More photos.

It's all gone Baleriacs!

We didn't quite make Carteganea, but Mazaron instead. If you ever want to put your boat in the middle of all night club land then Mazaron is definitely the place. HELL for us oldies! 

We bypassed Cartegena to enter Mar Menor (inland lake) crossing a strip of sand that resembles that great Aussie place , Surfers Paradise (high rise city). A beautifully tranquil 2 days at anchor, albeit sharing the water with millions of jelly fish. Then our trek NE continued via a couple of overnight marina stops and a bumpy anchorage just east of Villajoyosa, our hop off point for a longish sailing and motor sailing day to SW Ibiza. We arrived at a very popular and busy anchorage on the SW corner of the island where we spend a relaxed 36 hours preparing for great friends Anne and Chris Austin to arrive. It was an unusual and adventurous pickup from a random beach just west of the airport. Reminiscent of beach landings and withdrawal out of contact , not quite of the Dunkirke type! Anchorages are the order of the day and we have spent four nights in beautiful places albeit slightly bumpy and rolly at times. Today ( Thursday is it?), we are anchored in a small bay on the NE tip of Ibiza ready to hop over to Majorca tomorrow. More from there.

Pics so far

To the corner and up.

8 days on from Gib. Where does the time go?

In our passage eastwards to the Cabo de Gata we have inspected from the sea and along-side the delights (!!!) of the high rise and capacity built English resorts of the Costa Del Sol, which represents the turning point north east and the Costa Blanca. Fuengonila, Marbella, Herradurra anchorage (bumpy night) brought us to a purpose built McAlpine marina village called Almerimar. With our German sailing friends (Halberg Rassy 39) we took advantage of supermarkets, chandleries and water maker experts.  It proved to be a valuable four days - and the cheapest berthing so far.  One more set of parts to get from UK and, fingers crossed, the water maker should be functioning and in tip top performance.  After four days we bade our friends goodbye leaving them to arrange their winter berthing there to which they will return in September. A likely pit stop for us on the way back.  Friday night was spent in another bumpy bay 15 miles north of Cabo de Gata with so much more sailing during the day then we have experienced of late. Today the winds are forecast to blow us NE nicely across the Gulfo Veram, so we should be in Cartegena by nightfall. 

Photos to follow. 

Photos so far.

Porto Railway station. Beautiful.

Porto

Guess who! 

A little port tasting. 

Bull fighting - Lisbon

Rounding Cape St Vincent 

Percey the pigeon - sailed with us all day. 

Johnny testing te water. 

Another beautiful sunset at anchor. 

Firing the cannon in Cadiz with the Dowsett's + 1

Cadiz. 

Lots of dolphin company. 

Long Haul to Lisbon and on to Gib.

Progress has been slow and the blog has been non existent. We apologise to our devoted followers for the absence of info on our whereabouts. Portuguese time is one hour behind Spanish time and this seems to rub off inn our ability to keep up with news.

So..... We did Porto in style. The Fereira Port winery tour is to be recommended as is, really, any Port wine in Porto. We decided that an overnighter was due and the winds from the NE were favourable so we sailed direct from Porto to Lisbon. A leap of one third down the Atlantic Coast of Spain and Portigal. We toured Lisbon on the red bus ( as you do) on Thursday 26th June and visited among other things the old port area, one of the many beautiful Bassilica (on tram 28 route) and the Maratime museum in Belem on the coast to the west of Lisbon centre.  On Friday we coast hopped to Sines with a good wind flying the cruising chute. On Saturday we continued south wards trying to sail but mostly motoring to the Baleeira anchorage just east of Cape St Vincent. Our first over night anchorage. What a wonderful peaceful night, to be followed by a second night at anchor in an even more peaceful and beautiful anchorage just east of Faro (Olhao).  Our objective the next day was Cadiz to meet friends, Tony, Jane Sophie and Zoe. With some fluky winds, crossing the Portuguese Spanish border we made it to Chipiona and Cadiz the next day. We could not do justice to Cadiz in two days but we tried. The old town, the cathedral and the many towers and beaches were part of our experience. So, we must move on, and dispute lack of winds we motored SE to Barbata, an uninspiring but safe haven, and thence on to Tarifa where we stopped for lunch, a spot of fising and a quick swim. The afternoon winds from the west blew us with gusto into Gibralatar. A stunning approach to the rock in the late evening sunshine. We are currently in La Liniea just north of Gibraltar looking at the magnificent rock, and we have had the opportunity to spend some time over the last two days in the hills north of Malaga with our friends amid typical Spanish village atmosphere. The winds now blow from the east soo we will take the opportunity to "do Gibraltar".

Photos to follow ......