1 September 1013 – at anchor, Bayona

42:07.122N

08:50.368W

A gentle trip up from Moana on Saturday – Cesar Gonsalez [sic] emailed to say that the steelwork for the bimini wouldn’t be available until Monday, so there were free days for cruising.  Bayona called!  It is a lovely town.  Marinas are very expensive – the “choice” marina is said to be the MonteReal, with an excellent restaurant.  But the prices are extortionate – overnight stern to for a 15m boat was 57euros, 70 euros if you want a pontoon berth!  But it’s very picturesque, under the castle and parador.

The anchorage was good, too.  We met up with Marcus and Margie on Island Kea and through them met Mike and Kate on Right Turn; Magnus and Sara on Mahi-Mahi (a Cigale 14) and Dan and Charlotte, on a home-built 33-footer with a two-masted junk rig.  It was Mike’s birthday on Sunday, and we went out for a seafood lunch.  All very enjoyable.   Others took the formal pix but here are the best two of my informal snaps – I’ll have to get a picture on you another time, Margie!

Kate; Marcus; Sara and Roger; and then Magnus and Mike.

In the evening we walked round the town and the Monte Real.  There’s a footpath round the lower ramparts – when we visited before in 2009 it was in the process of being built, supported by EU monies to create employment.  Now finished and paved throughout it’s very fine.  The castle is on a peninsula of rocks: there were very brown people of all shapes and sizes draped artistically over the rocks to catch the late afternoon sun.  Charlotte (who is a sculptress) pointed out that all the sculptures appear to date from the early 90s – when Spain had newly joined the eurozone currency and the economy was green.

But the town looks well.  There are some developments, new in 2009, that are still unlet; but there was an atmostphere of bustle.  On the other side of the bay, off Panxon, the Friday night anchorage, there were part completed mansions, including one that was a dead ringer for Blue Point, John!  Unfinished, and covered in graffiti….  The excellent Bayona ferreteria  is as excellent as ever, with a row of  lawn mowers in the window.  (not sure where there are lawns with grass long enough to cut!)  The Eroski is good; and although we didn’t visit there is a Carrefour at the other end of town.

In Moana, Duncan gave us a schedule of wifi connections for the ports and marinas along the coast.  It worked in Bayona!  The code was 987654321 – and apparently is never changed: info source, the marina office window!