36 43N 03 43W

Osprey
John Bowering
Wed 16 Jun 2010 08:18

 16th June and we arrived at Marina del Este last night. A trip to the supermarket was needed before we left Benalmadena and with a call for coffee and breakfast on the way there it was 1200 before we were ready to start moving. By 1230 we were on our way out of the harbour and initially picked up a good wind on our startboard quarter and sailed beautifully for the first three hours. We anticipated 6 hours to make the passage which proved correct but the last three were not very comfortable as we developed and large qaurtering swell and had the wind dead astern. This had us rolling quite heavilly which made it difficult to keep the sails working well. By 1530 we had to start the iron sail and motor sailed for the rest of the trip. Anita had the helm as we approached Marina del Este and we were soon on the reception berth and allocated a berth. Having reversed into that berth we found there was no lazy line as someone had cut it with their propellor. So we relocated to another berth and went through the proceedure again. We were finally all secured and ready for a cold drink by 2000. Marina del Este is a really beautiful small harbour in a deeply cut cove and surrounded by high rock cliffs. It is one of the most expensive in Spain but we decided that we would spoil ourselves (The Girls) for a few days.We are berthed on the front rail of a restaurant and walked all of 30 feet to our table for dinner and watched the Brasil and PRK soccer match. It was a lovely meal with only one other table occupied so we had all the attention. Kuki is reacquiring her Spanish which she originally learned in The Canary Islands many years ago. This produces some hillarious moments but she certainly gets by! We have decided to chill out here for a few days and at the same time work out where we can go next and then leave the boat for a few weeks. Anita is going to do a separate blog on the EasyJet experience which has kept us all laughing for the past couple of days. The weather here is wonderful, clear blue skies and temperature in the mid twenties.