We had heard that it is possible to take one of their mooring balls but we did not enquire about those (we may as well anchor for free rather than pay for one of those).
We opted for a slime line, as we needed to practice our “Med. mooring technique (not to mention that the difference would buy a very nice bottle of wine in a Galician restaurante!)
We had radioed ahead and a marinero came to help. In very calm conditions we could have coped without assistance, but today a slight but lively swell was entering the marina and we had a strong cross wind. It did not help that the marinero directed us to moor next to a pile, but with his help we coped.
We reversed up to the pontoon. The marinero passed the slime line to Val and Paul passed the windward stern line to the marinero. This was followed by the leaward line, but it was important to get the windward line attached quickly so that Paul could motor against it and keep the stern off the pontoon – and (using prop. wash off the rudder) away from the pile.
Whilst Paul was doing this Val walked the slime line forward to the bow and pulled on it to keep the stern off the quay (after the engine is switched off). With the propeller still running to keep us off the pontoon Paul walked forward to lend some muscle to Val and pull in the slime line and attach it to a bow cleat. That done we can turn off the engine, 16 euro duly earned!
That said, we still had to jump the gap between boat and pontoon every time we got off the boat. We also had to keep an eye on the tide adjust the stern lines as the tide rose and fell. In the Mediterranean this type of mooring is the norm, but there is little tide to speak of. Here there is over 2m of tide. This means that as the tide rises the boat can be pulled tighly between slime and stern lines, risking popping off a cleat (especially with a swell). And at low tide the opposite happens – the slime line goes slack and the boat can bump into the pontoon. This is obviously more of an issue at springs than at neaps tides. So some of the 16e is earned by keeping an eye on the tide and not being away from the boat for too many hours on end!