On the track of La Pinta in Baiona, 14 -16 September 2022

We made it to Baiona, along the Galician cost, 193,411 days after La Pinta made it. La Pinta was one of the three boats of the first expedition of Chistophorus Columbus (as they call it here) that departed from Southern Spain on 3rd August 1492. It was the first one to make the return journey in March 1493, reaching Baiona and bringing back the news of the success of the expedition!

La Pinta on the main beach of Baiona these days, with the welcome committee, I mean our welcome committee.

But this was just the start of the story, as it seems that Martín Alonso Pinzón, the captain of the Pinta made it to the Americas couple of years before this expedition with Chritophorus Columbus...

Same picture as above of the Pinta, but a a different moment, by Stéphane Lucchini: the siren and the Pinta. 

Interestingly, Stéphane and I took two different pictures of the same scene, at couple minutes interval, with slightly different angles. Fascinating to notice how same looking pictures may convey different impressions. 

The azulejos plate commemorating the return of the Pinta

"En esta playa carenó la carabela Pinta, a su regreso de descubrir las Américas, capitaneada por Martín Alonso Pinzón el día 1 de marzo de 1493 Bayona fue el primer puerto del Viejo Continente en conocer este glorioso hecho"

"The caravel Pinta careened on this beach, on its return from discovering the Americas, captained by Martín Alonso Pinzón on March 1, 1493. Bayona was the first port on the Old Continent to know of this glorious fact."

What is not said here is that Martín Alonso Pinzó separated from the two other boats on their way back to Europe and made it back to Baiona three days before Columbus made it to Lisbon. The story says that Martín Alonso Pinzó got back more gold than Columbus, but in any case both brought back syphilis to Europe that would become the largest public health issue in Europe throughout the 16th-19th centuries.

Of note when reading about how Columbus prepared his crossing to the Americas, and quite relevant given the latest news going around, the way he recruited his crew for his "adventures". Navigation at the time, especially outside of the Mediterranean, meant going back and fro along the coast and resupplying food and water regularly along the way. But sailing straight west, away from the coast, in a quest for a new world was an unknown experience, and it was very unclear how much food and water one should take for such an adventure. Therefore, Columbus could not find a crew of volunteers and had to tour the prisons in order to offer to long-term prisoners a chance to escape prison if joining the crew. Unfortunately, we do not have a video of these meetings with inmates...

Our ride from Muros to Baiona had nothing to do with the return of the Pinta, but we encountered such strong headwinds and swell that made it a nightmare again. 

Heavy winds and swell prevented us to sail upwind and tack nicely at square angles

The summer cruises are over?

Flying dolphins, as usual in the past few days

Tough tacking all day long...

Then, on 15, the day after we arrived, the low pressure area in the (long) tail of Danielle tropical storm was gone. The wind disappeared, the temperature went up, and the (indian) summer was back. A ten kilometre ride along the coast showed-us how much Galicia sea landscapes have in common with Brittany!

Sea landscape outside of Baiona

The town of Baiona has a lot to offer when you start walking in the small streets of the old city. In mid-September, there are still a lot of tourists arounds. On our way, we visited the Capela da Misericordia, close to the tapas bar where we had lunch. However, we missed the opening hours for the Casa de la Navegación (the maritime museum) because of confusion between winter hours, which have already started, and summer hours!