This is how I see the bridge situation at Ferrol:
If you want to take a shortcut and still do 100km then I think the Feve bridge is the only option. People I met in August who crossed by it weren't challenged at the Pilgrim's Office about not having a stamp at Neda. They successfully claimed their compostelas.
What is the 'true' route is something I contemplated much as I walked around the smelly end of the bay. I figured that if I was an English pilgrim arriving at Ferrol (and it seems that A Coruna was far more typical anyway), and I could face getting in another boat, I'd look across at Pontedueme and think - why walk all that way when it's probably an hour across the bay and even save another day of walking by boating it up the river for another hour to Betanzos...?
But I figured some poor souls must have walked all the way round and I was happy and curious to follow in their steps.
Dougfitz - I started from Ferrol at about midday and, walking all the way round, reached the Neda albergue about 3pm. Then got to Pontedueme by about 6.
PS just been reading a bit in Jusserand's 'English Wayfaring Life in the middle ages' which talks about the voyage then:
'[The ships] resembled the pilgrim ships of the present day, who carry every year on the Red Sea, crowds of Arabs on their way to Mecca. The pilgrims were huddled together in the most uncomfortable fashion and had opportunities in plenty to do penance and offer their sufferings to the saint.' One account said 'You must not think of laughing when you go by sea to St James'; there is sea-sickness; you are pushed about by the sailors under pretext of hindering the work of the ship; the smell is most unpleasant;.. the mocking remarks of the seaman are very painful' 'and when [conditions] are at their worst then comes a facetious sailor to bawl out in their ears; cheer up, in a moment we shall be in a storm!'