Flashing yellow

As expected we had to motor for the remainder of the crossing in light winds through a lumpy sea left over from the unexpected gale.

With the prevalence of AIS (Automatic Identification System) to identify shipping it is easy to be lulled into watch-keeping from the screen but a couple of incidents re-enforced the need to continue to use MK 1 eyeball as well.  Early evening, I spotted a large coil of rope floating on the surface about 30m abeam of us. Hejira is actually fitted with a rope cutter on the propeller shaft which may have dealt with the situation but contact is certainly best avoided in the same way it is best not to test the air bags in your car!

The other incident was encountered before dawn this morning on our approach to Ribadeo. I spotted a number of vessels not transmitting an AIS signal but showing flashing yellow lights. According to the ‘Collision Regs’ these should be hovercraft but half a dozen, off the coast of Spain? Hmm don’t think so. Assuming this is some sort of code for a type of local fishing activity, the Almanac and pilot book were consulted but couldn’t help (I have seen them used for ‘collision avoidance’ on submarines) and even ‘Captain Cooke’ was at a loss. By that time I had already given them a very wide berth so I guess they had done the job.

Incidentally, while on the subject of AIS, if anyone has been monitoring our progress through the tracking apps, we will have disappeared for a couple of days. This is not because we have sunk or been abducted by aliens, we have simply been out of range on our crossing from Royan. AIS works on the VHF frequency and has a limited range so once offshore, away from the repeating shore station, we will have disappeared. Incidentally, yachts have a much shorter range than larger shipping as they are on a more basic level of AIS.

It was strange that we could smell the land before we could see our destination. I could only describe it as resembling cow dung, Dave was slightly more refined saying it reminded him of silage.

We passed under an impressive road bridge as the sun broke through having logged 279 miles from Royan. We arrived in the marina at 0920 and were greeted by a helpful ‘Marinero’ beckoning us onto the first hammerhead inside the entrance. Too early for a ‘dirty beer’, it will have to be a dirty coffee and croissant.