We had a good sailing wind from WNW, motoring into the wind from Baiona before setting the sails to round the Islotes Carallones and Islotes Seralleiras in a lumpy sea. We turned up into the Ria de Vigo with the wind abaft the beam and had a nice downwind sail alongside the traffic separation zone almost all the way to the marina.
One has to pass under a bridge just beyond Vigo before entering a wide and shallow lagoon area, all of which is a marine reserve. So before reaching the bridge we pulled in the fishing line (a marine reserve is our best chance of catching a fish but is illegal!)
We also reefed the sails shortly before the bridge – after the experience recounted by John and Debbie where the wind accelerated massively when they reached the bridge. We couldn’t see any white tops but still took the precaution.
However for us the wind lost strength as we went under the bridge. It is always strange sailing under a bridge – although this one was clearly way above our mast.
And as we entered the lagoon we were escorted by half a dozen dolphins. They hadn’t come to play – they were just heading in the same direction and very slowly and gracefully overtook us from behind.
Shortly afterwards, in the marina, parked next to Shiraz, we witnessed the small pod fishing – occasionally leaping out of the water, just outside the marina and on one occasion inside, just behind us.