Corpus Christi

These are additional photos that should be with the next post. Still learning!!

CORPUS CHRISTI

CORPUS CHRISTI
‘Hey Jen’
‘Yes Dave’
‘What are all those people doing over there in their re t-shirts?’
‘Can’t see, Dave. They are behind a wall.’
‘They have sacks of stuff. Maybe they are cleaning the streets or fixing the road.’
‘Don’t know, Dave, we can look tomorrow when we go ashore.’
So tomorrow came and it was time to go and get ready for Mass at midday. Puttered in the dinghy trying not to get wet as we were in our best bib and tucker as it was Corpus Christi Day – very important day for us. When we got ashore we were a bit early so started to look around and then all the red t-shirts became self evident. Everywhere through the old part of the town there were groups of people decorating the streets. Over the last couple of days we had seen groups of women sitting in the little squares with boxes of flowers and greenery they were shredding into other boxes, but I did not have the words to ask what they were doing mutilating flowers. Now it was obvious. Patterns had been drawn on the pavement and filled in with coloured flowers. They were stunning. Further along the decorations were in some sort of coloured sand and silvery metal, further along patterns in the tiniest of crushed stones. All along the route of the Corpus Christi procession the pavement was carpeted, must have been the best part of half a mile or more. At various points along the way little later were set up and decorated, there is one in the pictures. We found out that Mass was at 7 pm followed by the procession, so after taking photos of some of the work, went back to the boat to rest up ready to come back in the evening.
Mass was amazing, especially as there was a visiting choir and the music was subtly tinged with the cadences of the local music and so very moving. Then the procession formed up ready to take the Blessed Sacrament around the town. The banners came out for the various organisations associated with the church, the local band took up position and the new communicants from last week formed up in their first communion outfits. At the rear of the children were two little angels and the world’s smallest altar boy-to-be – look for them in the photos. The procession set off down the hill from the church, a slow and dignified pace, with the band keeping everyone in slow time. This was the cue for the rocket launcher on the quayside to start letting off his rockets with amazing loud bangs. No health and safety here, just a car bootload of rockets being let of 4 at a time all the time of the procession, which took nearly 2 hours. The Blessed Sacrament was processed by the priests under the canopy, and the 6 chaps holding it up kept time by clunking the poles down on the pavement each step. Down the main street and along the flower strewn carpetway, past the little squares in the old part of town and back up the steps to the church.
There were so many people about it was hard to get any photos, so I have done the best I can. The church dates from the 13th Century with additions till the 16th century and is mostly unchanged from that time. None of the modernist asceticism here, statues everywhere and all still looked after with love and reverence. We are on one of the pilgrim routes for Santiago de Compostela so Dave was pleased to find his mate St James had a place in the church. One thing I have learned to tell people is that Dave is a bone fide pilgrim, which means a lot here, and that the hat badges are for real not a tourist copy. They are most impressed

Having trouble with pictures hope these com eout too!

MUROS

PORTOSIN
Having decided it was time to move, we started to get the boat ready. The plan was to get the bread on the Monday morning and then toddle over to Portosin later in the day. However, it started to rain, and Dave is allergic to rain now ( I don’t much fancy it either). Then the wind got up, so we decided tomorrow would be better. Tomorrow came and if anything was worse than the day before – thumbs down on that day too. Wednesday came and went as the weather was windy and rainy. By now we were low on just about everything as the dinghy had been put up on the boat on Monday, and we weren’t in the mood to put it out again in the rain. Then the water ran out of the tanks and we had to dig the bottled stuff out. So it had to be Thursday. Thursday morning was overcast but fine. So quick bowl of cereal and we were off to Portosin. We managed to get over and sorted out, up to town for bread for lunch before the rain came. That saw us lugging the washing to the laundry in the wet, and was it wet!
So here we are and there is wi-fi so there is blog.
The plan is to fuel up tomorrow and leave the following day or so to continue further down the coast to Bayona, with a couple of overnight anchors on the way.
Portosin is a little marina in part of a fishing port. The fishing boats here tend to be on the large side as they are built to go out into the Atlantic. They are supposed to slow down when they come in, but usually it is at warp factor 9 and we get to bounce about a bit. We have been followed over by another English couple who are not best impressed by the rainy weather – we are just calling it Mull weather and know it will get back to being roasting again. The marina girls are excellent and speak English, French and German fluently. They are also having a laugh trying to help me learn some more Spanish. The laundry was a trial though, took forever as I had saved it all up till we got here. From now on it will be was a we go!
The little village ia bout a mile away and has the basic little shops. I am still trying to find a post office as I have some snail mail to send. To all of you who have sent e-mail by MMVY5@sailmail,com I give you many thanks as

SCILLIES AND FROGS

This may not be the most politically corresct blog as I live with an ex-navy chap who cannot be trained off some ingraines behavioiur. It is like this. We arrived in the Scillies and took up a buoy in the lovely harbour at St Mary,s and looked around at our fellow travellers.
-Hey Jen
-Yes Dave
-The place is full of frogs!!
And it was obvioius that he was not referring to the hopping croaking kind. ALl around us were boats with the French ensign - we are very much in the minority. This is not a problem as the town is full of Brits. But there are some intereting customs they bring with them, apart from shouting louder than everyone else. I soon learned you do not glance over at a man standing on the aft deck - he may be doing something unmentionable. And then there is the squeezebox which comes out in the evening. It may be music to some, but I have my doubts. The worst of all for us old codgers and early sleepers was the arrival at midnight of what seemed to be an armada, all crashing through the moorings oin the dark and shouting, when there were no moorings to be had. Not to be daunted they went out a bit and regrouped and a full frontal assault was made to raft up alongside any boat that could be found, including us. Crash, bang wallop and a torrent of indecipherable French and we had a not so welcome guest alongside. It wasn't so bad really I suppose, it was just that we were woken from a really lovely sleep and had to appear in our jim-jams. Well, Dave, being the manly one did - I took the tactical decision to accept fate and go back to bed. All was resolved in the morning when the sun shne bright and hot and everyone sorted themselves out. However, we learned a lesson and when we saw a yacht coming in flying the same RNSA ensign as ours, we invitied them alongside as we knew all the buoys were taken. They were a lovely couple about our vintage and we had a nice time with them till they moved off next day when a buoy became free.
Town was excellent, and the laundrette does the washing for you - no waiting to feed money into machines, brilliant. The parcels and mail duly arrived at the harbour Office and so now we are all rested and fixed up for the next leg down to Spain. We are crossing fingers that the forecast provides an accurate prediction as it should do us proud.
Talking of proud - the new dinghy is absolutley wonderful. Launching it with the pole over the die worked really well, it goes well and even rows well as I found out when we ran out of fuel half way to the jetty, and I was ion the rowing seat.
We are now about to retrieve it and stow it again as it is time to be off and on the lovely blue water again.