"WHEN IS THREE FOR EIGHT OR EIGHT FOR THREE?"

Wishing to celebrate our successful crossing of the Bay of Biscay, Sandro booked a table for three people at eight o'clock in a restaurant in the old part of the town away from the Tourist area on the sea front. We arrived a little later, it was a festival weekend and the narrow streets were full of local people promenading, shopping and enjoying the evening atmosphere as we were. We arrived at the restaurant tucked away between the tall rows of houses, it was small inside and the tablet in close proximity to each other and full of happy Spaniards enjoying tapas and other various interesting dishes. We were shown to our table and spent sometime translating dishes and making our choices. Luckily Sandro had discovered that one of the waitresses spoke excellent Italian so we were able to select our dishes. We settled down and chatted away about our trip whilst waiting to place our orders. Time passed by, the restaurant was very busy, a good sign that the food would be good but no waiter or waitress came to take our order. Eventually we managed to capture a waiter, who happily brought us a bottle of our selected wine but he did not seem to want to take our orders for our chosen dishes. We chatted some more, the wine was local and excellent, the ambiance happy and by now not quite so noisy. I looked about and noticed that we were sitting at a small square table with four place settings and alongside touching our table was another also laid for four people. Jokingly, I commented that perhaps the staff thought we were waiting for other people to join us, so laughing we moved our table away from the other a little. More time passed by, the aromas were so good that we were all be coming more hungry by the minute. Eventually, we captured the Italian speaking waitress, who when asked if we could please place our orders, enquired if we did not want to wait for our other 5 guests? We fell about in mirth! When Sandro had made the booking some where in the translation the waiter had thought he was making a booking for eight. Our orders were immediately taken the gap between the two tables widened. We laughed even more when a few minutes later 5 people arrived and were shown to the free table. A comment was made that they are always late!

It was a very enjoyable meal and well worth the wait!

"Saturday - 4th August"

We sadly waved farewell to Sandro this morning but hope to welcome him back on board next year for another leg of our trip. Thank you Sandro for your humour; for all your help and for all those wonderful culinary delights!

The day was grey and drizzly and both feeling somewhat weary and knowing that we would be here for a few days decided to do nothing strenuous and happily "chilled out", whilst catching up on the blog entries and emails. The festivities in the town were continuing, the sounds wafting into the cabin, tannoys hailed across the water, cannons exploded from the fort above us but we were happy to relax in relative peace and keep away from the crowds. We still had provisions in the fridge so enjoyed a cosy meal on board before retiring to bed with plans to explore tomorrow. We had just settled down in our bunk to be rudely awakened by the explosion and flashes of fireworks. Now, rumour has it that Spain has a huge debt and no money. Well, either they have an abundance of fireworks, or they can make them very cheaply, or the rumour is quite simply untrue! I have NEVER seen nor heard such a wonderful display. The display continued for at least 20 minutes. Volleys of loud cannon fire sounding explosions on one side of the port responded to by light weight sounding rifle fire on the other, all of course accompanied by explosions of colour in the sky above the town. The reflections of light in the many visible windows made the sight even more spectacular. Whisper shook under the vibrations of the volleys. One could almost feel the terror that must have been felt onboard a galleon during a battle. The seagulls had long disappeared but I wonder how the local domestic animals or children fared, perhaps they are used to such sounds? It was a truly amazing spectacle and quite an end to what had been a quiet peaceful day!

"Sunday -5th August"

Our plan to re-provision Whisper failed this morning.  It is Sunday and in Spain the shops are closed, except for the bakers, so we were able to enjoy very good croissants for breakfast. I closed my eyes to the other delicacies on display!  The marine office was also closed being Sunday, so I was also unable to do our washing. Part three of the plan was to go and explore, the sun was shining, this we could do, so off we set. We had a lovely stroll around the fort and headland before climbing the hill to view the enormous statue of the Virgin de la Roca which stands overlooking the town of Bayona and the entrance to the port. 

Photo: "Whisper Reborn?"