23 Jan 26 - ORCA Canaries Cruise - A Cunning Plan Part 2 - Santillana Del Mar

Due to the very rough seas off the Portuguese coast, the Spirit of Discovery had been forced to seek sanctuary in Santander for a few days. I decided to hire a car for our second full day in Santander and explore a few local sites. It was good that Chris and Fiona decided to join me as this reduced the car hire costs. Our first location had been the excellent Altamira Cave. The next obvious choice was the nearby small touristy town of Santillana del Mar, which was less than a ten minute drive away.

Approaching Santillana del Mar: The town is preparing for global warming, as it's name is Santillana of the sea. However, even with all the polar ice melting, it seems unlikely it was end up as a coastal town

This proved to be a good decision and we had a great couple of hours wandering around it and grabbing a late lunch. Santillana del Mar was a lovely town. But it's a shame that it looked more like a Hollywood set, than a lived-in town. Presumably, there would have been more locals around had it been the tourist season, but perhaps it's like some of the bigger North Spanish towns and largely empty outside of the Summer.

The town is characterised by these old stone buildings and high stone walls

Another feature is the cobble-stone roads

Sadly, this level of fine detail in buildings is now a rare thing

I love these over-hanging balconies that are very typical in North Spanish buildings

More over-hanging windows balconies

Another old traditional building

These balconies allow the houses to maximise their size, whilst still allowing cart access on the road

The main square

Another view of the main square

Looking back across the main square

Some more of the lovely balconies

It's also interesting to see these large arches and covered areas: It would be interesting to have seen how these areas were used, when they were first built

Another cobbled road heading out of the village square

Looking across to the church

The square in front of the church: Chris confirming that the temperature was starting to drop by mid-afternoon

Walking back to the main square to get some food

Another house with a large, covered area

I love these old fine details in these old houses

Some more carvings of one of the buildings: However, it's frustrating to see all the anti-bird wire, which isn't good for the local wildlife and spoils the architecture

An old cart next to one of the town's bar

White Wagtail: This was one of the few Birds I saw in this small town. I did hear a distant Iberian Green Woodpecker calling on a couple of occasions. It would have been nice to look for, but it wasn't close

It was now about mid-afternoon and we still had some time left to explore the local area. There was enough time to head towards the Picos de Europa foothills for a quick look. We knew it wouldn't be a long visit, as it would be dark in about three hours, but there was still time for a quick drive. I will cover the final part of the day in the next Blog Post.

22 Jan 26 - ORCA Canaries Cruise - Santander: An Unplanned Spanish Destination

During the days leading up to this trip, the ORCA team had been closely watching the sea conditions for the Saga Cape Verde and Canaries cruise. It was forecast to be a four to six metre swell as we crossed the Bay of Biscay, which shouldn't have been a big swell for the Spirit of Discovery to cope with. However, the swell on the Windy.com app changed from deep strawberry (up to six metres), to a pale pinkish-white colour (indicating an eight to ten metres swell) for the next leg past Portugal. This was more worrying as we couldn't see a route that would allow us to reach Madeira as planned. We couldn't see the Captain wanting to take the ship through those rougher seas. The initial welcome briefing from the Captain confirmed that the bridge team were seeing a similar picture. We had experienced heavy seas with all the outer decks closed on our first day at sea to the West of the Bay of Biscay, but at least we were heading South. I had a poor night of sleep as the motion of the ship increased and I was surprised that the motion had eased later in the final hours of darkness.

All became clear, when there was an unexpected announcement from the Captain during breakfast. The combination of the delay in our departure and losing additional time as we crossed the rough seas in the Bay of Biscay, meant we would be hitting those eight to ten metre swells off the Portuguese coast. Those seas were going to be too high and risky for some of the less agile passengers on the Spirit of Discovery. Consequently, the Captain had taken the decision to divert to a safe port. It hadn't been possible to get into Vigo or La Coruna on the North West corner of Spain, due to the swell in those ports. The next nearest port was Santander: about three hundred and fifty miles East of our route to Madeira. At this point, the chances of getting to Madeira, the two landings in Cape Verde and the three landings in the Canaries, all looked very uncertain. The Captain's initial plan was for one night in Santander, with a cunning plan to head to Vigo for the following night, which would get us to the North West corner of Spain.

Finally, we could see the Spanish coast: The sea conditions and wind were worse than these photos suggest

The top decks were still closed until we reached Santander due to the strength of the wind. However, by mid-morning, the very back of deck 10 had been opened. The back of deck 10 doesn't allow us to see the bows and while we can survey, the data we gather isn't as good as at the front of the ship. Still, we jumped at the opportunity to get on deck and start surveying. The sea had calmed a bit down from the previous day's sea state seven, which is too high to allow surveying. Unfortunately, we didn't see any Cetaceans and only had a scattering of Gannets. The sea conditions slowly eased as we got closer to the Spanish coast and we started to see the first Yellow-legged Gulls and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. We finally arrived at the pilot station early afternoon and soon after we were tied up.

By mid-morning, the back of deck 10 had been opened: This allowed us to get a couple of hours of surveying in before lunch as the swell calmed down a bit

Following the Captain's announcement about diverting to Santander, there was a request for the ORCA team to host a couple of one hour drop-in sessions each day on sea days at 13:00 and 17:00, respectively. It was a good opportunity for passengers to come and ask one of the members of the ORCA team questions. Normally, we have plenty of opportunity for this on deck and during meals in the upper restaurant. However, the upper deck restaurant was still closed and we had been asked to eat in our cabins due to the sea conditions. Chris had a couple of talks he had given before for ORCA and with an hour's notice, Chris was lined up to give the first of these two talks. Fortunately, he is an ex-teacher and was comfortable with public speaking at short notice. Both of the talks went well.

Passengers arriving for the first of Chris's talks on "The challenges of being a Whale in the 21st Century"

As it had been a last minute request to head to the port, the port authorities were not prepared for around eight hundred passengers and some crew wanting to go ashore. The Saga office team and ship were busily negotiating to allow the passengers to go ashore, as well as, trying to book tours for the passengers. But first the port had to bring in enough passport control and security teams to allow us to go ashore. By the end of the afternoon, a further update from the Captain had confirmed that Saga had agreed with the port authorities that we could go ashore the following morning and the passengers could book on some local coach tours of Santander, that Saga had arranged.

Our arrival into a miserable-looking Santander: However, it would have been a lot worse in the heavy seas off Portugal

I've visited Santander on a few occasions as an ORCA surveyor on the Brittany Ferries Plymouth route. This route has a fast turn around and there is only a few hours to grab an ice cream and coffee and wander around the immediate port area. Last Autumn, I travelled on the Brittany Ferries Portsmouth route, which allowed us the morning in Santander to explore more of the lovely seafront and the Maritime Museum and Aquarium.

The overnight rain hadn't cleared as we got up: However, it finally cleared after breakfast

As we had the day in Santander, I decided I would explore more of the seafront and walk out to Magdalena Peninsula which would be a good five mile walk. I set off along the waterfront where there is plenty to see.

The Santander Bank building: Good to see they are spending the money they make from my bank account wisely

The Spirit of Discovery and one of the Brittany Ferries in the background

An old cannon on the waterfront

This Black Redstart was feeding in a small area of lawn with a few small trees on the waterfront: It is the same gibraltariensis subspecies that we see in the UK, which occurs throughout Europe, Turkey and Northern Africa

White Wagtail: This is the nominate alba subspecies of Pied Wagtail

This monument remembers the street kids who would dive off the quayside for small coins thrown by wealthy passengers

A monument to the Merchant Marine Sailors

After passing the Maritime Museum and Aquarium, I reached the extensive beaches on the way to the Magdalena Peninsula. These beaches are typically busy in the Summer. Today, I had them to myself, apart from the occasional dog walker. It was disappointing that there were no Sanderlings running up or down the beach.

There is a nearly a mile of nice-looking beaches

Playa de Los Bikinis: Apparently, it took the locals some time in conservative Spain to get use to tourists in bikinis and this beach is still known as the Beach of the Bikinis

Finally, I reached the Pine covered Magdalena Peninsula. This sixty-nine acres headland is dominated by the Palacio de la Magdalena, an ex-royal Summer residence of the Spanish Royal Family. It was built between 1909 and 1911 and was used by the Royal Family until the declaration of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931. After that time, it became a university site until it was sold in 1977 to the City of Santander. It is still used as a conference centre, set within a public park.

The Palacio de la Magdalena

Can anybody else remember the Seventies game Pick Up Sticks

The Faro de Mouro Lighthouse: The seas still look angry. However, I've seen photos online of the waves breaking over the top of the lighthouse, so it can get a lot worse

A futuristic Butterfly sculpture

Continuing around the headland, the next major site is the Man and the Sea Museum, which is an open-air exhibition paying tribute to the nine expeditions carried out between 1966 and 1992 by the Santander-born navigator Vital Alsar Ramirez.

The Man and the Sea Museum

This is a replica of the wooden raft with Ramirez used to cross the Pacific in 1970

The three galleons that Ramirez used in his Round the World trip which started in 1980. They are replicas of the galleons Pinta, Nina and Santa Maria, that Columbus used on his crossing of the Atlantic. The La Marigalante is the replica of the Santa Maria

ORCA surveys have yet to sight a real Mermaid: This was a figurehead from the galleon La Marigalante

Ramirez dragged this experimental rescue capsule for seven thousand miles behind one of the galleons to prove volunteers could survive in it

Turnstones: The only Wader species I saw in Santander

Turnstones

Not a good day to go into the sea

The main beach on the Northern side of Santander

The Faro de Cabo Mayor Lighthouse on the next headland

I had enjoyed exploring the Magdalena Peninsula, but it was time to head back to the ship for a late lunch.

The walk back passed by some impressive houses

The Palacio el Promontorio

It is an ORCA tradition to pop into one of the Santander heladeria for an ice cream. I was disappointed to find the regular ORCA heladeria was closed. Fortunately, I was able to backtrack and try out one I hadn't visited before.

Disaster: The regular heladeria was closed

There are always a good selection of flavours to choose from

It is important to respect some traditions

Chris gave the second of his talks on Whale Songs around mid-afternoon

There was a late afternoon coach tour around Santander and we decided to give it a try after Chris's talk. First stop was a drive around on the Magdalena Peninsula, before continuing to close to the headland next to the Faro de Cabo Mayor Lighthouse. We were allowed time for a short walk and photo session here.

The Faro de Cabo Mayor Lighthouse

It had been a good day and I had enjoyed exploring Santander. That evening the Captain gave an update saying that we would be spending another three nights in Santander. Consequently, the planned section for the Spirit of Discovery to visit Porto Grande and Porto da Praia in Cape Verde had been cancelled due to the ongoing Portuguese storms. These exceptional storms had disrupted a lot of cruise ships and other vessels on both sides of the Atlantic. The ship was offering to rerun the same Santander coach trips and a trip to Bilboa on the following day. I spent the evening working on a more cunning plan which I will cover in the next Blog Post.