Pobla to Valencia 

Marina Real Juan Carlos 1,

Again we have numerous specialists to come on board to check, service, renew various parts, all of which seem to require every locker and floor panel to be up and the contents ousted while they find the parts they are looking for. So, for a couple of weeks Strangetrader is in a very dishevelled state. Meanwhile Andrea and I are trying to get our thoughts around how to provision the boat and where to store it all. The supermarket at this stage is miles away, so for present we work on a couple of days at a time basis. We have two deep fridges on board, one of which can be cooled down to a freezer. At present we don’t need that so we use the second one for drinks – which in the 30C and more temperature is really welcome. The heat is draining and in the confined space of the boat everyone manages amazingly well as we jostle around each other. 

We meet up with Stephanie and Andy, old Curdridge friends and enjoy our first Valencian Paella before Andy is doused in an icebucket challenge- not too much of a hardship in 34C. Valencia has a lovely wide beach an attractive old town and a state of the art science campus and  was also home to the 32nd Americas cup. So a great place to spend our time.