5th-6th November - Aguadulce

Kingfisher 2013
Peter Smith
Wed 6 Nov 2013 14:35
We left Cartegena at 1330 on the 5th as a foursome (Ben, Alex and John and me) and motored into the wind for a couple of hours before setting full main and jib to motor sail. The wind was light and we had perfect sunshine. Some small, but friendly dolphins came and joined us quite frequently during the afternoon and the first night watch. Their cries made us jump a few times in the dark as they were loud and came so close to the boat. The trip was otherwise uneventful and we arrived at the visitor's dock in Aguadulce at 1030 in time to settle in for a leisurely lunch on board. The marina office was staffed by a most helpful lady who spoke perfect English and could not have been more informative. However, the marina and the town had very little else to offer in the way of support or entertainment. We spent the afternoon trying to track down some of the electrical problems we have been having and were in contact with Discovery several times to seek their advice.  We have now isolated 5 separate issues!  1. The genoa furler buttons on the port side took a wave coming out of Mahon and we suspect there is a short on the common wire which is causing cross-talk to the other sets of furled controls. 2. The insulation on the wiring for the try-colour masthead light has degraded in the Mediterranean sun and caused one of the wires to corrode away. 3. The new anchor counter sensor in the bow has not been connected to the coax cable that runs through the boat back to the cockpit properly and is getting cross-talk from the furled power cables. 4. The AIS signal is only picking up ships within 4 miles (should be much greater range) and we suspect there may be a VHF connection problem somewhere. 5. The new sat phone ariel is not located in an ideal position and many need to be moved.  I know i will get some flack from Sally for all of this technical detail but it is useful to record the status of the jobs list as we move along I also suspect it is of interest to a few readers……these problems have any affect on our ability to move on safely and we plan to fix all of them before we leave Gib if we can.

Alex and Ben made a trip to the beach in the afternoon and we all took a bus to Almeria in the early evening searching for some bits and pieces from a chandlery and a good place for supper.  We got off the bus at the commercial port and wandered through a dismal part of town for quite a while before finding the old city. Everywhere was in poor shape and it took us quite a while to find a restaurant - Ben selected one from trip advisor that was closed when we arrived (we were too early - they didn't open until 8.30 pm) and looked like a disused warehouse in a back alley.  We searched on, had a beer and returned, at Ben's insistence, to find a few tables out in the alley and a bemused waitress who then served us 16 of her best tapas dishes in a ridiculously short space of time. The food was magnificent! The photos below may show you why we had our doubts but it turned out to be a great evening.