Frustration! 36.34N 006.15W
Island Wanderer
Peter and Avril Brookes
Thu 5 Aug 2010 17:03
Chipiona grew on us over the two days we spent
there. The initial impression was marred by being parked on a pontoon recently
colonised by seaguls, and consequently knee deep in droppings and rotting
fish bones. You could smell it as we approached. However a wash down and brush
up soon cleared the boards and the smell became acceptable. The town was popular
with Spaniards on holiday and full of bustle from morning to night. The girls
swam in the sea which was very warm and we had a lovely meal ashore sampling
traditional spanish dishes.
Tapas!
Delicious.
A lovely stroll along the prom.
Today we wanted to go to Cadiz, but the local
marina would not take boats over 15m. Our next choice of marina was fully
booked. An anchorage looked appealing, but hints of bad weather on the way made
that less of an option. In the end we booked into Puerto Sherry, a large marina
about 3 miles across the bay from Cadiz. It was designed as a marina village in
1985 but only half built. The marina stands in a stunning location surrounded by
shells of empty buildings that should have been apartments, cafes and shops.
En route, the marina we had just left, Chipiona,
phoned to say they had unfortunately undercharged us, and could we go back and
pay! The shower was discovered to have a leak that had crept as far forward as
the nav station, and in addition we took onboard copious amounts of
water that soaked bedding.We also realised that the bad weather forecast was
potentially much worse than anticipated; it could be up to four days of force
7/8 from tomorrow due to the dreaded easterly Levante wind. Helen's friend,
Vicky has a flight from Gibralter on Monday, so we are trying to decide the best
course of action and keeping an eye on all the forecasts which differ greatly.
We could be here some time!