37:12.9N 07:07.7W

El Rompido

10^th October

We have been in this lovely marina for 10 days now, although originally planned to spend a couple of nights here we soon changed our minds as it is now so quiet and the rates are ridiculously low! Add to that free WIFI 24/7 lovely walks, a very good shower block, a small supermarket 200 metres from the marina, several cafes(one which sells delicious ice-creams) and very little boat traffic to disturb us - what more can you want?

We left Vila Real S Antonio on the 1^st of October after seeing our son Robbie off on the bus to Faro; motored here and just made it in through the very shallow entrance on the falling tide. There is a ‘bar’ here a bit like at Chichester but much shallower and one only attempts to enter or leave around HW especially in Spring tides.

The first thing we did was to get a pile of washing done in the laundry room at the marina – 4 loads full!! But at 5euros for a wash and dry it is very reasonable and certainly cheaper than anywhere else we have found as well as being so convenient to the boat.

We have had some more rain while here but that has given me the excuse to start listening to Radio 4’s afternoon play. Rob has been able to keep abreast of the news (although with the recent decline in the stock market we are not sure we want to know!), and we have been using Skype to chat to friends and family at home.

We have also done some serious maintenance on the boat. We cleaned the teak decks thoroughly and have re-sealed them so they are now looking as new! I also re-oiled the teak table as it was beginning to show some signs of wear and too much exposure to the sun. Rob has also used up the remains of our large can of Fabrocil to re-waterproof the Biminis which had started to leak because we had to prod it to get rid of the build up of water. We are going to have to sort out some kind of design modification to get over this problem – still thinking of ideas!

We plan to catch a bus to the nearest big town tomorrow – Cartaya, and hope the local Saturday market will be worth a visit. It is just a bit too far for us to cycle – about 10 kilometres each way with a big hill on the return! We did a super bike ride yesterday through the nature reserve which follows the Rio de las Piedros for several miles. The land is basically made up of sand-dunes, pine trees, cactus and other scrub and a trail has been laid to enable walkers and cyclists to explore it without causing any damage. We rode our bikes for over an hour with a few stops to read the information notices about the flora and fauna, fish species, types of fishing methods, boat designs and birds to be seen hereabouts!

Our next move is planned for Sunday as we need to get to the River Guadalquivir in readiness for our trip to Seville where we plan to spend a week having a ‘city break!’

The  attached picture is of a sunset –taken here in El Rompido; we have had some glorious ones this week.

Jacky and Rob