GALICIA RALLY 1995

Peter Aitchison

The word `Rally' first conjures up a picture of a series of social meetings taking place during, say, a weekend. By this yardstick the Galicia Rally organised by Alfredo Lagos would be better described as a cruise in company but, as is well known, many individualist members of the OCC would recoil in horror at the thought of a cruise in company. Anyhow, over a period of eleven days in August 1995 some twenty members of the OCC and their crew sailed from Bayona to Corcubi¢n in North West Spain. Along the way we paused at peaceful, unspoiled, offshore island anchorages and shared in a splendid series of parties and evening dinners at historic castles, palaces and other unusual locations, all privately owned and unavailable to tourists.

As well as the OCC contingent there were a number of Spanish, Portuguese and North American yachts which brought average numbers to about forty, and together we sampled some of the best in Spanish food and wine in superb surroundings. This part of the Spanish coast is rather like `Scotland in the sun', with a strong Celtic tradition and a reputation for being the rainfall capital of Spain. Indeed before the arrival of cheap Asian imports it was also the rainwear and umbrella manufacturing capital of Spain. However, rain obligingly falls between October and May and for almost the whole of the Rally sailing conditions were perfect, with the wind firmly out of the north-east at 10-15 knots in Bayona where we began, gusting up to 35-40 knots as we beat into Corcubi¢n, our last port of call, tucked behind the notoriously windy Cape Finisterre.

To report fully on each location would make boring reading, but special mention must go to Alfredo Lagos and his family for their hospitality at the supper party in the garden of their home on the first night. Thereafter by day we proceeded generally to windward up the coast, beating through rocky passages into unspoiled rias (rias in Spain = lochs in Scotland = fjords in Norway) to meet the families of Gil de la Pena, Se¤oras Filocha de la Senra y Gasser and Don Francisco and Do¤a Celia Diaz Marquez, owners of unspoiled castillos and palacios where we further extended our growing appreciation of the best in Spanish food, wine and queimada -- a sort of Galician `instant calvados' made principally from burning raw alcohol, apples and sugar -- served hot.

Towards the end of the Rally, Aurelio Fernandez, OCC Port Officer Representative for La Coruna, laid on a `typical local fiesta' -- lunch in a clearing by the Rio Tambre, sheltered from a very hot day by a eucalyptus grove, where we consumed sardines by the hundred and paella from what must have been one of the bigger paella dishes in Spain. After three hours of lunch, and whilst some took their siesta, others toured the hydro-electric station and leapt off a nearby suspension bridge to cool off in the river -- que formidable.

So, when is your next opportunity to join a Galicia Rally? Well, we attended the last one in 1985 and have already made a reservation for 2005. Alfredo Lagos, our Port Officer Representative for Vigo, is one of the OCC's earliest appointments -- his friendship with the Club goes back to the early post war years when English yachtsmen in Spain were uncommon on the Galician coast. At that time our founder Hum Barton first met Alfredo's father and, as this year Alfredo's own son Alfredo junior was much in evidence, given a fair wind it is certainly probable that there will be future chances for OCC members to visit Galicia for another unusual summer cruise with such good friends.