She took me to one side, gesturing that she did not want the rivals to hear what she was saying. Then she told me how much faster the Nabia service is than the Mar de Ons - by all of five minutes as far as I could tell. She offered to negotiate so that I could book tickets and possibly change the return time, since I explained that until my friends arrived I had no idea what time return boat we wanted. All the while she implied that there were very few places left.
The Mar de Ons girl was much calmer, chatting about all sorts of stuff, just running off whenever she saw potential people to give leaflets to. According to her here were plenty of places on boats today. (This certainly proved to be the case when we finally boarded.) The weekend was fully booked already but today was fine. Perhaps the Nabia girl works on a commission and was desperate to entrap more customers. All I know is that I took to avoiding her as I popped in and out of the booking office as she was so insistent.
The Mar de Ons girl told me during our chats that she is doing this as a summer job. No, she is not a student. Not any longer. In fact, she has completed a Masters. But there is no proper work available. So this will do for the summer and she hopes something better turns up before winter comes around again. At least she was not having to sell sunhats and fake designer handbags like to African blokes. They were offering sunhats at half price! No chance today. Too cloudy. But very sultry.
Eventually the group of friends turned up, we bought our (Mar de Ons) tickets and off we went. A group of ten nuns boarded at the same time as us. Several of them had bought sunhats, the bonnet style with rose-patterned ribbons around them. None of us could work out how they planned to wear the sun bonnets on top of their habits. It was quite a chilly and very windy crossing. The nuns seemed quite happy with it however. Two of the younger ones stood right at the front of the boat, the pointy end, their black headdresses blowing around, indeed almost flying off in the wind.
We wondered at one point if the boat was driving itself as the pilot appeared to have disappeared. But all was well. He was just busy with another bit of equipment. Self-drive cars may be being tested but self-piloting boats remain a thing of the future. Possibly not the too distant future, I suspect. It was much warmer when we arrived, even though the sun stubbornly refused to shine. So we walked to the restaurant and had some lunch. Not in the self service section this time. Some of our party insisted on the proper restaurant section, with waiter service. Very nice it was too.
After lunch we considered a walk up to the lighthouse but in the end decided there was not enough time as we were booked on the 5.00pm return boat. So we opted for a walk on the beach, the braver of us dipping our toes in the rather cold Atlantic. The temperature of the water did not seem to be putting other people off taking a proper dip, but not too many of them.
Then our group split, half choosing to stay and doze on the beach while the other half took a stroll through the eucalyptus trees. And then back to the boat, sailing once more with the nuns. It was a warmer ride back and the closer we got to Vigo, the more the sun came through the clouds.
Not quite one of the spectacularly good evenings that we have sometimes had after mediocre days but still something of an improvement on the cloud of earlier.
Nonetheless, the day was declared a great success. The Islas Cíes rarely fail to please.
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