36:44.67N  002:06.92W

Marija and Darren arrived in San Antonio, Ibiza, just as the sun was setting,

And Sarah arrived by similar means the next morning.  We sailed across to the island that can be seen in the distance in the above picture throwing in some tacks and manoeuvres by way of training the new crew on the way.  We anchored for a gentle evening and general catch up before setting off at 6am for Mellila, a Spanish enclave in Morocco.  The passage went like this.  No wind, engine on, no wind, a bit of wind but on the nose, dodge a big ship, dodge another big ship, dodging lots of big ships, passing the Greenwich Meridian and into the Western Hemisphere, bit of wind, on the nose, lots of big ships, wind increasing but on the nose, sea getting bigger, engine still on, seas increasing, horrible, more ships (eighteen within 4 miles according to the radar), very, very slow progress, very uncomfortable, lots of wind blowing straight at us, oh, alright then we won’t go to Morocco and will turn towards San Jose on the Spanish mainland. No crocodiles.

Try as I might I couldn’t get a picture of a wave breaking behind Darren who helmed heroically for hours.  Break they did though, all around us.  The spray dodgers did their stuff and kept us mostly dry except for one that curved round the dodgers, past Marija, Sarah and Carol and whacked Darren full on at the helm.  We laughed mightily of course.

We arrived in San Jose to a lovely anchorage, very welcome respite and a good nights sleep.

We survived due to the vast quantities of morale that Marija and Darren had arrived with.  A large box of Thorntons chocolates were broken into regularly and the fabulous selection of Australian wines that Darren had brought from Australia.

The forecast was for much more helpful winds over the next few days so we looked forward to a more straightforward few days.