Pto de Morayra - Broken bits and a festival

Moxie - Beck Family Adventure
Mike, Denise, Asia and Aranya Beck
Tue 26 Jul 2011 21:28
 Pto de Morayra 38.41.15N 000.28.84W
 
We called in here with intention of staying at anchor and leaving early the next morning for Ibiza.  Actually we'd tried stopping 5 miles south but the swell / tide combination was uncomfortable and we hoped for better here.  The wind proceeded to increase and we found ourselves in 20 knots on a lee shore and only somewhat reasonably protected from the swell. 
 
We watched in horror as in these conditions a local guy was paddling to and fro the beach with four or five kids aboard mostly with no life jackets and quite some distance out in getting rough conditions.  The kids all jumped off and a sailing catamaran would pull in for a transfer, kids jumping off ,climbing on we were counting like mad wondering who was going to get lost.  Anyway, thankfully they all had a jolly good time.
The photo belies the conditions but even so I don't think OHS would be happy.
 
Not happy with the weather situation and having a marina 300 metres away we headed in for safety.  Unfortunately the marina was full so they put us alongside on the outside of the fuel berth wall with the swell coming in and hitting us beam on.  We strung Moxie up with springs piano wire tight but the swell was still getting the better of her, it was almost dark now - we were tired and we decided to stay.  I proceeded to the marina office just before 8:00 to register / pay etc but I was turned away as there was a festival on.  I explained that we were leaving very early but the response was that we cannot go anywhere tomorrow the weather is too bad so go to the beach, we didn't bother connecting to electric, water and didn't even visit the showers.  The 'bad' forecast was 20 knots on the beam / that'll do us perfectly thank you.  Anyway I warned them, we left at 6:30 am after the most uncomfortable lurching sleepless night we have ever had and complete with a destroyed teak toe-rail where the forward cleat had tried to remove itself from the boat overnight- they open the office at 8:00.
 
On the bright side we had good seats for the festival which involves taking The Virgin Mary out to sea on a boat loaded with girls dressed in white, and another boat with young men in black suits.  I'm guessing it is some kind of confirmation for them.  Then there was plenty of fireworks, and a procession of other boats formed a convoy and hundreds of people were in the bars and restaurants celebrating.
 
Mary, baby Jesus, Priests etc.
 
And the blokes boat.
 
 
Next day we had a really good passage at least and in 'bad weather' we averaged 7 knots for 10 hours.  We used the duo gen the whole way, this should have had the batteries fizzing by the time we arrived but alas no -there's still some issue there.  It was nice not to resort to the motor which seems to be the norm for us, this season we have already clocked up 100 engine hours.  We had our first decent fish hookup but alas after a few seconds of bent rod and screaming reel we were once again simply trolling a lure, well more like skipping one along the surface behind us.