We managed to make it under the suspension bridge and back to the bright lights of Ayamonte.

Welcome back to Ayamonte!

With a bit more time to explore, Ayamonte turned out to be pretty and laid back. Supermarkets were plentiful and fish/shellfish was cheap and we dined on cut-price prawns as often as I could get away with it (5.99€ a kilo!).

David and the children spent a day going back to Mazagon by bus to collect some post that had only just turned up. It should have been there when we first arrived in Mazagon, never mind a month later!

The main square in Ayamonte.

Sunset over Ayamonte marina.

We settled back into a routine of working (for me), school, boat jobs and laundry.

One of our art projects involved painting terrapins from natural paint that we made from rocks that we’d selected carefully for the purpose in Pomerão and Sanlúcar.

The pictures were superb but I don’t think the kitchen knife we used to generate pigment powder is ever going to be the same again.

Another day the crew was dispatched to purchase a new washing machine.

Our twin-tub washing machine.

I’m sure that this form of child labour would be illegal back in the UK, but hey…the children now take better care of their clothes and their things get worn more than once before washing!

David flambé and other recipes

Mike, Mandie, John and Frannie came (from Portimão) to visit for a couple of days. We tracked down large quantities of fish and seafood for supper, lazed on the beach at Ilsa Canela (the Cinnamon Isle), introduced John and Frannie to the delights of ‘Who’s in the bag?’, talked junk well into the night, and drank far too much... The recipe for a perfect weekend with friends!

We had an exciting hour on board when David flambéed himself while trying to light the Tilly lamp with what had been sold to me as meths turned out not to be (if you get my drift). As David's arm went up in flames and he went over the side into the marina, the rest of us tested one of the fire blankets for real. Luckily there was no real damage done – just a few surface burns on David's arm (and a roasting from me later about when and where he lights the damn thing...). He’s moaning now that I didn’t take any photos of the event and his blisters for the blog (some people will do anything for their 15 minutes of fame). The search for ‘real’ meths continues.

Crab racing, whiskey and more prawns

The children made friends with Anouk, who was staying next door on her grandparents’ boat. Catching crabs and racing them almost reached the status of a national sport on our pontoon – that and Nintendo marathons.

This was ‘Lewis’ – apparently all of the racing crabs had names.

Meanwhile, David earned a crust (well a bottle of Jonnie Walker Red Label, actually) for re-writing in English (from the original Portuguese/Dutch translated into English using Babelfish) a contract for architectural work to be done on a property owned by Anouk’s grandparents.

Jim and Jules (MBOLO) had arrived in Ayamonte and we spent an evening catching up with them (over a large bowl of prawns, for a change).

We all had wind!

No, not a digestive complaint, but the stuff that lets us get from place comfortably while able to talk to each other – and for free! We had a superb sail from Ayamonte to Rota, with a steady 10–15 knot north-westerly wind that allowed us to get both sails up and make a comfortable 7–8 knots with a 10-degree heel. Neither Bethany nor I (for once!) complained that it was too ‘tippy’ and not even Bryn was seasick! It’s a good job that we were able to sail, as our engine mysteriously started getting hot and leaking water.…Mmmm, been here before…