Arrived at Valencia
The Voyages of Fujin II
Stuart & Elizabeth Milne
Wed 5 Aug 2015 16:25
We arrived at Valencia early this morning after a 20 hour sail and motor from St Elm in fine conditions. We arrived before dawn so spent 2 hours waiting for first light before entering Marina Real Juan Carlos I.
So far, all is good. We have a well protected berth designed for a 25 metre yacht. And there is a 40% discount for paying for a year up front, which is partly paid back to the Kingdom of Spain via VAT.... But nevertheless, half the price of leaving the yacht at Palma de Mallorca with a much better berth.
We are now in clean up mode and have an appointment with Emilio from Suret guardinage service tomorrow at lunch time, to run through everything and give him a set of keys. We then depart for London on Friday morning.
It's been a fantastic shake down cruise. As always, there are things that need to be sorted out, which Oyster will take care of in the next few weeks, but the yacht performed very well, keeping us feeling very safe and building confidence even in the tough Biscay conditions.
The crew also did really well - thanks again to Kez and to Patrick! And Elizabeth, Katie and Clara, all of whom completed their first every multi day passage and are now ready for the Transatlantic! Well, maybe that's a stretch, but I'm hoping!
We're not sure yet when we will all be aboard Fujin II again. Elizabeth is talking about a women's sailing week in October with a few ladies and our skipper, Richard Howell. In any case, the log read 76 nautical miles when we slipped lines at Ipswich and now reads 2,287 nm here at Valencia, so Fujin II deserves a bit of a rest for the time being!
