Position 36:32.449N 06:17.015W

Sat 4th July

The marina at Santa Maria was full, we radioed ahead but there was no reply and so we tied up at the fuel pontoon and visited the office only to be told they were ‘complet’.

Next move was to motor across the bay to Cadiz where they found us a berth for one night.

We walked into the city and discovered all the lovely squares and amazing ancient buildings including the magnificent cathedral.

For dinner we thought we would do it ‘Spanish’ style, and so we went out at 10.00pm to join the crowds and find a restaurant.

We found a very good tapas restaurant where we sampled langoustines wrapped in paper and threaded on skewers, peppers stuffed with prawn and salmon and very thinly sliced sirloin steak with brie, spinach and red wine.

‘Postre’ was warm chocolate roulade with vanilla ice cream and warm chocolate and nut sauce.

All washed down with a nice cold bottle of Vino Sol!

The meal was lovely although we didn’t finish eating until way past midnight. People were still queuing for tables when we left, babies and children in tow as well!

On our way back to the marina we noticed that the night clubs hadn’t even started to open, everything is so late here, even the boats in the marina were socialising until 5am this morning!