned to winter the boat last year so after 7 months we finally made it!

La Rochelle FRANCE to San Sebastian SPAIN

View La Rochelle FRANCE to San Sebastian SPAIN in a larger map

The Start of Our 2009 Cruising Season

Welcome back to the first addition for 2009 of Lone Star Times. It is so nice to be writing this using all 10, well make that 9 7/8 digits! We restarted our adventure March 31st by doing the “planes, trains and automobile” routine in reverse from what we did in September when we rushed back to Texas. However, at the end of this journey, we walked to a local restaurant in La Rochelle, had a terrific dinner and shared a bottle of French wine instead of collapsing in Craig’s parent’s home; turning on the TV and watching Hurricane Ike render its wrath on the Gulf Coast. Afterwards we strolled back to the hotel and settled down for some much needed sleep. It seems Craig has lost his ability to go to sleep on a plane so neither of us had much sleep on the trip over.
The next morning (April 2nd) we were up early and drove to the marina to see Lone Star again. It was almost like starting over with a new boat. We wondered how much we would remember of what had been taught last summer, but we knew help was close by if we could not figure out some systems. Lone Star looked great and it was very satisfying to bring her back to life. We slowly worked through the process of turning the main batteries back on, going into the engine room to check the status of the sea water intake, condition of the equipment and various other steps one does when boarding a vessel after an absence. As expected everything was in perfect order and soon we had a fully functioning boat. Sectur Blanc, the company we hired to take care of Lone Star over the winter, did an excellent job of looking after her.
Craig will not want this to be well known, but since this is only to a few “close” friends, I will mention that he had Franck Chivé, from Sectur Blanc, come by and together they put the jib and staysail back on the furlers. Craig said Franck was there only to do the manual labor, however without Franck’s help the process would have taken much longer and no telling how long it would have taken Craig to figure out the correct way to do it.
Our plans were to spend two weeks in La Rochelle provisioning, reacquainting ourselves with the boat and waiting for the weather to warm up. As all cruisers know – the first thing you do is throw the schedule out the window! Two weeks stretched to three as we waited for Mother Nature to cooperate. It seems the definition of “spring” to folks over here is more like Texans’ definition of winter! Cold, wet and windy! We had to do some calculating to figure out that 10˚ Celsius is just 50˚ Fahrenheit and that was the high on many days. Fortunately we had plenty to occupy our time including meeting new friends Molly and Rob and Cléo their Golden Lab and official boat greeter, who had taken delivery on their Amel 54, “Cléo”, in March. We even managed to get a picture of the famous Cléo when she joined us for sundowners one evening. Molly and Rob, from Dublin, are friends of Dennis Woods who we met last summer. We spent several evenings sharing dinner and sundowners and stories which helped pass the days in La Rochelle. Molly and Rob plan to sail Cléo to Ireland and Scotland this summer and into the Med next season. Kaj and Lotta, from Sweden, who we met last summer also stopped by. They were in La Rochelle to check the progress on “Amelit”, their 54, which they take possession of in May. We enjoyed dinner together and learned they are taking Amelit back to Sweden this year and plan to start a circumnavigation in 2010. It will be interesting to see how everyone’s plans turn out. One other thing about being back on the Amel pontoon – everyone – from Amel employees to boat owners we had met and owners we hadn’t, knew about Jan’s accident and were very interested in the details and results.
Finally after waiting one extra week we got a decent weather window and after saying our good byes to the Amel folks with promises of not returning – unless we want to, we were off for an overnight sail to San Sebastian, Spain. We were definitely cruising again – very little wind and what little we had was on the nose. A beautiful, uneventful motor sail to San Sebastian. By 11:30 the next morning we were successfully tied up to the visitor’s pontoon in the San Sebastian harbor. No accidents, no blood, no missing body parts, and no boat scratches – we did it! Maybe we can cruise again.
San Sebastian is an absolute jewel of a port town. Located in the heart of Basque Country San Sebastian was once the holiday playground of the Spanish nobility and is now the heart of the Basque cooking revolution as well as the site for a major international film festival in September and a summer playground for the rich and not so rich. We were lucky and got a place on the visitors pontoon in the old fishing harbor and were able to walk everywhere in town. We ate lunch at this little restaurant that was less than 50 feet from our boat. Then we walked past the fishing fleet into the town to do the “tapas crawl” on two of the nights we were in the port. All of Spain is famous for its tapas, little bites, however in San Sebastian it has been elevated to an art form. Early each evening the agenda is the same. Folks hop from one bar to the next in the Old Town sampling the pinxtos (the name for tapas in Basqueland) and washing them down with a red wine, beer or the local drink Txakoli. Txakoli (pronounced Cha ko lee), a sparkling white wine, is poured with great fan fare. The bartender holds the bottle high above the glass as he pours the wine. Based on our in depth nightly research the bars are definitely in competition with one another in producing the best tapas spread. On the one good day of weather we walked the 2 mile promenade around the bay and rode up Mount Igueldo on the oldest funicular is this part of the world. However, it was nice to see the cars were updated!

On Saturday our third and last night in town we were lucky enough to get reservations at Arzak’s. For those of you, like us, who are Food Channel junkies, Arzak’s has been featured in several food channel specials. For those of you who actually have a life, Juan Arzak is a very famous chef in San Sebastian who has turned his family home into a restaurant and is at the forefront of the Basque cuisine revolution. Agreeing that the evening would cover birthdays and an anniversary, we arrived at 9:30 in the evening and did not leave until 12:30. We were astounded by the kinds of flavor we experienced as we partook in Arzak’s tasting menu. It is not an overstatement to say the flavor explodes in your mouth and, as would be expected, the food presentation was kicked up several notches.
Alas, after 3 days of way too much wonderful food we are leaving for Zumaya, 14 miles west. But more on that later.

When you know its time to go

We knew it was probably time to say goodbye to our friends Kathy and Mike when we came back to our bathroom (really their bathroom) on March 31st around noon and found our bathroom gutted. I guess they were trying to make sure we really were getting on the plane that afternoon. Anyway we are really appreciative of their hospitality for the month or so we were their house guests. However, removing the toilet was a little bit of an extreme way of letting us know it was time to go.

News from Houston and Preparing for the 2009 Cruising Season

Happy 2009 and greetings from Texas. Time has flown since our return to the States last September. House chores, hurricane repairs, reconnecting with friends and Jan's recuperation from her hand surgery kept us busy throughout the fall. Thanksgiving was quiet with a small dinner with Jan's mom, however Willow Point Drive was once again headquarters for Christmas. At one point 17 relatives were enjoying each others' company. Our daughters Jennifer and Jaime and Jaime's boyfriend Sky flew in from New York and Asheville, Craig's parents, sisters and brother in law came in from Phoenix and Henrietta, Jan's mom was with us and Jan's brother and his family drove in from San Antonio. We all had a great time being together and everyone had a blast with our newest toy - a Wii. If you haven't had the opportunity to play with a Wii, trust us, once you do you will be hooked.

In January we finally decided to put our house of 26 years in Kingwood up for sale. We had been wrestling with the decision for over a year and had finally come to the conclusion that with our nomadic lifestyle we needed a place we could "lock and leave". To our surprise we received an offer the first day the house was on the market was and had two competing offers by the time we were finished. As a result, on February 17th, we closed the sale, loaded the furniture into three PODS and the next day were begging our friends for a place to stay. Our girls say we are now "couch surfing". We haven't made any final decisions on where our new land base will be but for the next 18 months LONE STAR will be our home.

We fly back to France on March 31st and will be on board LONE STAR by April 2nd. We have posted our 2009 proposed Cruising Plan (of course all cruising plans are always subject to change and usually do) and are looking forward to getting started. We have once again become list people as we work to get everything we want to go to the boat ready and take care of all the last minute details in Houston.

We're not sure exactly when we will leave La Rochelle for the Spanish Basque country. We plan to wait until the weather warms up some before we depart and will spend the time provisioning, reacquainting ourselves with the various systems and taking the boat for some shake down sails before we once again slip the lines and head for new adventures. Hopefully this cruising season will be longer and less eventful than the last!