The crew (taken by Vics) having a drink in Puerto Banus - as I said in the last blog not as big a night as before!

 

 

Chicken Fajitas for dinner - 10 miles off the Costa Del Sol,  on passage

 

 

Sunset last night

 

Tony "Mr Fish" (we hope) having his first go at catching something today - alas nothing yet

 

 

eXhilarance moored at the fuel quay at Aguadulces - not looking too bad after fighting off Cabo de Gata

 

 

Title not quite true, but we did have to go back on ourselves as good F7s on the nose and big seas around the headland of Cabo de Gata forced a retreat.

 

We set off at 2.00 pm yesterday with the aim of getting to Ibiza but we got beaten by the weather - wherever we wanted to go the wind was right on the nose - for those of you that sail you will know this can be unpleasant, and it was. We 'tolerated' the slamming through the night - no one got any sleep as we banged off short wavelength waves.

 

At 7.00 am this morning I took over the watch, the wind got up to 30 knots true - with 2 reefs in the Main and engine on we slammed down 8 foot waves until I called halt - crew and boat were sufferring. We headed in land and beared away to head for safe haven - the world seemed so much better all of a sudden. So then we decided to give it another go(getting round the southern east headland of Spain and turning left would be a good pshycological advantage). We headed for the headland and all seemed fine until we were hit by the sea and wind that had a few hundred mile fetch to build up - big seas and 30knots (F7) winds. eXhilarance was coping but the crew surveyed the situation and decided we could not deal with hours of this - so we headed backwards - away from the winds. When we got round the corner (backwards!!) it was all calm. We anchored up and had a rest - well needed!

 

We then headed back 2 hours (only Marina with space) to Aguadulces. Tony (now known as "Mr Fish" as he claimed to be a bit of a Fisherman when he was young still failed to catch our dinner - better luck next time. Aguadulces is a very friendly marina that is only 20 euros a night. We had a great piece of steak with vegetables washed down with some Nuit St Georges. Now we are off to bed - 4am start to try again - a 36hour assault on Majorca.

 

Good night all.