36:41.7N 02:47.6W

We always knew there would be a price to pay for sailing east as far as Italy, and that is the journey back against the prevailing westerly winds. Our first leg was from the Balearics to Almerimar (near Almeria) where we planned to leave the boat for a week whilst we flew home to visit family. 

After a final swim off the spectacular beach at Formentera we dragged ourselves away mid afternoon and with a SE4 enjoyed some lovely sailing until about midnight.  At that point the wind died so on went the engine. We managed to squeeze a few more hours sailing out of the wind the next night, which was just as well as we became rather low on fuel so we were very relieved when we finally arrived at the fuel berth in Almerinar the following afternoon. The whole passage of 239 NM had taken 47 hours (slow for us) of which 35 were under motor. But we had crossed the Greenwich Meridian so we were now ‘west’. 

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