On 16 July Chipiona celebrated a festival of the sea.  The fishing boats got all dressed up, families and friends hopped aboard and there was a lot of noise as they left the harbour to parade along the long town front. 

We then went to Sevilla which is the capital of Andalucia I think – certainly it is culturally and architecturally wonderful.  We only scratched the surface of the city during our overnight stay.  I think we only walked over a square mile of it and took in the Real Alcazar palace of Moorish origin and later Castillian additions and its lovely gardens  We took in the cathedral and the little alleyways and churches roundabout.  We stayed in a Pension (see picture of Bill looking out of window)which was quite nice but noisy because Sevillians stay up very late on account of having a siesta.  We thought we had stayed up late enough in order to go to a flamenco bar which didn’t start till 12 pm !  Hope the photos give a taste of what we saw and we will try and put up some of the video strips we have taken on another web site at a later date so you can get the flavour of the passionate and impromptu flamenco singing and clapping and see the dolphins we encountered some days before.

If you are a smoker you may be glad to know that everyone smokes anywhere - in Portugal too.  Signs saying no smoking are ignored - apparently. 

I think at this point (we are still in Chipiona Day 4 waiting for the Levant wind to run its course and allow us to go through Strait of Gibraltar) I can tell you a bit about the boat.  It is very much admired by promenading residents.  We have had a few repair jobs which have been made less painful by the help of Discovery Yachts who have sent parts and ino one instance liased with BHG who supplied the outboard motor which we pranged.  BHG liased with contacts in Gibraltar and will ship out (free of VAT as Gib is not EU) the part for repair when we get there.  Our thanks to all concerned.