Friday 30^th July

Paul spent most of the day working on the engine.  The trouble was due to its filling up with water when the boat had taken a lot of rainwater in Ayamonte in the spring.  It was a hot, laborious and smelly job. I helped where I could by holding the pump as he had to pump out 50 euros worth of diesel which was mixed with water.  The marina fuel station has no delivery on Mondays so to replace the fuel he had to get a taxi to a garage and fill jerry cans.  He caused some confusion there by unwittingly using a pump that had been pre-paid by a woman. The way Paul described it made it sound quite an amusing scene because the language barrier meant that it took longer to sort out why she was angry. The taxi driver understood what had happened and explained that Paul didn’t know about the pre-paying system but the refunding and starting again took some sorting out much to the taxi driver’s amusement.

We waited until it was cooler before heading into Cadiz in the evening. We went to the same restaurant for tapas – this time experiencing the delights of vegetable crepes, fried cheese and jam and patatas alioli along with salad and some fish for Paul.  On the way back late at night we saw lots of stray cats – both in the monument park and all along the gardens by the sea walls to the marina. They look fairly healthy – there are plenty of mice and birds for them and I’ve even spotted a few people feeding them.