Baiona

1st/2nd March

My father was the navigator in the Bermuda to Baiona Transatlantic Race in a beautiful Swan yacht called War Baby. The race was in the early 70's and I was allowed to join the boat in Baiona and crew it back to Cowes week. A trip that was to cement my life long passion for sailing. I was about 16. I asked my Mum on the phone last week how come our strict Father allowed me to do this. Her response. "If it was to do with sailing it was fine"! And so it was. A very tiring train journey with 2 friends from our local yacht club in Hythe. I think it took 2 full days but we were in sit up seats and the trains were very slow and climbed up all the big mountain ranges slower than we could walk. All the boats had been becalmed for many days so were behind in their finishing times and my Dad hadn't yet arrived. We spent the next day on the ramparts of the castle above the Yacht club watching the boats come around the headland. I remember it well.

When War Baby finally arrived, I hardly recognised my father. The crew of 8 men and one girl, (the owner's daughter) had spent their days starkers so he was mahogany brown and had become 'one of the boys'. Not a term I would normally have associated him with.

I remember the couple of days spent there preparing War Baby for her sail to Cowes. The excitement of being one of the crew in this large fleet of very exotic boats and people. There was a big celebration in the castle the night before we sailed and in my youth as well as the atmosphere of that evening, I thought this was one of the most romantic places in the world. So I am back. And today we walked the castle's ramparts and I took a trip down memory lane. Something like 41 years ago but the place is still lovely and I am glad to have come back.





























We are moored up on a site on a spit of land overlooking the marina. It is exorbitantly priced at €24 a night including the 35% off peak discount. But another great spot and surrounded by water on 3 sides.

Christopher Columbus arrived here in 1493 on his return from having discovered America, so there is a big medieval celebration over the weekend closest to March 1st every year, and tonight the town is swinging. But we will be moving on tomorrow as we still have other sites to see.


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Location:Just south of Vigo