We left Bilbao on the high-tide – being all the way up river we needed the extra depth of water – and made full speed to LaCoruna, hugging the lee of Basque coastline, avoiding head winds. On my 42nd birthday in LaCoruna, the crew surprised me with balloons, cake and bubbly – they sang to me.
Wind had shifted to Easterly when it came to sailing and we rounded Finisterre (the end of the earth), close up to the coast with all the canvas out – doing 12 knots. Pulled into Ria de Arousa where there are mussel farms contaminated by red-tide. It occurs more frequently due to warming of the sea by climate change.
Just a little further south is Cangas, in the Ria de Vigo. We sailed in to Cangas, struck the sails, and held position off an old whaling factory and fishing community that is on the brink of change. Campaigners landed and joined in solidarity with fishermen protesting against the proposed development of yet another environmentally destructive Spanish tourist resort. I found it amusing that it was from this factory that the Spanish whaling fleet worked out of in the 70’s when the first Rainbow Warrior took action against them and was arrested on the high-seas, then held in Ferrol (near LaCoruna) for six months before making a famously dramatic escape. Weather was just right for restricted manoeuvring off the small harbour mouth – to me a little miracle.
We carried on down the west coast of Spain to reach the Guadalquivir river (from which Magellan sailed), taking a local pilot we made the six hour river navigation to the old city of Seville. We are campaigning for the climate and Spanish tourism is already being affected by extreme temperatures, the increase in mosquitos (maybe malaria). I stepped ashore to wander the Alcazar, to admire enormous Moorish doors and intricate mosaic. Activists attempted to hang a banner from the Torre del Oro (the gold tower) where Spanish Galleons delivered cargoes of gold. The police, fire-brigade and Special Forces came down heavy-handed on the activists – there seems to be no freedom from fascism.
We left through the only lock in Spain (that is managed by a Dutch man) back down the river and around to the bay of Gibraltar where we drew close to Algeciras to pick up a crew-member. Half of the cargo-ship ‘Fedra’ was still on the rocks at Europa point (last year we were caught in the same storm that ran her on the rocks and passed close up to the wreck, the smell of diesel and the oil slick, just a few hours after the event,).
From Europa point we set sails to a westerly force-seven, the waves were five meters high and Rainbow Warrior moved magnificent among them for two days. It calmed down by the time we passed Alicante and last night there were squalls, we reefed in time, boat heeled over to 40 knots of wind, and whilst this was happening the full moon appeared, producing a moon rainbow – all the colours of the rainbow where in it. Today, just north of Ibiza, the wind died and we went swinging off the fore-boom into the water beside the boat. Now we motor the final distance in to Barcelona. This year it is Greenpeace Spain’s 25 birthday.
