We arrived and anchored in Camarinas, had a lovely evening meal in the town after an afternoon at the beach and then went to sleep on-board. Next morning we had a lie-in with a lovely relaxing lunch, again in the town and despite the continuing overnight brisk wind. When we returned to Yves at 3pm, we found her anchor had inexplicably lost its hold on the sea bed and horrifically she was beached 500 metres from where we had left her! Literally beached!!! We got there minutes after she had touched the sand, but she was stuck fast, we tried everything to get her off, fearing we would lose her, our home and all our dreams there and then.

But we should have put the lottery on because she sat between rocks, 20 metres each side, yet she beached on soft golden sand and she was still in one metre of water at low tide (6pm), so didn't hit the ground to damage her port side either. We lived on the walls for a while and we got her off at about 9:45pm when the tide came back in.

What an absolute nightmare. Sorry for the long post, but this is a short summary of events, which included me being interviewed by a Galician regional newspaper.

Also a big THANK YOU to:
– Giles Rezzoagli, a wonderful French gentleman from a neighbouring yacht who helped turn her with our dinghy and a long rope – We hope you enjoy the wine!
– Camarinas Search and Rescue who turned up in the afternoon and gave us some sensible advice in a very calming way and helped get her anchor out 50 metres into the bay with our tender, which again helped us turn her seaward when she floated.

We are all fine, Lotty was fantastic, managing to follow my quick-fire shouted instructions whilst trying to get her off the beach at the beginning. Hector and Phoebe-Plum were amazing, waiting patiently in a boat at a silly angle and unable to stand up for nearly six hours. Yves is amazingly totally undamaged, not a creak or a bump from her from start to finish.

We will never know why the anchor broke free. We had more than enough chain out, but it's an old design. I need to thoroughly investigate this to ensure it never happens again. I can't wait to be off this Galician death coast – Costa da morte…

We set sail for Porto a few days later after a wonderful but eventful stay in Camarinas, a place we will never forget.