Position                    40:37.165 N 000:36.265 E

Date                          1015 (UTC+2) Friday 14 April 2017

Distance run             in 10hrs 15mins 67nm over the ground, 67nm through the water

Passage total            455nm over the ground, 433nm through the water

Distance to go          0nm

Planned distance      Gibraltar to Sant Carles de la Rapita, Spain 449nm

Thank heavens for GPS, chart plotters, AIS and radar.  At 0700 as first light broke it was evident that we had mist gong on fog again with visibility about 100 metres.  This got steadily worse and with the fog horn blowing over our heads we arrived dead on the fairway buoy for the Sant Carles Lagoon which appeared out of the fog at about 50 metres.  The water is not particularly shallow over a large area, 8m-12m, but it was sensible, not knowing the ground to follow the dead straight main channel in, having the buoys to confirm that we were in the correct place.  The buoys are in pairs and about 100-120m between port and starboard; we could just about see both buoys from the centre of the channel.

Our friends Andrew and Celia Sharpe with their new boat Alice (Alice IV) came out and met us having SMS’s us to say that they were waiting by buoy No 7.

It was just as well they said, it would have been easy to miss them.  How wonderful to be met, even if we could hardly see each other or the marina. 

The marina answered the VHF immediately and provided a lead boat and marinieros to take our lines.  It was all very efficient and we were quickly secured and able to welcome Andrew and Celia aboard for a warming coffee.

Eventually the fog cleared enough for us to see our surroundings which look just as described with a dramatic range of hills as a backdrop, visible from our berth.

With the fog lifted, the view appeared

Caduceus in her new home viewed over the swimming pool

We have recorded 51,322nm since leaving the Royal Harwich Yacht Club on 4 July 2010, 10,072 since leaving Mauritius on 17 October 2016 after our summer break in the UK and 7,619nm since leaving Cape Town on 19 January 2017.  Time for a rest I think.