Pto de Morayra - Broken bits and a festival
Moxie - Beck Family Adventure
Mike, Denise, Asia and Aranya Beck
Tue 26 Jul 2011 21:28
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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.
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