The Happy Return

16th - 17th July, Lagos – Puerto America, Cadiz, Spain

18th - 19th July, Cadiz – Cadiz (abortive attempt to go to Gibraltar)

20th July, Puerto America, Cadiz

21st July, Cadiz – Chipiona

22nd July, Chipiona – Puerto Sherry

23rd July, Puerto Sherry – Barbate

24th July, Barbate – Queensway Marina ; Gibraltar

25th July, Gibraltar – Sotogrande

26th July, Sotogrande – Fuengirola

27th July, Fuengirola – Caleta de Velez

28th July, Caleta de Velez – Puerto Motril

29th July, Puerto Motril – Almerimar

On the 24th of July, I sailed back into Queensway Marina in Gibraltar, nearly eight months after I left there for my tour of the north Atlantic. I had nearly stayed in the Caribbean, but the various problems I experienced with the automatic pilot had shaken my confidence. I felt like a cat which had climbed a tree and wasn't sure it could get back down. Now that I had climbed down, the next question was ; should I climb straight back up again or should I take advantage of being at ground level to take a break, try to make some money, reculer pour mieux sauter ?

I had three crew members when I arrived at Gibraltar, my friend Olivier who had been with me for a month in the Mediterranean, his son Marc and my great friend Jérôme who I had last seen at Olbia in Sardinia. All three had joined me at Cadiz. It should have been Gibraltar but I had failed to get there a couple of days before due to adverse winds.

Arriving at Cadiz from Lagos

The adverse winds kept up for another three days and we spent the time visiting, the more or less dull ports near Cadiz. Cadiz itself is a nice town with a fabulous baroque cathedral and a fairly pictureskew centre. We only had time for a brief foray into town ; though I had already visited some of the sites when I arrived earlier including the Catedral Vieja which has got lots of polychrome statues of Christ and Mary with great expressive and clearly Spanish faces.

The spectacular cathedral at Cadiz ; not so impressive inside.

We had an inauspicious start, tearing the main on one of the reefing hooks during the hoist due to the rather casual way I had dropped the main on my (second) entry into Cadiz. It was a Sunday and it was certain we weren't going to get it repaired that day. We sailed, reefed down past the tear, to Chipiona at the entry to the Guadalquiver. I can recall nothing whatsoever about our stay there except that we ran aground in the middle of the marina trying to get to our berth. They gave us another berth in the other, deeper side of the marina.

Juan Sebastien de Elcano coming into Cadiz harbour. Now that's a flag.

We contacted the Marina Puerto America in Cadiz the next day to see if there was a sailmaker in town (Olivier's fluent Spanish coming in very handy here) and they put us on to one at Puerto Sherry which is a marina on the land side of the Bahia de Cadiz near Puerto de Santa Maria.

We arrived shortly before the sailmaker was due to close, but due to the efficiency of the marina in putting us on the pontoon next to the sailmaker and the efficiency of the sailmaker who did the repair in fifteen minutes, we got the sail back the same day. The longest job was getting the sail off and back onto the boom.

Marc driving, Olivier and Jérôme assisting.

After this great service, I would like to say nicer things about the Püerto Sherry marina, but while the marina is good with fine facilities, it is rather sad with unfinished buildings and few shops or restaurants in walking distance. We found this to be the case with several of the Andalucian marinas ; big marinas associated with, in many cases, overly ambitious resort developments which are under used and a bit windblown and deserted.

Barbate is not quite in the same mould. Though the marina itself is a bit big and underused, at least at the time of year we were there, it is associated with a fairly active resort town. The town is not particularly attractive but it was quite busy mainly with Spanish holidaymakers.

The next day we sailed back into Admiralty Waters beneath the Rock and into a berth at Queensway Marina and I forgot to celebrate the fact that I had completed my circumnavigation of the North Atlantic. I would happily have stayed there for a couple of days but the crew were apparently unimpressed and after a rapid visit to the top of the rock to see the apes and a pint at a pub next to the town hall they reckoned they had done Gibraltar.

Approaching the Rock from the west (Rock just visible underneath the boom).

For the next four days, we hopped from marina to marina along the Costa del Sol. The coast here is not attractive and the opportunities for anchoring, even for a short time are pretty limited. The places which I liked best were Puerto Caleta de Velez and Püerto Motril.

Typical Costa del Sol costa. You can't fault the sol. The white things are the giant green houses which are ubiquitous here.

Puerto Caleta de Velez is a nice quiet little marina with a decent restaurant in one corner. It was particularly nice after the inferno of Costa del Sol tourism which was Fuengirola. Jérôme left us there to go back to Malaga and to catch his plane for Paris. Puerto Motril is a sailing club in one corner of an otherwise unpromising looking commercial harbour. The club has a restaurant and a swimming pool which, apparently, visiting yachts can use (well, Marc did and nobody threw him out).

We arrived at Almerimar the next day. Almerimar is also a bit big and windblown but the resort is more attractive than most of the others and the staff are extremely friendly and helpful. It has a good yard and three shipchandlers from the big one attached to the yard to a small one which was next to the pontoon where Westward was berthed which has mostly fishing stuff. Unfortunately, Almerimar seems to be suffering from the crisis too and there were significantly less boats there than when I stayed last year. A shame. With the bay and the narrow entry, and the way the marina burrows into the town, it is a very sheltered and secure place. And I like the way it is big and sunlit and quiet.

Westward in Almerimar. You can just make out the patches of snow on the Sierra Nevada in the distance.

Olivier left to head back to France and Marc left to meet up with friends who had arrived in Spain and I prepared Westward so that I could leave her for a week and go to England to go to Sidmouth Folk Week with Ali. At this stage I still hadn't made up my mind what my next step should be.

I left from Almeria which, though not a big tourist destination is quite an agreeable town with the ruins of an impressive moorish castle on the hill behind it. The Costa del Sol has very good cheap public transport ; the bus to Almeria which is about 40km from Almerimar only costs €2,90.

Westward snugged up before I left for England.

I ended up staying in Almerimar for a month and a half (I told you I liked it). I made a trip to France to go to my bank and get vaccinated for Yellow Fever and get a check up from my GP. Olivier put me up in his house in the close suburbs.My stay in Paris was nice and relaxed but all the time I had this restless feeling that I had been here and done this. Paris didn't have the magic it used to have for me and it seemed dirtier and more run down than ever. Toulouse was the same but more so. I managed to catch a cold. What with the plane trip and the night train to Toulouse and back, I was probably subjecting my body to more microbes in one week than it had seen in a year and a half.

Moorish ruins in Almeria. Jesus posing in front of them.

Somewhere, I made up my mind that I didn't want to stop for six months or a year. I couldn't be sure of getting a job soon anyway and I was by no means sure that the job would pay both for me to keep the boat somewhere and for me to live somewhere else. I was also scared that my courage would leak away and that I would never again dare to cross the wide ocean.

So here I am back in (or near) Gibraltar. Both Queensway and Marina Bay were full so I'm in the marina at La Linea on the Spanish side. I'm waiting for a window for the trip to the Canaries. I've been here for over a week while the South Westerly wind continues to blow. Sound familiar ?

29th September, Alcaides Marina, La Linea, Spain