A Coruña

This morning we’ll set off from A Coruña having spent 2 days here in one of its marinas. It took a good few hours for my brain, and legs, to adjust to being on solid land after five days out at sea, pitching, rolling, swaying and surging with the waves motion.

On arrival on Friday we put up the yellow quarantine flag and, after checking in at the marina office, we walked to find the Immigration and Customs Offices in the centre of the city. It’s important to get the formalities done correctly as ‘we’ are subject to the strict 90/180 Schengen visa rules and the ‘boat’ gets a generous, and easily extendable, 18 month Temporary Admission. 

Staff in both offices were polite and efficient - we still don’t seem to be fully on the Entry/Exit System (EES) yet as we’ve never had our fingerprints taken, only the facial recognition part. Conscious the offices shut early in the afternoon, and it was Friday, we’d dashed straight in looking quite windswept and in dire need of a shower. The Passport Police guy, a man of few (English) words, shouted ‘BACK’ at me as he obviously couldn’t get all of my wild unkempt hair in his facial recognition screen. The Temporary Admission document is one of those forms that’s been photocopied by the staff a hundred times, each one getting more feint, wonky and illegible, but it has an official stamp and a date on it so it’s been added to our big bag of Ships Papers. We’re now free to travel between all the European Countries and just need to change the courtesy flag to reflect the country we’re in.

A Coruña is the second largest city in Galicia sitting on an isthmus with the commercial shipping port and marinas on one side and the 13km long Paseo Marítimo (maritime promenade) and the Atlantic facing sandy beach on the other. In between is the historic Old Town with pedestrianised cobbled streets, large open squares and many imposing religious buildings. Its architecture reflects its maritime heritage and its Roman roots. A 50 minute walk to one headland brings you to Hercules Tower, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the oldest working Roman lighthouse. A popular tourist attraction it dates back to the rule of Emperor Trajan in the 2nd century AD and it was extensively renovated in 1791.

We’re heading south now to a small bay where we will try out the shiny new anchor  - it’s heavier and a different design to the one which came with the yacht. Here’s hoping it grips well and we can have a quiet stress-free night once we know it’s well and truly dug in.