A Coruña

Apologies for a few days absent. Am on a deficit again. But having just caught up on an email, I realised it explained what I wanted to say in this update. So, with apologies to the original recipient...

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Hello XXXXXX and how nice to receive your message.

I'm well over the flu thank you and have made good miles these last days, yesterday arriving in A Coruña, where I will stay for a few days until this next low pressure blows through. It's been a rough winter, but like all of them will end at some point and some easier conditions will come along.

Landing in a city is great (and very welcome) in terms of support and (at first) borderline-overwhelming in terms of attention, so it is nice to have a few moments now to be on my own and writing to you seems like writing to a friend I've known for years.

The last couple of sails have been tough. Without the previous experience of Round Britain I'd be calling the first of them traumatic. A messy post-storm sea with a 4 metre swell and high cliffs for a 12nm stretch (Cariño to Cedeira). It seemed like the bigger swells were going to break, and heart-in-mouth moments were many. It wasn't a great idea to head out on a day like that but making progress on this coast, at this time of year, this year, seems to need the occasional decision when trusting in experience seems the only way forward. Not one to repeat, but the necessary wind held and a safe passage completed.

Then the next day offered the gift of a flat sea and despite one forecast of 30kn gusts it seemed too good to miss, so again I sailed. A long leg this time of 25nm, again compromising enough, with the last 5nm battling to reach land against the wind that had come in strong as warned.

Very pleasing, because every mile has only to be sailed once, and those were all difficult ones, but mentally and physically a double-hit like that leaves you tired.

So fine by me these next days are clearly unsailable. I'll recharge batteries and am finding help to check and repair gear - which all adds to peace of mind when on the water.

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Nb. The help referred to is coming from all quarters and people from all parts, nationalities, persuasions, orientations, accent, skin colour and football team are showing once again that human nature has much to recommend it. Keep buggering on folks (!), as a certain chap from Felixstowe has mentioned on a number of occasions.

Ps. Picture is of a lighthouse (the white fleck) on that first tricky stretch, which does at least show the scale of the cliffs. The swell, of course, always looks insignificant enough.