Blog 15: The Northern Spanish Coast Part 3 – Gijón to Navia

The next couple of weeks saw us making leisurely progress westwards, again stopping at some ‘off-the-beaten-track’ small ports, many of which were delightful spots. Many people ‘skip’ this part of our journey by heading straight across the Bay of Biscay diagonally, but we’re glad we didn’t miss this northern coast of Spain.
Luanca
Our first view of Luanca – quite an attractive little town with a surprisingly nice beach.
Here is Astraia anchored in the rather ‘loppy’ bay – although it looks perfectly still in the photo, there was a slight swell rolling in from the Atlantic all the time.  It was warm enough to swim back to the boat from this beach – quite a long way, took me about 15 minutes.  The slight swell rocked us to sleep at night!
The Church – nice atmosphere inside with an organist playing
The Square and Clock Tower
Interesting decorations on these tiled houses
I wonder if a seafarer lives in this nautically themed house?
View of Luanca from the other beach
Waterfront bars and cafés
San Esteban
We had to motor-sail the next part of the journey, sometimes cloudy … 
… but with sunny intervals and good views of the cliffs.
It was getting a bit late in the day to find a mooring space in our next destination, the popular resort of Cudillero, so we went into the Rio Nalón to anchor.
We passed the village of San Esteban as the light was fading …
… and crept slowly up the shallow River Nalón …
… to a beautiful little anchorage in a deep ‘hole’ off a mediaeval castle.
It was a really quiet, calm anchorage – an unexpected ‘find’.  It’s only accessible at high tide, but there’s plenty of water in the ‘hole’ to stay afloat.
This is the view from our perfect anchorage of San Esteban at night.
Cudillero
Grey and dull passage culminating in arriving at Cudillero in a thunderstorm!  No photos of that though!  Too busy trying to tie up safely and get inside out of the rain!
This shows the narrow harbour entrance (on a better day) – it’s quite a challenge to enter during a thunderstorm!
This is the harbour looking towards the village with the visitors’ berths in the left hand corner. We had to walk round three sides of the harbour to get to the town – it took about 25 minutes, although it looks so close!
Cudillero is a very attractive village straggling up the hillside and a popular tourist spot with many restaurants and bars.  This view is looking up from the harbour area.
View looking down from the top of the village towards the harbour.
There are three interesting walking tours, marked with different coloured symbols – blue fish, red boat and green anchor.  It was a good way of exploring – we did all three.  
The houses stretch all the way up the hillside
Very narrow steep streets and paths with many steps – the people who live here must keep pretty fit!
An attractive tiled balcony and geraniums
The lighthouse
Jo and Di
Lively bars and cafes in the main part of the village
We were  treated by Jo to a lovely dinner at a fairly smart fish restaurant.
A calm view of Cudillero on our last night – by contrast to our arrival in a storm!
Navia
We had an oddly lumpy sea and unpleasant motion on our voyage to Navia, despite looking flat calm and quite shiny and oily on the surface.  You can see from this picture how much the boat heeled over without any sails up. 

We had to arrive at Navia at high tide to get up the river.  The grey day and the shipyard cranes don’t make for a very attractive approach! 
The view upriver towards the hills was much better!
And the visitors’ pontoon was free of charge and very sheltered, with a friendly welcome and a free Navia Sailing Club burgee!
There was a lovely riverside path for walking or cycling and on a sunny day everything always looks nicer. 
It led through attractive countryside …
… to the beach
There was a mini fiesta and local food fair going on while we were there – paella, cheeses, sweet almonds …  
… and barbecued ribs and chorizo.
Navia was perhaps an unremarkable town, but there were one or two nice buildings … 
This is the Town Hall
This is the Iglesia de Santa Maria de la Barca, built in the neo-Gothic style.  
Completed in 1895, it replaced a mediaeval Gothic church.
And there was a nice promenade through the town with a lovely, shady tunnel of trees.
Next stop … Ribadeo!

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