(Re) Visiting Vigo

Saturday 20 January 2024

Last night we sat on the quayside and watched yachts sailing in the estuary between Moaña, on the northern side, and Vigo, on the southern side. 

Almost 40 years ago, when Dave was in his twenties, he sailed into Vigo with my dad on Ocean Venture, a 43ft Oyster yacht which he and dad had fitted out.

That was Dave’s first delivery trip and Vigo was the first port they stopped at after setting sail from Britain, heading for Turkey, where it would be chartered out. Biscay was kind to them and he remembers Vigo fondly as they received a wonderfully warm welcome from the local yacht club - Real Club Nautico. The bar was busy when we walked past it today as it was all those years ago.

Driving into cities in Spain can be a little stressful, not because of the drivers, who we’ve found to be very careful and considerate, but because parking is a huge issue. So we decided to take the short ferry across the estuary - it costs €2.40 per person, runs every hour and takes just 15 minutes.

Arriving in a busy harbour by boat is always interesting, massive cargo ships dwarfed the tiny Optimist dinghies, ferries taking tourists out to the Cies Islands changed course slightly to give way to yachts under sail. Rules of the road apply out in the open water as they do when you’re behind the wheel of a vehicle. 

Vigo was an interesting city, we walked up to the fortifications at Castelo do Castro from where you can see for miles. And we sat in a cafe drinking coffee and enjoying a little pastry treat whilst watching the massive Christmas tree in the central plaza being taken down by crane. 

Back in the harbour waiting for our return ferry to come alongside I noticed how small the entrance was to the inner harbour where dad and Dave tied up for the night. When you approach or enter a harbour you should always keep the red buoys or markers to the left (port side) of the boat. 

And how do you remember which side is your port side and which side is your starboard side? Well there’s a simple sentence to remember …. ‘There’s no RED PORT LEFT in the bottle’ 

Coincidentally that’s where we are now heading … Adios Spain 🇪🇸 (for now) and Olá Portugal 🇵🇹