Saturday 15^th March – Ayamonte - Mazagón

37:07.901N 6:49.876W

Today we were up at a respectable hour and after breakfast set sail just after high water as the tide turned.

Once clear of the river, I am pleased to say that we were able to sail the whole way from Ayamonte to Mazagón; this is the first time in a very long time that we have been able to sail for the whole day without resorting to the motor at all.  We had a beautiful day enjoying the sunshine and some relatively flat seas.

There was one interruption – we snagged the pick-up rope of a fishing pot and came to a gentle halt.  We took down the sails to take the pressure off it, switched the engine on and risked a quick burst of astern; this took us back very slowly and released the rope which I then saw drift off to one side.  We then went ahead for a short way to check that the rudder and propeller were clear before putting the sails up, switching the engine off and setting on our way again.  A lucky escape.

As we sailed, we ran the water maker for a short time and re-filled the stern tank using the batteries as it needs to be run regularly; we were able to re-charge the batteries in the marina this evening.

During the afternoon the wind gradually increased from F3 to F4-5 as we approached Mazagón, moving from our beam onto our starboard quarter and then into a run.  After coming alongside the reception pontoon we wondered if we would be able to get off as the wind was pinning us on quite hard.  Fortunately it eased a little and we were able to spring off and find our berth here.

As usual after a sail we arranged to have a quick bottle of Rosado with Moonshadow.  This time Peter insisted that we have it on Moonshadow.  The reason for this was that Carola had, in the 10 minutes we were tying off, cooked dinner for us as a surprise.  After 8 hours at sea it was very welcome as well as delicious.

We have returned to Pyxis sated and ready for sleep!  Tomorrow we shall explore Mazagón.